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A trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in a character that conveys
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information to the audience.
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A trope becomes a cliche when it's overused.
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Sadly, some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes.
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In the world according to Hollywood men are often written as the great protectors, the heroes,
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the creators and the inventors, but sometimes all that pressure of running the
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entire world really gets them down.
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Enter the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, the shining beacon of child like joy that will rejuvenate our fallen hero.
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The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a term coined by Nathan Rabin to describe the female character
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whose written to help the usually white, and definitely straight male hero loosen up and enjoy life.
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Rabin writes, "That bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations
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of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life
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and its infinite mysteries and adventures."
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The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a supporting character used to further the storyline of the male hero.
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She really has no life of her own, she has no family or interests or much of job that we ever see.
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She is as the AVclub describes, "On hand to lift a gloomy male protagonist out of the doldrums,
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not to pursue her own happiness."
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All of these male characters find a Manic Pixie to help them out of their depressed, uptight
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and doom and gloom state so that they can be happy functioning members of society again.
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Let's start with Kirsten Dunst's character from Elizabethtown who is the catalyst for Rabin naming this trope.
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Drew Baylor played by Orlando Bloom has just lost his job, his girlfriend and he decides he wants to
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kill himself. So just at that very moment he gets a call from his sister saying
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his father died and he needs to go handle the family affair.
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Drew gets on a plane and meets Claire, a flight attendant who talks to him throughout
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the whole flight even though he's clearly not interested in interacting with her.
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Claire eventually guides Drew on a personal journey of self exploration, growth and embracing fun.
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"I'm checking out this cute guy."
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"Why are you telling me that?"
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"How could I leave you in distress?"
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"I'm taking you out."
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You might remember Zooey Deschanel in 500 days of Summer, the non-committing
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love interest of the film's star Tom Hansen played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
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The story follows Tom on his journey of falling in and out of love with Summer Finn.
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They have the classic Manic Pixie Dream Girl scene where they are frolicking around in the world
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and the Manic Pixie teaches the uptight star how to embrace his inner child.
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"There's kids around."
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"There are no kids around."
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"Are you having fun?"
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"This is the kind of thing you did with the Puma?"
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"No... we rarely left the room."
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"Sorry tourettes, you know how it is."
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