Brad Bird


Phillip Bradley Bird is an American animator, director, screenwriter, producer and voice actor, best known for his animated feature films The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Incredibles 2. His live action films are ' and Tomorrowland.
Bird developed a love for the art of animation at an early age and was mentored by Milt Kahl, one of Disney's reputed Nine Old Men. He was part of one of the earliest graduating classes of the California Institute of the Arts alongside John Lasseter and Tim Burton. Afterward, Bird worked as an animator for Disney in The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron and wrote the screenplay for Batteries Not Included.
Bird served as a creative consultant on The Simpsons during its first eight seasons, where he helped develop the show's animation style.
Bird directed his first animated feature film, The Iron Giant, in 1999. Although it fared poorly at the box office, it came to be regarded as a modern animated classic. He rejoined John Lasseter at Pixar in 2000, where he developed his second animated film, The Incredibles. He directed his third film, Ratatouille, in 2007. Both films place among Pixar's highest-grossing features and gave Bird two Academy Award for Best Animated Feature wins and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nominations. In 2011, Bird directed his first live action film, ', which was a critical and commercial success. His second live action film, Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney, was released in May 2015, to mixed reviews and less commercial success. In 2018, Incredibles 2 was released, which Bird wrote and directed. Like its predecessor, the film was a critical and box office success.

Early life

Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children of Marjorie A. and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in the propane business, and his grandfather, Francis Wesley "Frank" Bird, who was born in County Sligo, Ireland, was a president and chief executive of the Montana Power Company. On a tour of the Walt Disney Studios at age 11, he met Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston and announced that someday he would become part of Disney's animation team. Soon afterward he began work on his own 15-minute animated short. Within two years, Bird had completed his animation, which impressed Disney. By age 14, barely in high school, Bird was mentored by the animator Milt Kahl, one of Disney's Nine Old Men. After graduating from Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Oregon in 1975, Bird took a three-year break from animation. He was then awarded a scholarship by Disney to attend California Institute of the Arts, where he met and befriended another future animator, Pixar co-founder and director John Lasseter.

Career

Upon graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Bird began working for Disney. He worked as an animator on The Small One, The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron albeit uncredited. While animating at Disney, he became a part of a small group of animators who worked in a suite of offices inside the original animation studio called the "Rat's Nest", which was pejoratively dubbed by animator Don Bluth during production of The Small One. There, he would vocally criticize the upper management for not taking risks on animation and playing it safe. During the middle of production of The Fox and the Hound, Bird was fired by animation administrator Ed Hansen.
He next worked on animated television series, with much shorter lead times. He was the creator of the Family Dog episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In addition, Bird co-wrote the screenplay for the live-action film Batteries Not Included. In 1989, Bird joined Klasky Csupo, where he helped to develop The Simpsons from one-minute shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show into a series of half-hour programs. In 1990, he directed the episode "Krusty Gets Busted" and co-directed the Season Three episode "Like Father, Like Clown." He served as an executive consultant for the show for its first eight seasons. Also while at Klasky Csupo, he was one of the animators of the Rugrats pilot "Tommy Pickles and the Great White Thing." He worked on several other animated television series, including The Critic and King of the Hill, before pitching Warner Brothers to write and direct the animated film The Iron Giant. Despite receiving near-universal acclaim from critics, it failed at the box office due to lack of marketing and promotion from Warner Bros. He was then hired by Steve Jobs who wanted him to work for Pixar. Bird pitched the idea for The Incredibles to Pixar. In the finished picture, Bird also provides the voice of costume designer Edna Mode. As an inside joke, the character Syndrome was based on Bird's likeness and according to him, he did not realize the joke until the movie was too far into production to have it changed. The film, written and directed by Bird, was released in 2004 to major critical and financial success. As a result, Bird won his first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and his screenplay was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
In the middle of 2005, Bird was asked by the Pixar management team to write and direct Ratatouille, which Jan Pinkava had been in charge of at the time. This change was announced in March 2006 during a Disney shareholders meeting. The film was released in 2007, and was another critical and box office success for Bird. Ratatouille won the Best Animated Feature award at the 2008 Golden Globes; it was also nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature and Best Original Screenplay. On February 24, 2008, Ratatouille won Bird his second Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
Bird has spoken passionately about animation as an art form. When Bird and producer John Walker recorded the Director's Commentary for The Incredibles DVD, he jokingly offered to punch the next person that he heard call animation a genre instead of an art form. Bird believes animation can be used to tell any kind of story – drama or comedy, for an adult audience or children. In July 2018, Bird doubled down on his views that just because a movie is animated does not mean it is just for kids when he called out concerned parents over Twitter for referring to Incredibles 2 as a “kids movie”, saying, “With all due respect, it is NOT a 'kids movie.' It is animated, and rated PG.” Later in November 2018, Bird called out iTunes for classifying both Incredibles movies as “kids movies” saying, “Our classification should be no different than adventure films from Marvel or Lucasfilm just because we're animated. What would you call sexism or racism for an art form? Medium-ism?”
Before he was sidetracked by Ratatouille, Bird began work on a film adaptation of James Dalessandro's novel 1906, which would be his first live-action project. In March 2008, Bird resumed work on the film, which is a co-production between Pixar and Warner Bros. The novel, narrated by reporter Annalisa Passarelli, examines police officers battling corruption in the government that causes the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to turn into such a disaster. The script was co-written by John Logan. Blogger Jim Hill suggested the film has been on hold due to Disney / Pixar and Warner Bros.' nervousness over the projected $200 million budget. In May 2010, with 1906 apparently still stalled, Bird signed on as the director of , produced by Tom Cruise and J. J. Abrams. The collaboration was suggested by Tom Cruise following the release of The Incredibles, and was created with the help of J.J. Abrams, who sent Bird a late night text message saying "Mission?". The film was an international hit, grossing almost $700 million.
Bird directed and co-wrote Disney's science fiction film Tomorrowland, whose screenplay was co-written with Damon Lindelof. Bird returned to Pixar to write and direct Incredibles 2. Released 14 years after The Incredibles, the sequel received critical acclaim and was a box office success.
On January 6, 2019, Bird, during a red carpet interview for the BAFTA Tea Party, announced he was working with frequent collaborator Michael Giacchino on an original musical film that will contain about 20 minutes of animation in it.

Personal life

Bird and his wife Elizabeth have three sons. One of his sons, Nicholas, was the voice of Squirt in Finding Nemo. Another son, Michael, voiced Tony Rydinger in The Incredibles and its sequel.
In 1998, during production of The Iron Giant, Bird's older sister, Susan, was shot and killed by her estranged husband in a murder-suicide. While coping with the tragedy, Bird decided to adjust the story of the film to include a message of anti-gun violence, and dedicated the film to her.
Contrary to popular beliefs, Bird denies his films being influenced by Ayn Rand's objectivism though he claims he had been drawn to Rand’s work in his younger years but states that, "Me being the Ayn Rand guy is a lazy piece of criticism." He has praised Disney's use of hand-drawn animation and the work of Hayao Miyazaki.

Filmography

Feature films

Animator

Voice actor

Short films

Senior creative team (Pixar)

Music video

Video games

Critical reception

Critical response to films Bird has directed:

Accolades

In addition to his Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Saturn Award wins, Bird holds the record of the most animation Annie Award wins with eight, winning both Best Directing and Best Writing for each of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, as well as Best Voice Acting for The Incredibles. His eighth Annie was the 2011 Winsor McCay Award for lifetime contribution to animation.
YearAwardCategoryFilmResult
1999Annie AwardBest Animated FeatureThe Iron Giant
1999Annie AwardDirecting in an Animated Feature ProductionThe Iron Giant
1999Annie AwardOutstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production Shared with Tim McCanliesThe Iron Giant
1999Los Angeles Film Critics Association AwardBest AnimationThe Iron Giant
2000BAFTA Children's AwardBest Feature Film Shared with Allison Abbate, Des McAnuff and Tim McCanliesThe Iron Giant
2000Hugo AwardBest Dramatic Presentation Shared with Tim McCanlies and Ted Hughes The Iron Giant
2000Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America AwardBest ScriptThe Iron Giant
2004Los Angeles Film Critics Association AwardBest AnimationThe Incredibles
2005Academy AwardBest Animated FeatureThe Incredibles
2005Academy AwardBest Original ScreenplayThe Incredibles
2005Annie AwardBest Animated FeatureThe Incredibles
2005Annie AwardOutstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature ProductionThe Incredibles
2005Annie AwardOutstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature ProductionThe Incredibles
2005Annie AwardOutstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature ProductionThe Incredibles
2005Hugo AwardBest Dramatic PresentationThe Incredibles
2005London Critics Circle Film AwardsScreenwriter of the YearThe Incredibles
2005Online Film Critics Society AwardBest Screenplay, OriginalThe Incredibles
2005Saturn AwardBest WritingThe Incredibles
2005Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America AwardBest ScriptThe Incredibles
2006Hugo AwardBest Dramatic PresentationJack-Jack Attack
2007Boston Society of Film Critics AwardBest ScreenplayRatatouille
2007Chicago Film Critics Association AwardBest Screenplay, OriginalRatatouille
2007Los Angeles Film Critics Association AwardBest Animation Shared with Jan PinkavaRatatouille
2008Academy AwardBest Animated FeatureRatatouille
2008Academy AwardBest Original Screenplay Shared with Jan Pinkava and Jim CapobiancoRatatouille
2008Annie AwardBest Animated FeatureRatatouille
2008Annie AwardOutstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature ProductionRatatouille
2008Annie AwardOutstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature ProductionRatatouille
2008BAFTA Film AwardBest Animated FilmRatatouille
2008Golden Globe AwardBest Animated Feature FilmRatatouille
2008Online Film Critics Society AwardBest Screenplay, OriginalRatatouille
2008Saturn AwardBest WritingRatatouille
2012Saturn AwardBest Director
2019Academy AwardBest Animated FeatureIncredibles 2