you know in Monsters Inc it was fur we've got fur I'm here to confirm we have fur you know uh then it would be Nemo you know we have underwater lighting and we can do subsurface scattering and then this is the always playful much beloved animation director Brad Bird the director behind animated Classics like Ratatouille and The Iron Giant and here he's explaining the technical difficulties facing probably his most incredible film with Incredibles we uh our whole film was constructed of things all the things that computers were still bad at they were bad at humans
they were bad at hair everything so the computers were bad they were bad at cloth they were bad at Water they were bad at fire really bad it was 2004 and while Pixar had quickly developed reputation for pushing the boundaries in animation bird and his team took it one step further one of the challenges of the film was just the scope of it we had a shot underwater shots in a jungle shots in a boring office cubicle shots around the family dinner table EAS house which is like bow house meets Greek ruins the variety of
environments in this movie was enormous I think that you can get a grasp of the number of different locations I hope you can get a grasp of the number of locations because Lord knows for reference monster Inc had 50 individual locations The Incredibles had over 200 there was fire there was water water wind clothing all the most annoying elements of 3D animation at the time this is a hble suit darling you can't be seen in death we have something like 95 costume changes and not just t-shirts but suits and shirts and ties and but The
Incredibles presented one major problem that Pixar hadn't had to deal with before when they started to think about what it was going to take to do this film one of the big issues was oh man we got humans now reason humans are tricky is you're one I'm one and all of a sudden we have expectations about how those humans are supposed to behave how they're supposed to look what their attributes are so the animation team did what they do best they invented some specialized controls some software commands that would let the characters do what they'd
never done before we've got characters that got big hunk and muscles we got characters that have some Mass so when I start running I want to be able to control that mass finesse that mass such that I can actually have a jiggle so we started to look at what kind of jiggle controls we would have having the actual material the skin feel organic and Alive would allow us to get away with less of the minute detail we have characters that have Supernatural arms stretchy movie bendy kinds of things fundamentals of Animation but now customized for
humans and despite all these technical limitations and how hard they were working you know we were on the edge of failure the entire time we were making it birds still imployed his team not to take any shortcuts but you want everything to be believable you want to believe that these are uh living things that have feelings and pasts for instance in Monsters Inc the animators gave boo pigtails because it would be easier to animate and replicate when they asked bird whether they could do that on The Incredibles he rejected the option instead encouraging his animators
to push themselves for the sake of the character and it's great that Violet's got her hair behind both her ears she's ready for action now yeah that was the visual idea there and why having her hair work was such an issue as a filmmaker you're always looking for ways to say things visually and having her hair start out in front of her face like something she's hiding behind and then gradually get pushed back and even having mom push it back in the Cameron Miyazaki scenes was key to showing what's going on with how are you
doing that I don't know whatever you do don't stop this little story feeds into Bird's animation ethos and what he believes animation is truly capable of sure the animation was groundbreaking and the technology they created helped shap many future films Pixar and otherwise but bird was always fixated on trying to show that animation was for adults too and people keep saying the animation genre it's not a genre a western is a genre animation is an art form and it can do any genre you know it could 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 free so how does Brad Bird use his animation to tell us about his characters how does he create any depth well first he comes up with a simple story what if you had a superhero who was not able to be a superhero and is a little older you know I'm retired from hero work as am I Robert yet here we are this is the Bare Bones of The Incredibles a super family with superpowers that reflect their familiar archetypes Bob is meant
to be the strong father Helen the flexible mother Violet the awkward teenager Dash the energetic kid and Jack Jack the chaotic baby so that's fun and leads to some exciting action scenes but bird did everything he could to emphasize that this was first and foremost a story about the characters and you know most superhero movies begin with the big whammo blammo thing and I thought uh if we started in this kind of uh strange you know the film's kind of beat up and old and we're looking at them in some kind of personal documentary sense
that would put the emphasis on them being people this is that's fine I me can bre the fact that they are talking about things that they think their future will involve so Frozone is the ladies man even though we later see him as being married where is my super suit Bob is talking about settling down although later he has a problem with it and Helen is can't imagine settling down and she turns out to make the transition very well so bir takes time to slow down the story to flesh out his character's motivations but that
doesn't mean he shies away from the action too Brad has always said we have to have character-based action sequences and a lot of Brad's discussions on 100 mile dash was let's let's just not do the cool thing let's have that but also okay this little kid is using his powers for the first time what kind of stuff is he do he discovers through it you know what he can do doesn't know what he can do that's the point of the sequence is is that it's not just a Chase sequence it's a kid discovering that he
can do a lot more than he thought he could do I'm alive and it's through action sequences like this the bird communicates the message or the lesson of the film initially the powers are told to hide their abilities in the fear of being ostracized or arrested by Society but it isn't until they truly unleash their powers that they become the best and happiest version of themselves so the message is pretty simple embrace your true self your talents and you'll be the best you that you can be but like any truly great movie The discourse is
a little more complicated than that everyone's special Dash which is another way of saying no one is while Universal Excellence is a touching sentiment and something I took away from the movie when I was 10 years old the villain also makes some interesting counterpoints this is because I don't have powers isn't it well not every superhero has powers you know you can be super without them syndrome is a nons who desperately worshiped Mr Incredible as a kid well I'm incredible his special talent is his intelligence and he designs technology to artificially replicate being a super
however in a moment that contradicts the film's message Mr Incredible completely dismisses him fly home buddy he's seemingly not special enough which then comes full circle when syndrome returns as a real threat forcing Bob to take notice buddy my name is not buddy the idea here is to have our villain be a little bit sympathetic the roots of this problem go back Bob made a mistake back then not treating the kid a little more with a little more grace so what the hell is the movie actually saying does Brad Bird really think that everyone's special
or is syndrome actually right when he says and when everyone's super no one will be perhaps bird is only celebrating the truly exceptional individual amongst us thank you Mr Incredible you've done it again yeah you're the best no I'm just well this is definitely what his biggest critics think specifically they equate his messages of individuality with the objectivism of author iron Rand in extremely simple terms Rand believed that the truly great monsters should as much as possible not be Shackled by law or conventions right now honey the world just wants us to fit in and
to fit in we just got to be like everybody else Perfection should instead be celebrated and rewarded with the appropriate social advantages this idea bleeds through to a lot of superhero content here the world Falls prey to an egomaniac when they outlaw supers it is time for their secret identity to become their only identity but is saved by the truly exceptional par family so unhampered Excellence is the solution go and this same theme that society places unnecessary constraints on exceptional individuals crops up in a number of Bird's other films and the truth is I have
no Talent at all R A twoe which rejects a similarly positive message that anyone can cook also emphasizes that if you don't have any Talent you should get out of the way of people who do so here and in the sequel mind you the fact that a nons super who harnesses their special skills is presented as the villain emphasizes Bird's Randy in undertones you mean you killed our real heroes so that you could pretend to be one but honestly these criticisms seem to be forgetting one big detail Release Me now or what I'll Crush her
it was showing the blatant disregard Syndrome has for life and I feel like a lot of our villains in real life have often times it's decorated as a higher calling but it isn't syndrome is objectively a bad guy he has a special talent but uses it for evil the ideas of good bad and the morals of breaking unjust laws for the good are explored in more detail in the sequel but Birds movies always punish those who use unlimited power for their selfish purposes all of his movies grapple with objectivist themes that's undeniable you always always
say be true to yourself but you never say which part of yourself to be true too but they don't conclude that doing what's best for the self is what's best for everybody instead bird seems to be promoting doing what's right and what's right is what benefits the most people the par family saved the city Remy saves Alfredo's Legacy and his family and The Iron Giant trans from what makes him exceptional and would harm others to what makes him exceptional and would benefit others I promise I'll slow up I'll only be the best by a tiny
bit in summary The Incredibles doesn't offer any easy answers because there aren't any building a society that benefits everybody gives everyone the same amount of Freedom while also allowing people as much Freedom as possible to exercise their unique talents is basically impossible hey we're superheroes what could happen ah but it's cool to know that Brad Bird is constantly adding to this conversation with some entertaining and Innovative films and he's using his animation superpowers for good if I did what they were doing I'd be going hey I just made a miracle happen come on little little
respect here but these guys are quiet and they just uh they make these films absolutely possible Edna Mode and guess
