Oh, he had a great look! The cape and the boots!
No capes!
﻿‘The Incredibles 2’ is director Brad Bird’s first animated feature in eleven years,
and I’m beyond pumped to see him back in the medium he helped make so special.
Over his long career, he survived one of the industry’s darkest eras,
expanded the art-form to prime-time TV,
and thrived in the transition from hand-drawn to digital.
So what’s his secret?
How can he create films that thrill us in the theater,
and leave a mark on us decades later?
I’m Moose, and this is
The Brilliance of Brad Bird
One of Bird’s biggest strengths is his
Versatility
If you ever want to get on Brad Bird’s bad side,
just refer to animation as a ‘genre.’
Animation is an art form, and it can do any genre. It can do an R-rated film, or a kid's fairytale.
But it doesn't do one thing. And next time I hear 'what's it like working in the animation genre?'
I'm going to punch them.
Not condoning violence,
but I have to agree with him,
Calling animation a genre is like calling books a genre. It’s shortsighted.
Just one look at Bird’s career is proof of how versatile the medium can be.
Bird’s used animation in service of everything from suburban sitcoms to superhero smackdowns.
and it all began at Disney, where he started as an animator on 'The Fox and the Hound.'
But Disney was struggling after a string of box office flops and the departure of the ‘Nine Old Men’ that helped usher in their golden age.
No school like the old school!
Bird didn’t see a future in feature animation,
so he left and headed off to the untested territory of television.
His first big break was ‘Family Dog,’
an energetic short on Steven Spielberg’s anthology show ‘Amazing Stories.’
That caught the attention of Sam Simon and James L. Brooks,
who were looking for someone to liven up Matt Groening’s crude Tracy Ullman shorts for their big move to primetime.
-Change the channel! -No.
Hey! Turn that back on!
'The Simpsons.'
At the time, TV animation was static and formulaic,
there were no dynamic camera moves or creative blocking,
because A: that stuff's expensive,
and B: who cares? Only kids watch cartoons.
I don't understand its appeal.
We don't expect you to, mom.
If cartoons were meant for adults they would have put them on in primetime.
‘The Simpsons’ changed that mentality.
Bird only directed two early episodes,
‘Krusty Gets Busted’ and ‘Like Father Like Clown,’
but he served as a consultant for eight seasons,
and encouraged the animators to bring a new level of artistry to their craft.
If they were going to do a ‘Shining’ parody, they had to draw it the way a Kubrick film looks,
with symmetrical compositions and wide-angle lenses.
It’s not enough to just reference it in the script,
it has to feel like Kubrick.
Hmm, that's odd. Usually the blood gets off at the second floor.
Bird brought a filmmaker’s eye to TV animation,
and he continued to contribute to shows ranging from ‘Rugrats’ to ‘King of the Hill.’
Meanwhile, movie animation had undergone a renaissance,
and in 1999, Bird made his return to feature films.
‘The Iron Giant’ is quite possibly the pinnacle of the 2D animation era,
a gorgeous, heartwarming story of a boy and his ‘bot,
with a somber, devastating anti-war message.
Remember? It's bad to kill! Guns kill! And you don't have to be a gun! You are what YOU choose to be! You choose!
It’s one of the most beautiful films ever made,
but thanks to lackluster marketing, it bombed at the box office.
Luckily, Bird landed at Pixar,
where he finally found the success he deserved,
even if it wasn’t a sure thing.
There's a great group here and it's a protective atmosphere, but it's challenging too.
It's like weightlifting, not only are you sheltered from the storms, but you're fed well and encouraged to pump up.
Computer animation was in the midst of taking over the medium,
and Bird had never worked on a fully CGI film before.
But like he’s done so many times in his career,
he adapted,
and used the new technology as an instrument to perfect his other big strength:
Expression
The most influential movie in Brad Bird’s upbringing was Disney’s ‘The Jungle Book.’
when he watched the way Baghera walked and realized that someone didn’t just have to figure out how a panther moved,
they had to figure out how a stuffy, aristocratic panther moved.
It was a eureka moment for the aspiring animator,
and it taught him that expression and movement plays a huge part in creating a character’s personality.
When Bird joined Pixar, it was a breath of fresh air for the company.
AHHH! And in the air, GOD we're on the JOURNEY NOW, BABY!!!
His energy and passion were infectious,
and his experience with 2D animation helped the company make a big leap forward.
They said 'we want you to come in here and shake it up a little bit. For them to ask me to do that, when they had nothing but successes, was amazing to me.
Pixar had made successful films about toys, bugs, and fish,
but before ‘The Incredibles,’ they had never focused on human characters,
and their previous attempts were just kinda creepy.
Andy's mom... Sid... They're just gross and scary-looking.
Bird used his 2D background to create caricatures that overcame the uncanny valley,
and told you everything you need to know about the character before they ever opened their mouths.
Bob Parr’s raw power is evident in his huge, hulking frame,
but his hands are three times bigger than his tiny little feet,
adding vulnerability and humor to what could have been a bog-standard bodybuilder.
Who are you? What do you want?
...My God, you've gotten fat.
His daughter Violet’s design had to express her shy, introverted nature,
so he gave her a mop of blue-black hair to hide her away from the world she feared,
until she gradually emerges from behind it as her confidence grows over the course of her arc.
Her hair was by far the most difficult thing to animate over the course of production,
and Pixar had to innovate all-new technology to make it bounce and wave like in real life,
but it was worth it.
Because, just like Baghera, the way a figure moves across the screen is an essential element of their personality,
and Bird is a master of creating expressive, physical characters out of ink and pixels.
Their movements have weight and physicality,
they feel solid,
and the way they move matches the gravity of the challenges they face in the film,
His followup, ‘Ratatouille,’ was an equally joyous display of the art-form,
from Linguini’s lanky, awkward stumbles across the kitchen,
to Anton Ego’s vulture-inspired design,
and the gorgeously rendered food that sells you on the passion the characters have for cuisine.
WHO COOKS THE RATATOUILLE? I DEMAND TO KNOW!
Both of Bird’s Pixar films earned him Oscars,
and after conquering the world of cartoons in two different mediums,
he decided to try his hand at live action.
His first film was ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,’
and while he delivered on the kinetic action and impeccable pacing from his animated adventures,
a little bit of the magic was missing,
probably because the script was written by someone else.
Because on top of being an incredible animator,
and a pretty hilarious voice actor,
If you repress you depress, dahling! To impress, you must express!
Bird is also an extremely skilled writer,
and his work displays a strong, if slightly controversial,
Philosophy
Bird’s films are focused on exceptional individuals,
held down by the world of mediocrity that surrounds and fears them.
The Iron Giant is a world-changing gift from the heavens,
but the bureaucrats in Washington simply see him as a dangerous gun.
The supers saved the world hundreds of times over,
only to be banished into humdrum lives and forced to hide their true selves by an ungrateful public.
Remy’s remarkable palette goes unappreciated by the snobs of the Paris restaurant scene,
until Anton Ego has no choice but to acknowledge his genius after tasting his titular Ratatouille.
Now, (pushes up his glasses as he talks about philosophy)
Comparisons have been made to Objectivism, a right-leaning philosophy that preaches ‘radical self-interest,’
which basically boils down to ‘certain people are inherently better than others,
And forget you I got mine,’
or, in the words of Syndrome,
‘when everyone is super, no one will be.’
Nowhere is this supposed influence more apparent than Bird’s live-action passion project ‘Tomorrowland.’
It’s about a hidden society of scientists and thinkers,
who developed mind blowing retro-futuristic technology but kept it hidden from the unwashed masses.
Basically, it’s Rapture without with the superpowered sea slugs,
Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? No, says the government, it belongs to the poor.
I chose something different. I chose... RAPTURE.
or Galt’s Gulch from Objectivism founder Ayn Rand’s novel ‘Atlas Shrugged.'
‘Tomorrowland’ was a box-office disaster,
mostly because it just wasn’t very good,
but critics attacking it’s perceived politics could have played a part.
Bird has always denied any political leanings,
and calls the comparisons to Ayn Rand lazy.
Just because his films celebrate brilliant individuals,
that doesn’t mean they crap on the rest of us pea-brained proles.
Instead, they’re about special people sharing their gifts to enrich people’s lives,
whether it’s through a dish that takes you back to your childhood,
or saving the world from the dastardly Underminer.
Even ‘Tomorrowland’ ends with the promise of making the world a better place through genius,
not selfishly locking it away.
We are looking for dreamers. Anyone who will feed the right wolf.
It’s better to look at Bird’s films as celebrations of creativity,
rather than condemnations of mediocrity,
and in that sense, they’re almost autobiographical.
Bird grew up in Montana,
and was discovered by Disney when he was just eleven years old.
Throughout his career, he’s overcome drastic shifts in the industry,
battled back from failure,
and built a reputation as one of the brightest minds in Hollywood.
He’s the living embodiment of
‘not everyone can be a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere,’
Brad Bird’s films are literally about the brilliance of Brad Bird,
and in anyone else’s hands, it could come off as annoying and egomaniacal.
But Bird’s ability to change with the times,
express emotion and excitement,
and deliver a consistent message throughout his storied career,
has cemented him as one of the most important voices in all of animation.