CATEGORY: BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
INTERVIEW WITH: BRAD BIRD
FILM: "RATATOUILLE"
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Q. Hi, Dave Cohen from Variety over here to your right.
A. I just went to this thing where they shot off a million I can't even see you right now.
Q. Don't worry about it.
A. Just send out a flare.
Q. Your next movie is live action; correct?
A. Yes.
Q. You've won two animated Best Picture Oscars in a row. Are we going to see you back out here again for animated picture?
A. I want to make more animated films so, you know, I hope so, yes.
Q. Bill Desowitz with A W N of Pittsburgh. How are you?
A. I'm good.
Q. Since you are turning to live action for the first time, can you give us an idea of what is animating you about doing the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as a story?
A. Well, it's just a really great mix of unusual things at that moment in time. Chinatown was co existing with the Barbary Coast which was like the "wild west," and at the same time on Nob Hill some of the wealthiest people in the country were up there. And this is all in a very small area, so it was very volatile, it was right at the edge of two centuries, so you had horses and cars existing simultaneously with electric lights and gas lights and there's political intrigue, and it was just a very volatile mix of great things. And then you throw an earthquake in there, come on, that goes good with popcorn.
Q. Hi, Brad, way back here. Angela Dawson at Nielsen Entertainment news wire. You mentioned your guidance counselor in your acceptance speech and I was just wondering did you give him or her a heads up that you were going to mention them?
A. No.
Q. What would you say to him or her now that you've gotten your Oscar?
A. I'd take my advice in that situation because I said I want to make movies. But he actually it did help me because it seemed impossible and I think that they sort of life has a way of sort of smacking you down and if you get up enough times, you know, things happen.
Q. Hi Brad.
A. Hi.
Q. This is your second Oscar. How would you describe this experience compared to the first time?
A. No less sweet. Every time you make a movie you're just hoping to get it out on time and hope that it makes sense and that people like it, and all of this other stuff is always surprising and shocking and wonderful.
Q. Well, Brad, this town just went through a crippling writers strike.
A. I was one of those crippled writers.
Q. Do you think that the Academy Awards has the power to heal frayed relations in this town?
A. Well, you're talking about a guy who made "Ratatouille" and made things good between France and the United States for a little bit so, yeah, sure, after that, you know, I think it's been easy. No, I mean, I think that everybody, all the writers want to work and they just want a deal where everybody wins. Nobody wanted the studios to go broke because then we have no one to work with, so we wanted a situation and we think we're on our way to getting it, where everybody wins, and so that's good for everybody.
Q. Hi, Brad Reelz Channel. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.
Q. I'm curious if you have a golden rule for movie making that transcends pop animation into live action to take with you.
A. I think the greatest special effect is caring about the characters; whether it's a live action, animation or a blend or whatever. And there are a lot of big effects films where the effects are amazing but you don't care about who the fire ball is chasing, so you're kind of bored after about ten minutes. So I think that the most important special effect, because all movies are manipulation and they have been for a hundred years, is caring about what's going on in the screen and anything after that, you know, is if it's sitting on top of that and that's there, it's in great shape.
Q. Hi, Brad, congratulations. Sarah Edwards from Comcast in Boston, I've talked to you in Boston.
A. Go Boston.
Q. I always hated rats before your movie. You've improved relationships with me and rats. How did you feel about them and did you have a hard time convincing the studio to take on the subject?
A. Well, it didn't begin as my idea, it began as the idea of Jan Pinkava who won an Oscar for Geri's Game, it was a short several years ago. And I think what everybody likes about that idea was the impossibility of the character's goal because rat is death to a kitchen and a kitchen is death to a rat. So you have these two things that can't go together and it creates an automatic problem that movies love to solve. So, you know, I think that it's just fun to go into a volatile situation.
Q. And are you friendly with rats now as a result?
A. I am. You know, if they've washed up, yeah, yeah.
Q. Hi, back here. Hey, I have a question about hand drawn animation.
A. Yes.
Q. It seems computer animation has kind of dominated for many years.
A. Hey, "Persepolis" was nominated, is that not cool? That's great, you know.
Q. But in box office and kind of perception it's just been overwhelming with a lot of CG there's been all this talk of a glut possible, and now it seems like Disney is coming back and like really focusing on hand drawn animation.
A. But that was John Lasseter is the one who kind of said, hey, don't give up hand drawn animation, and because of, you know, Pixar's success, I think they listened to that and they said you have something really special here that's not like computer generated animation. I mean, anyone who has seen "Persepolis" has seen that that movie is great in hand drawn animation and it should be in hand drawn animation and it's cool in black and white, and you don't want to be at all different. And Nick Park's movies are great that they're clay, and Henry Selick's movies are great, that there's puppet animation. I thought it was Henry Selick. Woo hoo, anyway, I think there are a million ways to make a movie and all of them if they're appropriate, are great and I hope they all stay alive.
Q. Can hand drawn be successful at the box office?
A. Absolutely. Yeah, you still have to care for the characters and have a great story.
Q. Allen Silverman. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.
Q. There are some critics who say that the Academy created the animation category to kind of get off the hook about considering animated films for Best Picture. I think the fact that you have a screenplay nomination kind of is one answer to that, but what do you think about that? Do you think that animation is kind of unfairly segregated to a category?
A. Well, I mean, you know, there's no way that I'm going to feel bad about winning an award, but, you know, if you ask me, was "Snow White" one of the five best movies of 1937, I would say yeah, and they should have been up for one of the real Oscars rather than the one with the little, seven little men. But that said, this is all a total honor and I hope one day that another animated film does again, like "Beauty and the Beast" was, get nominated as the Best Picture but it's all good, come on, it's the Oscars.
Q. Thank you, congratulations.
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