VOTD: Brad Bird Explains The Thoughtful Process Behind His Animated Movies

Brad Bird is one of the best filmmakers working in animation today. He doesn't have an endless list of films in his career, but quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality, and when you know that the few films he has directed are The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, then you know why he's such a respected talent.

For anyone looking for a little more insight into Brad Bird's creative process, editor Kees van Dijkhuizen Jr. has put together a little video essay of sorts featuring explanatory voiceover on top of clips from the director's movies. Watch and listen to the Brad Bird commentary on animation after the jump.

Here's Insight: Brad Bird on Animation from Kees van Dijkhuizen Jr.'s Vimeo page.

Kees van Dijkhuizen Jr. used to deliver one of those year-end retrospective mash-ups annually, as well as montages of certain directors' filmography, and now he's given us this thoughtful video essay.

The voiceover from Brad Bird comes from the commentary tracks from the director's three aforementioned movies and some of the behind the scenes documentaries included as supplements on their home video releases. I love how he uses clips from a bunch of lesser animated movies when Bird has that fit of nonsense to illustrate what they don't want to do.

What's cool is that you can see a lot of what he's talking about in his live-action movies Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Tomorrowland as well. So in some instances, these aren't just his creative thoughts on best practices and common misconceptions with how to best create animated movies, but there's also some application for live-action movies as well.