Brad Bird offers a master class on what makes a great animated movie
Writer-director Brad Bird has established himself as one of the biggest names in the world of animation, starting with his work on TV shows like The Simpsons and The Critic before moving on to a string of acclaimed feature films like Ratatouille and The Incredibles. Along the way, unsurprisingly, he’s developed some pretty strong ideas about his chosen medium, and he’s not at all timid about sharing them.
Kees Van Dijkhuizen Jr., a film editor from the Netherlands, has compiled some of Bird’s opinions into an instructive video called “Insight: Brad Bird On Animation.” Here, audio from various Bird interviews has been layered over clips from his work, including those aforementioned Pixar triumphs and 1999’s The Iron Giant. Think of this as a five-minute master class on what makes a great animated movie, taught by an instructor who could not be more pumped for this.