Inciting Event: In order to convince his daughter Mavis to remain at the hotel and not explore the bigger world, Dracula builds a fake village nearby where Mavis discovers that “people” don’t like monsters.

First Plot Point: Human hiker Jonathan discovers the monster hotel.

First Pinch Point: Mavis takes an interest in Jonathan, the “party planner.”

Midpoint: Dracula and Jonathan race dining tables through the dining room. Dracula comes to like Jonathan, but Jonathan is captured by Quasimodo.

Second Pinch Point: Quasimodo exposes Jonathan as a human at the birthday party.

Third Plot Point: Jonathan tells Mavis he hates monsters and leaves. Mavis tells her father she wants her memories erased. All the hotel guests try to leave.

Climax: Dracula and his friends head for the airport to bring Jonathan back, but they are blocked by a monster celebration by humans in a nearby town on the way. Dracula, risking death by exposure to sunlight, flies after Jonathan’s airplane.

Climactic Moment: Dracula confesses (by mind controlling the airline pilot) that he was wrong to prevent Mavis and Jonathan from being together. He convinces Jonathan to return.

Resolution: All the monsters sing and perform at Mavis’ birthday bash.

(Submitted by Will King.)

Notes (from K.M. Weiland): The First Pinch Point is a nice example of how to emphasize the antagonistic force when there really is no clear-cut “bad guy.” The protagonist’s goal is to keep his daughter away from the human, so the objectively good event of Mavis’s and Jonathan’s friendship, is a huge obstacle to that goal–which makes it a good Pinch Point.