Brad Bird - ABC's 20/20 (2004)

This segment of the ABC news magazine 20/20 focus on Oscar winning animator/director Brad Bird. In it, he shares a glimpse of his story on the eve of the premiere of the Incredibles.

He completed his first film at age 14 and it earned him an internship at the Walt Disney Studios where he apprenticed under Milt Kahl. Bird was among the first class of students of Walt Disney's art school, Cal Arts, and was at Walt Disney Productions for a time in the late 1970's. He was the first of his class to put the Easter egg of A113 in his films (a reference to the classroom they all met in.) and this has since become a tradition.

He quickly earned a reputation for being a rebel and worked on a number of projects away from Disney. These included developing an animated feature based on the Will Eisner comic book The Spirit. He wrote the screenplay Batteries Not Included, was a co-creator of the Amazing Stories episode Family Dog, and he was one of the original animation filmmakers on The Simpsons. He was particularly protective of the character of Krusty. He then made the film The Iron Giant when his sister was gunned down by her estranged husband in a murder/suicide. The premise was what if a gun had a soul.

From there he was reunited with his classmate John Lasseter when he joined Pixar to make The Incredibles making him the first outsider brought into the studio. In that film he also voiced Edna Mode. He's also made such films as Ratatoullie, Tomorrowland, and The Incredibles 2.

He's currently at Skydance Studio where he's working with John Lasseter again after Lasseter was forced out of Disney and Pixar.

Original airdate October 2004

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.