Films like 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Shrek' are hits because they hit on different levels with different age gro... — Kelly Asbury

Films like 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Shrek' are hits because they hit on different levels with different age groups. Striking that balance is what I strive for. But I won't know if I've done it until the audience sees it.

Author: Kelly Asbury

Insight: The best stories work like that—they operate on multiple frequencies at once. A kid watches Shrek and laughs at the donkey's silliness. A parent catches the fairy tale deconstructions and the layers of loneliness underneath. Neither person is "getting it more" than the other; they're just getting different pieces of the same thing, which makes it feel like there's always something new to discover on a rewatch years later. This matters beyond movies. It's why the best advice often sounds simple but reveals more the older you get. It's why a great song hits differently at seventeen and thirty-five. The real challenge isn't making something "deep" or "accessible"—those things usually fight each other. It's trusting that complexity and clarity can be the same thing, that you don't have to choose between entertaining someone and respecting their intelligence. What's refreshing about this view is the honesty embedded in it. Asbury admits you can't engineer this balance in a vacuum. You can aim for it, craft carefully, and think through your layers, but you genuinely won't know if it worked until real people encounter it. That uncertainty isn't a weakness—it's actually what keeps the work honest. You can't fake resonance across different minds.