Ideas and feedback 🤓 · 9:30pm Nov 17th, 2020
So I've mentioned this original fantasy story idea and showed a design or two of the characters in previous blogs and I've gotten some fairly good feedback from it.
It took me a while to try to put together the plot and I'm still working on it. Here, I'm just giving what basically goes on and I am open to new ideas, suggestions and feedback.
This is the darkly comedic tale of Kyle, the mute and lovable zombie kitten.
Raised by an elderly grandma pug [still thinking of a name], Kyle enjoys a calm, occasionally wacky life in a magic village filled with diverse animals and mystical creatures that coexist with one another.
Why they're not aware that he's basically a zombie, his excuse is he has a skin condition, lol
One day, he spots an unfamiliar creature, an innocent and good-hearted demon named Lucy, being harassed by a feared gang of raccoons.
Being the kind soul that he is, Kyle attempts to defend her, but easily gets his tail handed to him. At one point, literally...
Several punches later, these hidden instincts inside the poor feline snaps and he suddenly takes the gang out with precision and skill, John Wick style, eyes are blood red.
This aspect of where he came from and how he works will be further explored in a potential sequel. Gotta keep the mystery up.
Eventually, the raccoon gang exact revenge by demolishing Kyle's and his granny's home/bakery. Kyle once again defeats them, but his intense actions terrifies grandma pug to the point where she is hospitalized and unfortunately passes away.
After her funeral, Kyle sees that Death herself, an edgy bounty hunter-like teenager in training, is in town and goes to witness her extract his grandma's soul. Stubborn and desperate, the cat manages to swipe it away and escapes.
Now, along with Lucy's help, Kyle must go out and find a legendary artifact that has the power to bring his granny back while Death and her army of skeletons are hot on their trail.
The main themes of the story is about how we should learn to let go and to embrace those that are like family to us.
There's no real villain in this story, not even Death. Yeah, she has a bit of a sadistic side, but she does sympathize with Kyle and what he's going through, she's just doing her job and the little rascal is just making things a tad difficult for her.
Any thoughts here? This all sounds super out there, I know...
Sounds interesting but not sure what the main character is meant to let go of while embracing family? It sounds like grandma pug is their only real family, Lucy is a potential friend/ally/love interest but they have only just met, and you haven't really fleshed out any other characters?
5399945
Again, still working on it.
He'd have to learn to let go of the one who raised him.
It sounds like it can work ^^ A nice message accompanied by undead characters, and making normally terrifying things not only more relatable, but in your case pretty fun to watch (a bounty-hunter Death with a skeleton army already sounds complete hardcore) ... plus, that's a very cute zombie kitty
5400009
Aww, thank you so much. That gives me more hope for it.
5400010
Happy to be of service ^^
It sounds promising. But given that the main protagonist is a mute, the emphasis should be to express his character through emotions and expressions. Perhaps he can be that rare protagonist to be able to communicate through sign language, which is a bit difficult to pull off in a written format (Except for the Clan Bear series) but as an animation we can see the potential to it.
And when you express the theme of 'letting go' and 'embracing' those who are family, in what way are you trying to explain it? That even if he does succeed in finding the artifact, he realizes his granny has already lived a long life, is proud of the son she raised, and that he is ready to tackle the world. That the creatures he met along this journey, among them being Lucy, help him accept himself for who he truly is and not who he's meant to be and throughout the journey they form a comradery that's like a family in a sense?
Also even if there isn't any villains, especially not even Death, there must still be some general conflicts they go through. We've seen the bigotry especially when a group of raccoons harass Lucy for being a demon and we can assume there's far worse. And perhaps maybe Kyle's main excuse for wanting to go through all that trouble of reviving his Grandma is not so much just so she can live longer but because he feels regret that him scaring her was how her life ended before she died and really he just wants an excuse to apologize? I think as a spirit in a sense (Like maybe as an orb) maybe at this point she's not dialogue driven but we are able to get a sense of communication when it glows on occasion. I'm not sure, just spitballing here.
If there's one thing that really shouldn't be included: NO toilet humor.
5400025
Yeah, I always envisioned it as an animated character using sign language. He's very expressive and tends to break the fourth wall, lol
It's kinda like Pixar's Onward where in the end, one of the main characters doesn't reunite with a loved one, but accepts it on.
I do picture a soul in that universe as a glowing tint green orb. You did give some new stuff to think about there, thank you :)
Aw heck naw, lol. I don't do toilet humor. My main goal is to make it as different from other family content as possible. I want it to be like Igor where it has balls, XD
Again, it's still a work in progress.
5400032
If there's one other turn-off for me in any form of story... try to minimize the pop culture references.
5400036
Zero pop culture references.
If it was a movie, I'm putting the good 'ol music in there. Maybe one or two Voltaire songs 'cuz, ya know......Death. 💀
5400038
Well I guess that's okay, so long as it fits the theme.
Are the skeletons any references to Harryhausen?
5400040
Yeah, I already got one for the opening that fits Kyle's clumsy yet optimistic nature.
Not really, but I'll keep that in mind. Very influential filmmaker there.
Add 20% more deeply and it is the best story ever! Lol