Brad Bird

Brad Bird
Bird at the Venice Film Festival, September 2009
Born	Phillip Bradley Bird (1957-09-24) September 24, 1957 Kalispell, Montana, U.S.
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts (BFA)
Occupation	Director screenwriter animator producer voice actor
Years active	1979–present
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Canney (m. 1988) [1]
Children	3

Phillip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American animation director, voice actor, and screenwriter. He is best known for his animated feature films, The Iron Giant (1999), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), and Incredibles 2 (2018).

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 (1981) and The Black Cauldron (1985) and wrote the screenplay for Batteries Not Included (1987).

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 (2004). 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 Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which was a critical and commercial success. His second live-action film, Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney, was released in May 2015, to some acclaim but 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^[2] of Marjorie A. (née Cross) 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.^[3][4][5] 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.^[2]

Career

Upon graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Bird began working for Disney, where he would only work for a few years before being fired from the company.^[6]

He next worked on animated television series, with much shorter lead times. He was the creator (writer, director, and co-producer) 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" (which marked the first speaking role of Sideshow Bob) 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.^[7] Bird pitched the idea for The Incredibles to Pixar. In the finished picture, Bird also provides the voice of costume designer Edna Mode.^[2] As an inside joke, the character Syndrome was based on Bird's likeness (as was Mr. Incredible) and according to him, he did not realize the joke until the movie was too far into production to have it changed.^[8] 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.^[9]

Brad Bird with his second Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

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.^[9]

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.

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.^[10] 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.^[11] Blogger Jim Hill suggested the film has been on hold due to Disney / Pixar and Warner Bros.' nervousness over the projected $200 million budget.^[12] In May 2010, with 1906 apparently still stalled, Bird signed on as the director of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, produced by Tom Cruise and J. J. Abrams.^[13] 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?".^[14] The film was an international hit, grossing almost $700 million.

Bird directed and co-wrote Disney's science fiction film Tomorrowland (2015),^[15] whose screenplay was co-written with Damon Lindelof.^[16] Bird returned to Pixar to write and direct Incredibles 2 (2018). Released 14 years after The Incredibles (2004), the sequel received critical acclaim and was a box office success.^[17]

Personal life

Bird has three sons. One of his sons, Nicholas, was the voice of Squirt in Finding Nemo.^[18][19] Bird's other son, Michael, voiced kids in The Incredibles.^[20] Michael later voiced Tony Rydinger in Incredibles 2.^[21]

Filmography

Television

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.

See also

• A113
• Directors with two films rated A+ by CinemaScore

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Brad Bird

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brad Bird.

• Brad Bird on IMDb
• Brad Bird Interview at IGN
• DVD Talk: Interview with Brad Bird about The Incredibles
• Brad Bird premieres and discusses the development of "The Incredibles" with CalArts' Character Animation Program
• Brad Bird Interview (Ratatouille)
• The Art of Making Pixar's Ratatouille Interviews with Harley Jessup, Sharon Calahan and Brad Bird accompany an article on the making of the film.
• Brad Bird Interview at Blu-ray.com Interview regarding the release of Ratatouille on Blu-ray.