Animation Idea

I have thought of a story for my film, which is inspired by stories on mythical creatures and folktales.

Set in 14th Century England, there resides a small remote village in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by forests and mountains, it is a place of beauty...until you look a little closer, that is. The village is terrorized by a creature, that of which has never been seen before. It lives up in the mountain, and attacks the village without warning killing the livestock and even a few villagers. This has been going on for many months.

The film begins with a panoramic shot of the scenery, slowly closing in with hills and trees parting off screen until focused totally on the village. It then cuts to showing the village from inside, where we see that it looks quiet and almost deserted. A sign blows in the wind warning any travellers to stay away. Away from the village centre now, and we see a farm just on the outskirts. A figure is working in the fields, which when the camera cuts to a close up appears to be a boy. It is only when he turns around from hearing a sound of a bell do we see his face, to which he reacts instantly by dropping the rake he was holding. (now after this part, I'm stuck on what to do - my one idea was that he would run towards the sound, which originates from the village. When he arrives there is a crowd of people surrounding two figures, one of which is a soldier and other the village mayor. They had sent all their avaliable soldiers up to the mountain to kill the creature, but to no prevail. Only the one had surived, and he had just returned to give the bad news to the people. Desperate and scared, the Mayor then asks for anyone left brave enough to kill the creature, and the person who does so gets to marry his daughter - who is rumoured to be extremely beautiful, although no one has ever seen her in the flesh. Sort of an incentive I suppose. And that's when the boy decides to go off to try and kill the creature. BUT my other idea, was to have the bell, but instead of telling the people the soldiers had returned, it's instead a warning that the creature is coming. This will be set more in the evening, around dusk, and will have more of a horror feel to it, where we see villagers hiding under their windows in their houses and seeing the shadow of the creature through the window or in the gaps between nailed wooden planks. And perhaps a scream at the end when the creature manages to kill. The next morning, when it's over, the farmer boy walks to the village and there the mayor is asking anyone brave enough to kill the creature can marry his daughter (so the same as before, except with no soldiers - there will be none at all in this version).

So the boy sets off with a horse and cart to kill the creature, and manages to do so (I've yet to figure out a way he can - I'd like it to be clever - perhaps something a little silly like leaving a big poisoned pie for the creature to eat, and then the boy cuts its head off and brings it back to the village as proof that it is dead the same day). I was also thinking of having the creature sort of stalk him, so for example when the boy walks past a pond or a bush, you see its tail quickly or something. When the boy returns with the news, he is given a heroes welcome, and also his reward - the Mayors daughter. This is when we finally see her...except, she isn't what the boy imagined. She isn't beautiful at all, the complete opposite in fact. As ugly as anything he'd ever seen.

Now I'm not sure how to end the film, whether here or by having to add something else in after this - and I'm also not quite sure whether to have the girl in it at all. I wanted a twist of some sort in my film, and having had a discussion with one of my lecturers, I thought it would be funny for the girl to turn out to be ugly. I'm also a little confused on the tone I'm going for, whether it's light hearted and funny or dark and a sense of horror. This is something I'm going to have to think about.

As for other ideas, I thought that if I did go with the girl, then I wouldn't have the boy talk at all throught the film. Everyone else will, and as viewers we find out everything by other characters. He is silent throughout, except for at the end when he sees the girl and a word finally comes out of his mouth! (this is just a thought). Like, "OH HELL NO!" - Will Smith style.

The story is still in development, and I am trying to think of new ideas for it. But I would like to stick with the boy having to kill the creature anyway.