History Creator / BradBird

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brad_bird_oscar.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:280:[[WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh To us as we are to amoebas.]]]]

Bird's later claims to fame include two films that captured his love of the classic comic book stories, ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'', the latter of which was the beginning of his tenure at Creator/{{Pixar}}. His next animated film was the Pixar-produced ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}''. He then moved into live-action by directing ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'', the fourth installment of the ''Film/MissionImpossible'' films, which is his live-action debut. The film has received extremely positive reviews, particularly for its action scenes. His most recent live-action project is ''Film/{{Tomorrowland}}'', a film for Disney inspired by the area of the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, and in 2018 he directed the long-awaited ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2''. His next project will be ''Ray Gunn'', a science fiction mystery film to be produced at [[Creator/SkydanceMedia Skydance Animation]].

->''"It’s not a genre! A Western is a genre! Animation is an art form, and it can do any genre. You know, it can do a detective film, a cowboy film, a horror film, an R-rated film or a kids’ fairy tale. 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 that person!”''

* AssociatedComposer: Creator/MichaelGiacchino has scored all of his films since WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1.

** When Bird writes stories for families, they often tackle themes that aren't typical for animation (such as death, the nature of souls, how laws and morality are sometimes disconnected) and almost always have bittersweet endings (The Iron Giant saves Hogarth and the town of Rockwell but gets physically destroyed, The Incredibles defeat Syndrome but still have to fight an unjust law, Gusteau's is shut down but Remy has opened Anton Ego's mind, etc.) with moods that are more muted than the typical family film. [[WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound Two of]] [[WesternAnimation/ThePlagueDogs the first]] films he worked probably had something to do with that, being ''very'' dark for the medium.

-->-- '''Brad Bird''' on the DVD commentary of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''

Bird's later claims to fame include two films that captured his love of the classic comic book stories, ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', the latter of which was the beginning of his tenure at Creator/{{Pixar}}. His next animated film was the Pixar-produced ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}''. He then moved into live-action by directing ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'', the fourth installment of the ''Film/MissionImpossible'' films, which is his live-action debut. The film has received extremely positive reviews, particularly for its action scenes. His most recent live-action project is ''Film/{{Tomorrowland}}'', a film for Disney inspired by the area of the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, and in 2018 he directed the long-awaited ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2''. His next project will be ''Ray Gunn'', a science fiction mystery film to be produced at [[Creator/SkydanceMedia Skydance Animation]].

* AssociatedComposer: Creator/MichaelGiacchino has scored all of his films since WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles.

** When Bird writes stories for families, they often tackle themes that aren't typical for animation (such as death, the nature of souls, how laws and morality are sometimes disconnected) and almost always have bittersweet endings (The Iron Giant saves Hogarth but dies, The Incredibles defeat Syndrome but still have to fight an unjust law, Gusteau's is shut down but Remy has opened Anton Ego's mind, etc.) with moods that are more muted than the typical family film. [[WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound Two of]] [[WesternAnimation/ThePlagueDogs the first]] films he worked probably had something to do with that, being ''very'' dark for the medium.

Bird's later claims to fame include two films that captured his love of the classic comic book stories, ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', the latter of which was the beginning of his tenure at Creator/{{Pixar}}. His next animated film was the Pixar-produced ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}''. He then moved into live-action by directing ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'', the fourth installment of the ''Film/MissionImpossible'' films, which is his live-action debut. The film has received extremely positive reviews, particularly for its action scenes. His most recent live-action project is ''Film/{{Tomorrowland}}'', a film for Disney inspired by the area of the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, and in 2018 he directed the long-awaited ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2''.

* AssociatedComposer: Creator/MichaelGiacchino has scored all of his films since Film/TheIncredibles.

* UsefulNotes/{{Objectivism}}: Bird's films have a... ''complicated'' relationship with these ideas, with {{central theme}}s which read as distinctly [[Creator/AynRand Randian]], albeit with a humanist touch. Despite Bird identifying as more of a centrist (though he'd [[http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/05/tomorrowland_and_ayn_rand_incredibles_director_brad_bird_s_key_influence.html later lean more towards liberal]]), [[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/brad-birds-objectivist-leanings-shine-brightest-in-tomorrowland/article24549785/ this article]] neatly explains how and why his work is very popular among libertarians.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'': On the surface, it's a charming cartoon about [[ABoyAndHisX A Boy and His Alien Robot]]. Yet the film spends an awful lot of time and energy developing a deep mistrust of government forces, especially military bureaucrats whose sole purpose is to destroy something they don't understand, something spectacular.
** However, a review from the ''New York Post'' in 1999 accused Bird of being a Communist sympathizer, arguing that the film's treatment of Cold War paranoia was him saying "Maybe the Soviet Union weren't the bad guys after all." Bird denied this in a 2015 interview.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Here, an ungrateful (i.e. complacent, average, worthless) public bands together to force superbeings into a life of mediocrity, so terrified are they of anything powerful or special. The film's villain, who embraces envy as much as Rand rejected it, also has a half-cocked scheme to mass-produce superpowered weapons, laying out Bird's guiding philosophy in one tidy pull quote: "When everyone's super, no one will be."
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'': That film "employed lush speeches on the importance of elitism and the dangers of complacency, albeit speeches delivered by a talking rat." Hertz could have done better than that: ex-reason staffer Julian Sanchez wrote in 2007 that "Ratatouille is essentially an animated version of The Fountainhead, except that cooking replaces architecture, Ellsworth Toohey eventually has a Grinchian change of heart, and Howard Roark is a rodent."
** ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'': doesn't really count, since Bird didn't write the script. Still, Hertz asks, "isn't Tom Cruise's superspy, Ethan Hunt, just an ass-kicking John Galt?"
** ''Film/{{Tomorrowland}}'': Hertz characterizes it this way: "Tomorrowland was constructed by the world's 'best and brightest,' who were able to realize their visions only by being 'free from government, bureaucracy' and other forces of mediocrity that would quash the gifts of the exceptional." Basically the [[Literature/AtlasShrugged Galt's Gulch]] the [[Film/AtlasShrugged films]] didn't have the budget to show. Better yet, [[spoiler:the people of Tomorrowland even choose to let the world destroy itself for the exact same reason Galt's Gulch did; because it refused to value them and the future they offered. And that destruction is even their fault, albeit for entirely ''opposite'' reasons - where Galt spent decades WalkingTheEarth headhunting the world's dreamers right out from under an apathetic world after it declared him a slave, Nix tried to ''warn'' the world of what was in store only for it to choose destruction, so he withdrew from it in disgust. This actually makes Tomorrowland an ''amazing'' Objectivist movie; where Galt gave the world the opportunity to change right 'til the very end, Nix is [[RuleOfSymbolism literally crushed]] by his altruistic warning - '''[[AtlasPose a giant sphere he refused to shrug off]]!''' In the end, Frank and Casey go back to Galt's plan of recruiting dreamers while asking the world to change.]]
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Incredibles 2}}'': Pushes the themes of the first movie that the "extraordinarily gifted" should be allowed to use their talents to help society for the greater good. The film's villain argues that by allowing such individuals to exist in society, it will make everyone else lazy by default.

** His animated films feature classically animated (i.e., full, Disney-quality animation) characters with broad, graphic designs. Unlike most CGI movie characters, the characters in his two Pixar films actually look as though they were drawings first before being modeled in the computer.

** He's also done this to Disney of all companies on a number of occasions during his time in making WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant, as seen in the Blu-ray's documentary.

Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird (born September 24, 1957 in Kalispell, Montana) is a director and screenwriter from Kalispell, Montana. His experience lies mostly within the realm of animation, and he's also known as one of the directors to actually bob and weave his way around the concept of the AnimationAgeGhetto, due to most of his works looking aesthetically cartoony, but having a maturity and depth that rivals most live-action pieces.

Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird (born September 24, 1957) is a director and screenwriter from Kalispell, Montana. His experience lies mostly within the realm of animation, and he's also known as one of the directors to actually bob and weave his way around the concept of the AnimationAgeGhetto, due to most of his works looking aesthetically cartoony, but having a maturity and depth that rivals most live-action pieces.

* {{Objectivism}}: Bird's films have a... ''complicated'' relationship with these ideas, with {{central themes}} which read as distinctly [[Creator/AynRand Randian]], albeit with a humanist touch. Despite Bird identifying as more of a centrist (though he'd [[http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/05/tomorrowland_and_ayn_rand_incredibles_director_brad_bird_s_key_influence.html later lean more towards liberal]]), [[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/brad-birds-objectivist-leanings-shine-brightest-in-tomorrowland/article24549785/ this article]] neatly explains how and why his work is very popular among libertarians.

** He also [[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/brad-birds-objectivist-leanings-shine-brightest-in-tomorrowland/article24549785/ seems]] to have a MasochismTango with Creator/AynRand; All of his films appear to have central themes that can easily be seen as Objectivism, albeit with a humanist touch that greatly expands its audience. [[WordOfGod Bird himself denies this;]] in a 2005 interview, he referred to himself as a "centrist" (as in neither conservative nor liberal), [[http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/05/tomorrowland_and_ayn_rand_incredibles_director_brad_bird_s_key_influence.html though in recent years, it appears that he's become more liberal than libertarian.]] Though, judging by these examples, it's not hard to see why some libertarians are infatuated with his work:
*** ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'': On the surface, it's a charming cartoon about [[ABoyAndHisX A Boy and His Alien Robot]]. Yet the film spends an awful lot of time and energy developing a deep mistrust of government forces, especially military bureaucrats whose sole purpose is to destroy something they don't understand, something spectacular.
*** However, a review from the ''New York Post'' in 1999 accused Bird of being a Communist sympathizer, arguing that the film's treatment of Cold War paranoia was him saying "Maybe the Soviet Union weren't the bad guys after all." Bird denied this in a 2015 interview.
*** ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Here, an ungrateful (i.e. complacent, average, worthless) public bands together to force superbeings into a life of mediocrity, so terrified are they of anything powerful or special. The film's villain, who embraces envy as much as Rand rejected it, also has a half-cocked scheme to mass-produce superpowered weapons, laying out Bird's guiding philosophy in one tidy pull quote: "When everyone's super, no one will be."
*** ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'': That film "employed lush speeches on the importance of elitism and the dangers of complacency, albeit speeches delivered by a talking rat." Hertz could have done better than that: ex-reason staffer Julian Sanchez wrote in 2007 that "Ratatouille is essentially an animated version of The Fountainhead, except that cooking replaces architecture, Ellsworth Toohey eventually has a Grinchian change of heart, and Howard Roark is a rodent."
*** ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'': doesn't really count, since Bird didn't write the script. Still, Hertz asks, "isn't Tom Cruise's superspy, Ethan Hunt, just an ass-kicking John Galt?"
*** ''Film/{{Tomorrowland}}'': Hertz characterizes it this way: "Tomorrowland was constructed by the world's 'best and brightest,' who were able to realize their visions only by being 'free from government, bureaucracy' and other forces of mediocrity that would quash the gifts of the exceptional." Basically the [[Literature/AtlasShrugged Galt's Gulch]] the [[Film/AtlasShrugged films]] didn't have the budget to show. Better yet, [[spoiler:the people of Tomorrowland even choose to let the world destroy itself for the exact same reason Galt's Gulch did; because it refused to value them and the future they offered. And that destruction is even their fault, albeit for entirely ''opposite'' reasons - where Galt spent decades WalkingTheEarth headhunting the world's dreamers right out from under an apathetic world after it declared him a slave, Nix tried to ''warn'' the world of what was in store only for it to choose destruction, so he withdrew from it in disgust. This actually makes Tomorrowland an ''amazing'' Objectivist movie; where Galt gave the world the opportunity to change right 'til the very end, Nix is [[RuleOfSymbolism literally crushed]] by his altruistic warning - '''[[AtlasPose a giant sphere he refused to shrug off]]!''' In the end, Frank and Casey go back to Galt's plan of recruiting dreamers while asking the world to change.]]
*** ''WesternAnimation/{{Incredibles 2}}'': Pushes the themes of the first movie that the "extraordinarily gifted" should be allowed to use their talents to help society for the greater good. The film's villain argues that by allowing such individuals to exist in society, it will make everyone else lazy by default.

Bird got his start working as an animator on ''WesternAnimation/{{Animalympics}}'', {{Creator/Disney}}'s ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound'' and Martin Rosen's ''Literature/ThePlagueDogs'', and moved on to work with Creator/StevenSpielberg in his ''Series/AmazingStories'' anthology series, notably with a short titled "Family Dog" (which later got turned into [[WesternAnimation/FamilyDog a TV series]]). He got his big break after he managed to grab the attention of Creator/TraceyUllman, and began work alongside Creator/MattGroening on a crude animated series that premiered on ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'', called ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.

*** ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles2'': Pushes the themes of the first movie that the "extraordinarily gifted" should be allowed to use their talents to help society for the greater good. The film's villain argues that by allowing such individuals to exist in society, it will make everyone else lazy by default.