Brad Bird Says Animation Deserves Same Critical Seriousness as Live-Action
Animation director Brad Bird targets the kids’ table in the upcoming December release of his futuristic noir film Ray Gunn, arguing that animated features deserve the same critical seriousness as live-action cinema.
Challenging Hollywood Perceptions
After directing six films grossing 3.5 billion dollars globally and winning two Oscars, Bird still encounters industry biases against animation. When he directed his first live-action feature, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, interviewers congratulated him on his first real movie. “No, this is my fourth real movie, three of them before were animated,” Bird told Yahoo Entertainment.
Bird said that his futuristic project Ray Gunn was originally in development at Turner Animation. When Warner Brothers absorbed Turner, the studio shelved the project and offered Bird the chance to direct The Iron Giant instead. Skydance Animation eventually revived Ray Gunn for a December release.
Bird Designs Characters for the Futuristic Detective Story
Co-written with Matthew Robbins, the futuristic detective story follows private eye Ray Gunn, voiced by Sam Rockwell, protecting pop star Venus Nova, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Voice actors also include John Ratzenberger, Tom Waits, Jamie Costa, and Bird.
Bird originally wanted Ray Liotta to voice Ray and Harry Dean Stanton to voice the extraterrestrial sidekick Eye-Ra Kadok, a role ultimately voiced by Tom Waits.
Bird studied under Milt Kahl, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men. Kahl meticulously analyzed real tigers before animating Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, a methodology Bird compares to rigorous acting homework.
The Historical Oscar Barrier
Despite Bird winning Best Animated Feature for The Incredibles and Ratatouille, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has nominated only three animated movies for Best Picture. Beauty and the Beast broke through in 1991, followed in 2010 by Disney-Pixar’s Up and Toy Story 3.
“Is Pinocchio not one of the five best movies of the year that it came out?” “People won’t nominate it because they don’t see themselves on the screen, they see a drawing,” Bird said.
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