COMEDY, DRAMA

Molly grew up as a young mule learning traditional values from her parents. She is a bit boy crazy in searching for love until she realizes she needs to follow her heart in loving herself. Molly the mule enjoys a successful career as a talented math professor until she quits to spend time with her friends and learn true self-acceptance.

FAIR

THIRD PERSON

Authors Writing Style: FAIR

Characterization: FAIR

Commerciality: FAIR

Franchise Potential: FAIR

Pace: FAIR

Premise: FAIR

Structure: FAIR

Theme: FAIR

The book profile logline focuses on a small portion of Molly's experiences in discussing about her mystic realm realizations while camping. This doesn't seem like a main plot point of the storyline as the theme of her self-acceptance seems to stem more from her friendship with Betsy. The development pitch also discusses franchise potential rather than the singular book which doesn't make as much sense as the audience is not yet attached to any of the characters. Explaining more why the themes and characters are worth attention may help focus the development pitch on the current story and increase emotional investment.

The concept of learning what life lessons a mule has to teach is intriguing. The frame story sets up characters quickly and creates expectations for the character journey of the protagonist to achieve self-actualization.

The logic of the world building can be very confusing at times in terms of social rules and anthropomorphic capabilities. The protagonist's inner conflict is not always apparent or consistent. By setting clear rules for the storyverse, events may be more logical in terms of blocking and such. For example the frame story discusses how the mom horse eats meat on pizza but the narrative also discusses how the mom doesn't eat meat but makes fake meat, but both are told with the same hindsight of the mule narrator.

THE STORY RELIES HEAVILY ON SPECIAL EFFECTS

The hook is that the mule has many relatable problems to other mammals like human emotions but also specifically mule related problems such as hearing and romance possibilities.

Depending on the type of drame or if there is animation will affect the size of the audience. The adult coming of age themes might be too mature for children as the primary target of animated films so would have a smaller audience. The experimental nature of a live action version might also create a smaller adult audience. This could be a niche cult classic though if it is able to fulfill its potential.

Based on the audience versus the genre possibilities this is unlikely to have awards potential. Its creativity is a big driving factor, but the style of adaptation and choice in genre would be a deciding factor for any nominations.

LARGE BUDGET

ZOOTOPIA, FATHER OF THE PRIDE, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, WILD, HIDDEN FIGURES, ROBIN HOOD (DISNEY ANIMATED FILM), BOJACK HORSEMAN

The originality of the mule story comes from different elements about being a mule specifically that are relatable to other outliers searching for find self-acceptance. For example, Molly's sterility challenge as well as her biting other students and feeling different from her parents. By focusing more on her condition as a mule and less on her humanity, there may be more uniqueness to her story and romances.

Molly is a stubborn mule who cares for her family so much so that she sometimes goes against her own wishes to uphold their values. Eventually she learns independence and uses her smart to be successful both in her career and finding a true purpose in her social life.

This is a very memorable premise, but the logic in the world building is confusing at times and the establishment of the internal conflict for the protagonist is delayed.

Film - Indie, Film - Streaming, Film - Studio, TV Series - Network, TV Series - Cable, TV Series - Limited Run / Mini-Series, TV Series - Streaming

WORK IN PROGRESS

While the story has many positive points, it has room for improvement (see possible paths below). If you can't change the story at this point, my suggestion is using your notes as a guide to highlight the best aspects of it when taking the next steps, either putting a pitch page together, a treatment, or a presentation.

There is a lot of great life lessons in this piece but focusing on just a few with a clear path of the progress in the protagonist's internal conflict from the beginning would help clarify the message of the narrative to be more cohesive. Setting a firm foundation for the rules of the animal world both socially and physically would also help create more plausibility and logic in the narrative.