Last night my girlfriend decided I needed a good cry and put on the movie Up. After the now-infamous Carl & Ellie montage we paused the movie to catch our breath and chuckle as if we weren’t being emotionally annihilated by a children’s movie. We checked the DVR and realized we were barely 10 minutes into the movie, the montage taking up only about 5 minutes of that. Somehow in this short span of time, the dastardly writers, editors, composer, and director strummed our heart strings like Hendrix. I can only imagine the plight of parents in the theater with their kids for the first time, not expecting this colorful cartoon about the spirit of adventure to dive into themes of death, mourning, and… losing a pregnancy? Damn Pixar.

Everyone and everything has a story.

Moby-Dick, 1984, The Cat in the Hat, Harry Potter, Batman comic books. All immersive tales that drop you into another world with nothing more than words (or drawings) on a page.

Citizen Kane, Forrest Gump, Rocky, The Godfather, Napoleon Dynamite. All staples of pop culture, with characters that will live far beyond their time on screen.

Apple, Nintendo, Pixar, LEGO, Old Spice, Nike. All successful companies with either extraordinary origins or with bafflingly effective, story-driven marketing campaigns.