Beauty invokes positive feelings, and ugliness invokes negative feelings. That’s so obvious, right? Cinematographers use this in their visual medium. But even in books, the written word can evoke images, which evoke feelings. So let’s look at how beauty and ugliness can be used to enhance a story.

Scenes of Splendor

Envision a place so beautiful or impressive that we yearn to visit (Pandora in Avatar, Hogwarts in Harry Potter, Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory, Elsa’s ice castle in Frozen, The Great Before in Soul). The movement of the story through beautiful and ugly places helps shape the story, often with a happy ending in a beautiful place.

Dreadful Places

Ugly, dirty places help build tension. As readers we want the protagonist to escape dreadful places, like Joe Gardner escaping the ugly classroom in Soul. But even a dystopian world can’t be all ugly everywhere. We need some relief in a beautiful place, even a ray of sunshine in an otherwise ugly place.

Beautiful People

Protagonists are often, but not always, attractive. Not surprisingly, one of the most successful movie franchises is Frozen, which features not one, but two beautiful princesses, and many beautiful dresses to boot.

Ugly People

Villains are usually ugly or at least unpleasant looking (Wicked Witch, Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, Skinner and Ego in Ratatouille, Jafar in Aladdin, Snape in Harry Potter). But there are intentional exceptions: Antiheroes are usually ugly (in a cute way), like Gru in Despicable Me. Redeemable antagonists may be beautiful, like Namaari in Raya and the Last Dragon. Beauty and the Beast flipped tradition to contrast the “hideous” but redeemable Beast with the handsome antagonist Gaston. Overall, this unfair bias goes deep in our history and our psychology, so villains have been getting less ugly over the decades.

Cool Things

Even objects, costumes, and architecture make a story more appealing when they just “look cool”. Star Wars would be nothing without the cool X-wings, light sabers, Death Star, droids, Darth Vader costume, etc. (Seriously, the plot and characters do not stand on their own without the visual sauce. Let the flaming comments begin!) I’m not sure the written word can make something look cool, but this certainly works on screen.

IMO

Personally, I think Onward struggled with too much ugliness. None of the characters could be described as beautiful, and so many scenes were in the dirty, run-down suburbs: a gas station, rest stop, family restaurant. The high school was blandly generic. Some of their quest was beautiful, some not. It’s no coincidence that the final fight scene was next to a beautiful ocean (which was not there earlier!) to enhance the happy ending.

I also felt Turning Red was mostly in dull suburban locations. But maybe I’m just more sensitive to such visuals.

Takeaway

Consider writing happy scenes in beautiful places.