I hope Pixar toned down McGregor's love scenes in "Brave." Anyway, is it harder to make readers and viewers care about your characters nowadays that the audience for film is more multicultural and multi-ethnic/global? Do you have to do more research to tap into what makes people from other countries and/or cultures tick? Or, are there still universal concerns, characters and situations that cut across national and ethnic boundaries? In other words, is a writer out of touch if his characters are middle-America Marty McFlys romping through the suburbs or wouldn't it matter if Marty's story is well-told?

Scott, you transcribed this yourself? Is this a bad time to point out, if you click on the 'interactive transcript' button under the video on the TED page, there's the whole transcript :-)

I loved this TED talk. But you're right, the opener works on an extra level because he's a Pixar writer/director, so you expect his talk to be family-friendly. When he drops an F-bomb that's also a bestiality joke, he really captures your attention because it's not what you were expecting.

CJ, my 2 cents is that making the audience care comes down to tapping into their emotions. Every culture operates from the same subset of emotions. Make them laugh, cry, angry, sad, etc or show your characters in an experience they can relate to - then send your characters time travelling or on their intergalactic journey, or to the scary house on the hill. I don't think James Cameron had to research what makes specific world culture tick when he made the two largest grossing films of all time. When in doubt, just tell a good story, one that you, first, care about.

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