Brad Bird
207 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Directed by Daniel Scheinert
influenced by Ratatouille (2007)
Visuals Plot
Once again, I won’t give away individual surprises, except to praise a dynamite homage to Ratatouille , as well as some references to Yeoh’s own screen persona, and the quoting of a certain obscure pop song from the early 2000s.
But amidst a raccoon parody of Ratatouille (which is hilarious every single time), to a universe where evolution took a sharp turn and now everyone has hot dogs for fingers, to the Wong Kar-Wai inspired universe where Evelyn is a movie star like the actress playing her, there is a real story about acceptance and growth and healing.
The payoffs for Evelyn misremembering the concept of Ratatouille , for a universe in which everyone has hot-dog fingers, and the sentient-rock conversation would be more effective if one of them were snipped.
The ideal audience member is one who laughs shamelessly at pantless martial-arts goons wearing butt-plugs, but also sighs in delight at the woozy Wong Kar-Wai homage that appears between the Ratatouille -but-racoons universe and the universe where Evelyn is a rock.
My favorite universe stems from a verbal misunderstanding and ultimately nods to Pixar’s Ratatouille (2007), with a teppanyaki chef that hides a rodent named Racaccoonie under his hat.
In some respects, Tomorrowland is reminiscent of another Disney movie, 1991's The Rocketeer, in that it has a retro-futuristic vibe that won't be for every taste, but which provides enormous entertainment for those who can get into it.
When young Frank (Thomas Robinson) is zooming around Tomorrowland in his homemade jetpack, there are shades of The Rocketeer, a sense of wide-eyed wonderment not seen much since Steven Spielberg's 1980s heyday, and even the "kids are smart, adults are dumb" theme of E.T. and The Goonies.
There are many nods to Saturday family adventures like The Rocketeer , and quite a few to the bicycle-riding kids of ET .
Frank's hologram guard dog is cooler than his jetpack, which looked a lot sweeter in 1991's "The Rocketeer."
As praise goes, Tomorrowland has moments of retro-tinged visual splendor that suggest a more technically advanced version of some of Joe Johnston’s films, particularly The Rocketeer , that eternally underappreciated Disney effort.
But director Bird (“The Incredibles,” “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol”) is such a master of momentum, and has such a way with gadgetry that the film’s two-plus hours whiz by, with elements of “The Terminator,” “Hugo,” “The Rocketeer” “The Wizard of Oz” and countless other films flashing past.
There are a few similarities to last summer’s funnier and sweeter “Despicable Me,” and even more ideas teased out of “The Incredibles.”
Toss in a little of "The Incredibles" and you have an OK entertainment that's instantly forgettable.
Unlike Pixar’s vastly superior The Incredibles , which affirmed the heroic archetype even as it cross-examined it, Megamind suggests that sometimes the hero isn’t really a hero at all.
If you crossed The Incredibles with Despicable Me , you'd end up with something a lot like DreamWorks Animation's new 3D toon Megamind .
MEGAMIND wants to be the DreamWorks Animation version of Pixar’s “The Incredibles.”
Had them both in the far-better “The Incredibles.”
The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025)
Directed by Matt Shakman
influenced by The Incredibles (2004), Tomorrowland (2015)
Themes Visuals Music
Their signature themes of family and their retro 1960s vibe even helped shape the tone of Pixar’s The Incredibles…
…it’s strange how no live-action Fantastic Four filmmaker has figured out a way to use Mr. Fantastic’s stretchy powers half as dazzlingly as Brad Bird’s animated The Incredibles from more than 20 years ago…
The look is reminiscent of Pixar’s “The Incredibles,” and a group of movie geeks could stay up all night debating who influenced who.
Kasra Farahani's amazing retrofuturistic production design, which combines Tomorrowland elements with Art Deco architecture in enticing blue hues.
…especially with their art deco, retro-futuristic aesthetic that feels like it walked out of Disney’s Tomorrowland…
Michael Giacchino's breathtaking orchestral score, which occasionally nearly rivals that of The Incredibles…
Soul (2020)
Directed by Pete Docter
influenced by Ratatouille (2007), The Iron Giant (1999), The Incredibles (2004)
Themes Visuals
You have the race against time in the afterlife as presented in Coco , the themes of ageing and re-evaluating life previously examined in Up , and at one point, there’s even a nod to the joy of taste and smell lifted seemingly verbatim from Ratatouille .
The best parts of Soul are when Docter spends time with a spiralling seedling caught in a puff of autumn air; when he expresses (in a visual flourish not unlike Remy tasting things in Ratatouille ) the first taste of pizza; or when an act of genuine generosity means dropping a half-eaten bagel, the most delicious thing a soul completely in the moment has ever tasted, in a subway busker's case.
Soul actually shares a decent amount of common ground with Pixar’s Ratatouille, and finds a similar raison d'etre in music as Brad Bird’s film did with food.
Perhaps the best visualization of their frequent dramatic heft can be seen in the scene from the 2007 Ratatouille where food critic Anton Ego takes a bite out of the titular dish and instantly journeys to a cherished buried memory.
It’s also a Ratatouille-esque tale of pursuing one’s true artistic passion against all odds — except that, ultimately, it’s not, and this is what derails the tropishness of the film’s other tropes.
The visuals are inspired while nodding to their influences: the heavenly staircase of the 1940s classic “A Matter of Life and Death” or the frightening “lost souls” who recall both “The Iron Giant” and the more surreal figments of Hayao Miyazaki’s imaginarium.
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Directed by Chris Williams
influenced by The Incredibles (2004), The Iron Giant (1999)
Visuals Plot Themes
Meanwhile, there’s some seriously fun action scenes (without some of the darkness and violence of other superhero films) that recall “The Incredibles.”
As far as 'toons go, it's probably most reminiscent of Pixar's "The Incredibles," given that both are stories about superhero teams.
Even if we’re just limiting ourselves to discussing animated superhero features, it wasn’t long ago that Pixar introduced us to The Incredibles -- a film that actually borrowed a good number of plot elements from Alan Moore’s Watchmen , one of the densest comic book stories ever written.
So, too, does the movie create parallels with “The Incredibles,” Pixar’s brilliant yarn about a family of misfit superheroes; when the plot mandates that Hiro and his schoolmates “enhance” themselves for battle against a this new and dangerous villain, they step into the roles of skilled alter-egos using their knowledge of science to fuel the physics of their costumes and super powers.
Big Hero 6 may be a little too glib to reach the heights of The Incredibles or The Iron Giant , but if you can’t have Brad Bird, this is pretty much the next best thing.
Despite its origins, some might view it as similar to "The Incredibles" (especially since both films come from the now merged Pixar-Disney conglomerate).
Porque Disney no se guardó su propia avaricia corporativa y mete por ahí comerciales de Star Wars entre tiernas referencias a otros grandes hitos de la ciencia ficción cincuentera.
Comedy fans will smile — briefly, anyway — at the sight of Keegan-Michael Key and Kathryn Hahn as a pair of geek enthusiasts who run a Houston shop crammed with classic sci-fi movie memorabilia (cue obligatory nod to the recently Disney-acquired “Star Wars” franchise).
Not only is the film named after one of The Magic Kingdom's most popular areas (although any connection beyond the title and a few visual cues is tenuous), but there are plenty of references to Disney's newest property (Star Wars).
The scenes of Casey in a retro sci-fi shop (run by Kathryn Hahn and Keegan-Michael Key) are a blast, if for no other reason than the chance to scour its shelves for collectibles from Bird’s breakthrough, “The Iron Giant,” as well as Disney-owned properties including “Star Wars” and “The Black Hole.”
And considering the recent successes of space-themed properties like Guardians of the Galaxy (created by Marvel, now owned by Disney), Toy Story ’s Buzz Lightyear (Pixar, now Disney), and Star Wars (Lucasfilm, now Disney), Tomorrowland certainly makes more sense to green-light than, say, It’s A Small World After All.
No future for you, except the seemingly inevitable one where all this prime real estate is overtaken by new Star Wars and Marvel rides.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Directed by Victor Fleming
influenced Tomorrowland (2015)
Plot Visuals Themes
By this point the viewer is likely to understand all too well how she feels, as “Tomorrowland” increasingly suggests a version of “The Wizard of Oz” that, despite numerous attempts at liftoff, never quite manages makes it over the rainbow.
Imagine jumping back and forth between Kansas and Oz in “The Wizard of Oz” with several key characters out of sight for long stretches and you get the picture.
But director Bird (“The Incredibles,” “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol”) is such a master of momentum, and has such a way with gadgetry that the film’s two-plus hours whiz by, with elements of “The Terminator,” “Hugo,” “The Rocketeer” “The Wizard of Oz” and countless other films flashing past.
The production design is first rate with visual nods from everything to Disneyland to “The Wizard Of Oz” to the 1964 NY World's Fair, where the movie of begins.
Although Tomorrowland's ambitions are right up there with Back to the Future and The Wizard of Oz, the plucky Floridian played by Britt Robertson in the time-hopping Disney adventure is unlikely to be remembered in decades to come - or even in months to come, once the next teenage dystopian fantasy inserts itself into movie houses.
Reminiscent of this year’s The BFG and 1999’s The Iron Giant, with stories entailing burgeoning relationships between young children and hulking creatures, A Monster Calls brings a unique take in its construction.
Though ostensibly aimed at children, or at least teens (check that PG-13 rating), it’s more heavy on darkness and light on fun than other movies in its conceptual wheelhouse, like the works of Hayao Miyazaki, Henry Selick’s Coraline or Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant.
More likely, “A Monster Calls” will join a long list of tragic box-office disappointments (of which “The Iron Giant” is probably the closest analogy) that are embraced as cult classics by such fantasy connoisseurs years down the road.
Lo más reciente de Bayona es parte The Iron Giant, parte Pan’s Labyrinth y parte The BFG.
The animated portions remind in feeling and abstraction of Brad Bird's incomparable The Iron Giant--a film that is itself based around the death of a loved one and the need for the survivors to recover.
A Monster Calls is a difficult movie to categorize, looking something like The Iron Giant by way of The NeverEnding Story, but in the end resembling neither.
It's a film packed to bursting with golden nuggets of surprise, humor, and pathos, though it bears noting that the film runs a track vaguely similar to Spielberg's E.T.. That's not to say in any way that Bird's film is a simulacrum; both films owe a great deal to the classic sci-fi films of the Fifties, notably William Cameron Menzies' Invaders From Mars and Jack Arnold's It Came From Outer Space (both 1953 and both referenced in Bird's film).
It's a film packed to bursting with golden nuggets of surprise, humor, and pathos, though it bears noting that the film runs a track vaguely similar to Spielberg's E.T.. That's not to say in any way that Bird's film is a simulacrum; both films owe a great deal to the classic sci-fi films of the Fifties, notably William Cameron Menzies' Invaders From Mars and Jack Arnold's It Came From Outer Space (both 1953 and both referenced in Bird's film).
Back to the Future (1985)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
influenced Tomorrowland (2015)
Themes Characters Visuals
Tomorrowland, which is directed by the great animation maestro Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille), reminded me a bit of the kinds of films I grew up on—smart, wide-eyed, live-action family films like Back to the Future, War Games, and E.T.
Although Tomorrowland's ambitions are right up there with Back to the Future and The Wizard of Oz, the plucky Floridian played by Britt Robertson in the time-hopping Disney adventure is unlikely to be remembered in decades to come - or even in months to come, once the next teenage dystopian fantasy inserts itself into movie houses.
Robertson and Clooney are well-matched as a 21st-century spin on Back to the Future 's Marty McFly and Emmett Brown, and Cassidy has such a strange presence that you never get tired of watching her.
Robertson spends the entire film being awed and spunky, wondering along with us just why she's been deemed so special (she dumbfounds her teachers asking how to reverse global disasters and generally 'knows how things work'), but Tomorrowland's awe-inspiring inventions all feel recycled from other, better and interestingly, much older films ("Back to the Future" and "Westworld" come to mind along with anything influenced by Jules Verne).
Luca (2021)
Directed by Enrico Casarosa
influenced by Ratatouille (2007), The Incredibles (2004)
Themes Characters
It often feels like a spiritual successor to Ratatouille for this reason, though with arguably even richer characters and a surprisingly effective sense of humor.
It doesn’t necessarily have the spark of a “Ratatouille” or a “WALL-E,” the absolute apex of the Pixar model, but there’s plenty to like here.
They have never returned to the quality of the sublime run that was Ratatouille (2007), Wall:E (2008, my favourite), Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010).
But this is not the first time he’s working for the Pixar Animation Studios, given his prior experience in directing the 2011 Oscar-nominated short film La Luna and served as a storyboard artist for some of the Pixar animated features such as Ratatouille (2007) and Up (2009).
Casarosa has worked at Pixar for nearly 20 years, serving as a story artist on Ratatouille , Up , and the first two Cars movies.
Naturally, Ercole doesn’t take kindly to newbies, setting up the primary antagonist who, in a past life, is probably the food critic, Ego from “Ratatouille.”
One of the rat characters looks like it was lifted pixel-for-pixel from "Ratatouille" — assuming Remy had lost the restaurant and gone on a six-month bender.
It was not long ago when Will Arnett mined gold with a curt, hilarious voice-acting role in Pixar’s Ratatouille as intimidating cook Horst, who brags about conquests of killing a man with his thumb.
A conflict over ransacking a nut cart ends in Surly’s banishment, but when he and Buddy discover a nut shop—owned by a group of thieves attempting to tunnel under a bank vault across the street—the “ Ocean’s Eleven meets Ratatouille with a dash of Over The Hedge ” plot commences.
And just like that, Surly -- accompanied by a mute rat sidekick shamelessly ripped off from Pixar's "Ratatouille" -- finds himself banished from the park and sent to live amid the unknown perils of the inner city.
Will Arnett (Surly Squirrel) provided the voice of a human chef in the animated Ratatouille, and clearly wanted to see how the other half lives.
Perhaps director Peter Lepeniotis and his co-writer, Lorne Cameron ("Ratatouille"), modeled their movie so closely on classic Hollywood crime flicks that they accidentally made one.
Despicable Me (2010)
Directed by Chris Renaud
influenced by The Incredibles (2004)
Plot Themes Visuals Music
More annoying, Despicable Me borrows left and right from other, better animated/kids films, lifting ideas from The Grinch, Meet the Robinsons, The Incredibles, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Toy Story (the minions are nothing more than a carbon copy of the alien squeeze toys in that film).
The world of Despicable Me is reminiscent of The Incredibles, where superheroes and supervillains participate in everyday life, raising their kids and keeping up their suburban homes just like ordinary mortals.
Despicable Me is already instantly inviting comparisons with Brad Bird's The Incredibles and has a chance to ingeniously invert loyalties over to the bad guy's point of view and purpose.
The 3D computer animation Despicable Me is comparable to Pixar’s 2004 The Incredibles, which was about superheros living everyday lives.
What with its surface similarities to The Incredibles and Monsters Inc., it’s easy to see the influence that the much-revered masters of the feature-length ‘toon had on this production.
Like “The Incredibles,” “Despicable Me” uses a mock-’60s-cartoon-hero score and saddles its protagonists with super-nuisances — such as a dismissive French mom (Julie Andrews).
And just when you think Bird has exhausted his recipe book, he pulls off a slapstick climax that combines the sustained restaurant mayhem from Jacques Tati’s Playtimewith an episode of involuntary memory borrowed from Proust.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Tomorrowland (2015)
Themes Visuals
When young Frank (Thomas Robinson) is zooming around Tomorrowland in his homemade jetpack, there are shades of The Rocketeer, a sense of wide-eyed wonderment not seen much since Steven Spielberg's 1980s heyday, and even the "kids are smart, adults are dumb" theme of E.T. and The Goonies.
There are many nods to Saturday family adventures like The Rocketeer , and quite a few to the bicycle-riding kids of ET .
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Directed by Robert Wise
influenced The Iron Giant (1999), Tomorrowland (2015)
Visuals Themes
Bird fills the movie with jetpacks, ray guns, and sci-fi totems of all kinds, like a man-size model of the original Gort in Robert Wise’s The Day The Earth Stood Still (51) .
That's then mixed in with the old King Kong plot (that similarly inspired the "military must kill the beast" plots of all those 1950s monster movies) as well as an obvious homage to the sci-fi classic, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with its large robot, Gort, and a similar anti-violence message.
Brave (2012)
Directed by Mark Andrews
influenced by The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007)
Visuals Characters
But for the Pixar Animation crew it’s just another number in their unbelievable string of hits: “Toy Story” (1995), “A Bug’s Life” (1998), “Toy Story 2” (1999), “Monsters, Inc.” (2001), “Finding Nemo” (2003), “The Incredibles” (2004), “Cars” (2006), “Ratatouille” (2007), “WALL-E” (2008), “Up” (2009), “Toy Story 3” (2010), “Cars 2” (2011) . . .
Though it features some of the most exquisite animation ever put to film, it falls short of the benchmark set by the peerless triptych of Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up released at the end of the last decade .
Or, more simply put, when compared with the rich attention to humor, subtext and story featured in Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Toy Story 3, Brave comes up short.
Occasionally a strong female character shares the spotlight with the leading male -- such as Elastigirl in 2004's "The Incredibles" and EVE in "WALL-E" -- but for the most part Pixar has been a toon town brimming with testosterone.
In the past, Pixar's best female characters (Dory in Finding Nemo, Helen Parr and Edna Mode in The Incredibles) have been triumphs of vocal performance more than writing, and the same holds true here, with Macdonald's beautiful Lowland lilt breathing life into a character who might otherwise have joined a long line of semi-interchangeable Disney princesses.
But for the Pixar Animation crew it’s just another number in their unbelievable string of hits: “Toy Story” (1995), “A Bug’s Life” (1998), “Toy Story 2” (1999), “Monsters, Inc.” (2001), “Finding Nemo” (2003), “The Incredibles” (2004), “Cars” (2006), “Ratatouille” (2007), “WALL-E” (2008), “Up” (2009), “Toy Story 3” (2010), “Cars 2” (2011) . . .
A subplot involving Casper’s social media naïvety and a public spat with a critic lifted straight from Ratatouille, however, is absurd – even more so than the notion Scarlett Johansson’s sommelier would be falling at Casper’s feet.
The movie reminded me of other delectable food-focused fare such as “Big Night” and the animated “Ratatouille.”
The all-important, snotty-nosed reviewer is a staple of the restaurant-set film – you immediately think of Anton Ego in Pixar’s Ratatouille , which was another fable about holding on to your established high standards.
In many ways, Chef is a live-action — and R-rated (mostly for language) — variation on Pixar’s Ratatouille (2007), right down to its nasty food critic (here played by Oliver Platt), albeit one who is treated a bit more fairly.
Compare Chef with Ratatouille, which insists there are times when a critic takes a bullet for a real talent.
But announced visits were good enough for the critic Anton Ego in "Ratatouille," which "Chef" resembles in many ways, and they're good enough for this critic, Ramsey Michel; he's played by Oliver Platt, who comes on, wittily, like a leaner cut of Orson Welles.