Brad Bird: From Murder to Cinematic Masterpiece
On November 5th, 2004 The Incredibles was released. Directed by Brad Bird, it featured a family of Superheroes living average lives while still balancing their supernatural powers and responsibilities. The film won both ‘Best Animated Picture’ and ‘Best Sound Editing.’ The movie was an immediate success and loved by both critics and audiences alike. It was special in the way that even though it was primarily aimed at kids, the film also captured the attention of the parents of these kids. The themes, messages, and family dynamic of the movie attracted not just young children, but viewers of all ages.
Over the years Brad Bird has built up an impressive list of both live action and animated movies, and it’s hard to deny the passion and effort he puts into all of his work. His rise to fame was anything but easy though. So how did a young college graduate go from being fired by Disney to being an easily recognized name in the movie industry?
Brad Bird was young when he realized that he wanted to be an animator. He began working on his first animated film while still in his teens, and in two years he had completed a fifteen-minute long animation. He also had the good fortune to be mentored by one of Disney’s famous animators, Milt Kahl. Bird thrived under his guidance and eventually he was offered a scholarship by Disney to attend the California Institute of the Arts. Fast forward a few years, and Brad Bird landed a job Disney. Unfortunately, something had changed.
“I was arriving just as all my heroes were retiring. A lot of the guys taking over the films were not at the top of their game. They were intimidated by young people…they did not like being questioned at all — it was not the Disney I came to work for,” Bird said of the experience. He believed that animation could be so much more than what it was at the time. He was positive the art form could reach all age ranges. He disagreed with the idea that these movies should be made with just kids in mind; he was sure the audience could expand to adults as well.
Disney did not share his vision.
He constantly went to his leaders ideas on how he thought things should be done. “One of the directors said, ‘Why are you being so vocal?’ and I said, ‘well, I don’t think this is being very well run, and if you feel that I’m standing between you and you doing your job, it is your job to fire me.’”
And then he was fired.
He commented on his termination, “…Then they kind of looked at me and I realized, well this is it, this is the end of a long thing that started when I was a kid. So I said, ‘Well its been…’ and I stopped — and I couldn’t figure out how to finish the sentence cause it hadn’t really been fun.”
In his time away from Disney, Brad worked as a consultant for both The Simpsons and King of The Hill, and as a side project he focused on making an animated film that he believed represented what the future of animation could be. This particular side project was an action film titled Ray Gunn. He was able to secure a contract with the studio that he was working for at the time, which promised the making of the film after a few months. Then came another major bump in the road. The studio that he had a contract deal with was bought out by Warner Brothers in the last three months of his contract, and the new ownership had no interest in pursuing the movie.
In the midst of all this, the unthinkable happened. A family member that he was very close died in a horrific way. “My sister Susan, who I loved very much and was very close to died because of gun violence. Pointlessly, she was killed by her husband. I was devastated. When you shoot somebody, you’re not just killing that person, you’re killing a part of all the people that love that person.”
He continued to work as a consultant in this hazy, grief filled period of his life. While he was still making his way through this new hardship, an opportunity approached. Around the time that Warner Brothers had bought out the studio, the company communicated to him that although they were not going to pursue the Ray Gunn film, they had some other ideas that they wanted Brad Bird to be in charge of.
One of which was The Iron Giant.
The company planned on adapting the film into a musical. Brad Bird saw it as something else though. The concept was based on the book The Iron Man, written by Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath’s husband. Ted Hughes wrote the book as a way for his kids to cope with their mother’s suicide. Bird connected his own struggle with the death of his sister to the tragic reason the book was written, and found solace in the fictional story. Finally healing seemed as if it was on the horizon.
“There was some healing aspect to that story, and I was drawn to it, maybe because I was still trying to draw together my own pieces after the death of my sister,” Bird said. “And I had an epiphany: what if a thing developed a soul, and what if that thing figured out it was designed to kill, but didn’t want to kill? what if a gun had a soul and didn’t want to be a gun?”
Then he pitched his idea to Warner Brothers.
The pitch he made was full of passion, fresh ideas, and quite frankly, was a little eccentric. For whatever reason (or maybe a combination of these), the company was intrigued and gave him the green light to direct the movie. Then production began, and issues began to surface right from the start. Their team was mostly made up of new or inexperienced animators who had not had the opportunity to work on many big projects. This was due to the fact that most of the older animators had moved on to different ventures. Their schedule was also incredibly tight. On top of all this, Brad Bird and the producer Allison Abbate often argued over many aspects of the movie’s making.
The journey was long and hard filled with many twists and turns, but the movie was finished on time and everyone on the team was ecstatic. The team had managed to craft an animated film in a fraction of the time others were made in with less resources and new animators. As the cherry on top, the screen testing had received amazing scores.
Then another problem arose. The movie was not publicized enough by the company, most likely because Warner Brothers last animated film, Quest for Camelot had done badly and the company was hesitant to put much effort or money into the advertising of another animated film. In an act of desperation an unnamed crew member leaked an unfinished version of the movie online, and the amount of attention it received was enough to convince Warner Brothers to put some effort into the advertisement of the movie.
Unfortunately, this still was not enough. The sparse amount of advertising the film did receive was poorly done and rushed. Once debuted the movie garnered a few extremely positive reviews, but not enough people knew about the film. Despite everyone’s hard work the film did terribly at the box office. Everyone who worked on it was devastated.
However, the movie succeeded in other ways. Over time it has become a classic. Dean Wellins, storyboard artist and supervising animator said of the film: “I actually went to see it in the theater a few times, just to see people’s reactions. Even if it was ten people, they’d stand up and clap at the end, every time.” The Iron Giant eventually led to Brad Bird making more new and exciting movies through animation as an art form, rather than just a children’s medium. Through all of his struggles he was able to produce a work of art (with the help of a skilled team) that led to many other animated and beautifully directed films. Bird has added a new perspective and changed how these animated films are both viewed, and made. By incorporating action-packed story-lines and underlying themes that adults can relate to, he has broadened the spectrum of people that watch these films. Through personal tragedy, perseverance, and passion he has transformed the world of animation.
Sources
Brad Bird Biography. (n.d) Retrieved From https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0083348/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Brad Bird. (n.d) Retrieved from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/brad_bird
The Giants Dream. Directed by Anthony Giacchino, Time Travel Unlimited, 9 Sep. 2016
