With animated films, you sit in a recording studio and listen to actors say your words five or six times. Often you realize you don't really need some of the lines. When Harvey Fierstein came into the recording studio I saw that he was a really playful kind of guy, so I re-wrote a scene to show that aspect of him. Tom Hanks is always cutting his lines down, or giving them away to others. Both panelists warned against expository dialogue.
Actors like to be saying one thing and actually doing another.
After working for over two years making Pleasantville , Gary Ross said he was anxious to just be a writer again. I can't wait to get back to sitting alone in a room writing. I'm dying not to have people following me into the bathroom asking me questions. He felt it was important to stay focused on the central point or theme of the piece, both as a writer and as a director. When you write a script you shouldn't be chasing a character or stringing a plot together.