The Big Picture · Interview
June 15, 2018/ 31 min/ Sean Fennessey
Brad Bird on Incredibles 2, why the family always came before the villain, and what makes an action scene you can actually follow.
7 films across 1 segment.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Brad Bird on ‘Incredibles 2’
Fourteen years after the first, with Helen out saving the world and Bob home with the kids, a swap Bird says he had in mind since the original. He rewrote the superhero plot repeatedly, throwing out what he estimates was two and a half other movies' worth of material.
The original. Bird's rule for both films: never do something fantastic for long without something mundane, and vice versa. It's why Elastigirl catches her reflection mid-infiltration and worries she's gained a few pounds.
His hand-drawn debut, which Bird says is aging well and finding a new audience partly via its Ready Player One cameo.
His first live-action film; Fennessey calls it a personal favorite. Fight coordinator Rob Alonso, who worked on it, came back to advise the animators on the fight between Elastigirl and Screenslaver.
Bird thinks audiences expected to spend the whole film in Tomorrowland and were let down by a road movie; he pushes back on the read that it scolded viewers for liking apocalyptic films.
His pick for the last great thing he's seen. He admired it going quiet while movies get louder and counts himself a meet-it-halfway horror viewer whose taste runs to Jaws and Alien.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Action and influences he cited Die HardJawsAlienThe Road WarriorTerminator 2: Judgment DayDementia 13The Day the Earth Stood StillChinatown
In passing Ready Player OneToy Story 4CarsBlithe SpiritBrief EncounterJurassic World: Fallen KingdomJurassic ParkHereditary
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The Outer LimitsJonny Quest
Podcasts The Bill Simmons PodcastThe Rewatchables