#261. Brad Bird

Have you ever had a dream job as a child? Many kids will look around and determine that they want to be firemen, police officers, astronauts, and doctors as their dream profession. Of course, once many of them realize the kind of work required to obtain these dream jobs, most children give up on these dreams to obtain employment in something more practical. That being said, there are those select few kids who work hard at earning their dream job. Brad Bird is one of the examples of someone who made it into his dream profession. As a child, he set out to become an animator, which brought him attention and scholarships from Disney (he was even mentored by one of Disney’s best animators). The proof of his success in animation is in the films he has directed. This week’s two films highlight some of the animated and non-animated films Brad Bird has directed.

The Incredibles
Year: 2004
Rating: PG
Length: 115 minutes / 1.92 hours

After Bird had completed his education at Cal Arts (along with classmates John Lasseter and Tim Burton), he dove into the animation world. Working The Simpsons for its early seasons, Bird eventually directed his first full-length animated film: The Iron Giant (1999). Despite the film not performing well in the box office, many consider it to be an animated classic. Due to his connection with John Lasseter, Bird approached Pixar and was able to create The Incredibles (2004). This film earned him his first Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Three years later, Bird would be tapped to direct Ratatouille (2007), thus earning him another Best Animated Feature Oscar. While this was the last animated feature Brad Bird directed, he is slated to direct the sequel to The Incredibles in 2018, perhaps earning him another Oscar in the process.

Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) is tired of his suburban life. Trapped in a thankless job where he can’t help anyone, Bob longs for the past where he could live up to his potential as a superhero. At home, he and his wife, Helen (Holly Hunter) try to keep their identities hidden, since superheroes are now outlawed. After getting fired from his job, Bob receives an invitation to don the suit of Mr. Incredible again to assist in defeating a rampaging robot on Nomanisan Island. This change in lifestyle reinvigorates Bob, which causes Helen to suspect he is having an affair. Investigating further, she accidentally puts herself and her children in danger as they fly to the mysterious island. Once there, they must fight their way back to civilization to save the citizens of Metroville from another rampaging robot.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Year: 2011
Rating: PG-13
Length: 133 minutes / 2.22 hours

While Brad Bird has focused on animation for much of his career, he has occasionally breached the realm of live-action films. Despite the somewhat limited abilities of live-action when compared to animation, Bird has had mixed success in the medium. His most recent foray into live-action, Tomorrowland (2015), was not very well received by critics or audiences. However, his addition to the Mission: Impossible franchise, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), not only revitalized the franchise but also set a record as the most successful film in the franchise to date. With only a few films in total under Brad Bird’s belt, I would be interested to see if another live-action film were to follow in the Tomorrowland footsteps or in the more successful footsteps of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

After breaking Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) out of a Moscow prison, the IMF team then proceeds to infiltrate the Kremlin to find information on someone named “Cobalt.” Unfortunately, the Kremlin is destroyed in such a way that Ethan and his team are suspected to be the perpetrators. After this incident, the “Ghost Protocol” is enacted, which means the United States will disavow any secret agents while also providing them with latitude to go after the mastermind behind the attack. Now the IMF team has tracked Cobalt to Dubai, where he plans to attack the U.S. with Russian nuclear missiles to instigate both sides into an all-out war. While Cobalt succeeds in launching a rocket from a submarine, Ethan and his team are quickly working on disabling the warhead before it destroys San Francisco.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 of the best by Brad Bird

Bacon #: 2 (The Incredibles / Holly Hunter -> End of the Line / Kevin Bacon)

#260. Pixar

When it comes to cutting-edge computer animation, one name stands high above the rest: Pixar. With each film they release, they perfect their techniques to create realistic environments and characters through the use of computers. While DreamWorks has had some limited success against the powerhouse that is Pixar, each and every time a Pixar film is released, they up the “wow” factor of the visuals they can create. While there was a time when Pixar was starting to lack in the plot department (something they usually emphasized), they seem to have fixed whatever their issues were and are now creating quality material once again. And even though they have started to rely on their own franchises to develop new content (via sequels), they do occasionally have a new, brilliant idea. This week’s two films highlight some of the best Pixar has to offer.

Finding Nemo
Year: 2003
Rating: G
Length: 100 minutes / 1.67 hours

It is somewhat unfortunate the Animated Feature Oscar was not introduced until the 21^st century, because some of Pixar’s early works would certainly have won. While Toy Story (1995) took home a Special Achievement Oscar for being the first, full-length computer-animated film, it wasn’t until Finding Nemo (2003) when Pixar would take home the coveted gold statuette. From that point until 2012, they have taken home most of the Best Animated Feature Oscars for the years they have released a film (the exceptions, of course, being for Cars (2006) and Cars 2 (2011)). Two of Pixar’s films have even gone so far as to have been nominated for Best Picture: Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010). Time will tell if this year’s Finding Dory (2016) will follow in its predecessor’s footsteps and snag another Oscar for Pixar.

After Nemo (Alexander Gould) is stolen by a scuba diver during a field trip, his father, Marlin (Albert Brooks), sets out to rescue him. Marlin’s urge to protect his son is strong due to an incident with a barracuda that killed his wife and almost every unborn child the two of them were going to have. Along the way, Marlin befriends a ditzy fish by the name of Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) who helps him along the journey from the Great Barrier Reef into Sydney, Australia. Despite the setbacks of the deep of the ocean, a minefield, a collection of recovering sharks, and a swarm of deadly jellyfish, the two manage to safely get to their destination. Meanwhile, Nemo has been integrated into the society of fish occupying a dentist’s aquarium. Through their help, they eventually get him out of the dentist office and back into the sea. Once there, it still takes some luck to rejoin the father and son.

The Incredibles
Year: 2004
Rating: PG
Length: 115 minutes / 1.92 hours

Early on in Pixar’s films, it was clear they didn’t want to animate people. I don’t blame them since the “uncanny valley” is a difficult gap to cross. With the main characters being toys, bugs, monsters, fish, and cars, The Incredibles (2004) was their first foray into having people as main characters. While these films are rare for them, they are gradually getting better at it. Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), and The Good Dinosaur (2015) all have humans in main roles, but the way they’ve been able to keep these characters from falling into the uncanny valley is to render them to look more cartoonish than realistic. While they might seem out of place in the hyper-realistic settings, these humans aren’t rejected by our brains. I look forward to what the characters from The Incredibles will look like in their 2018 sequel.

Even though the “Glory Years” of superheroes are long gone, Robert Parr (Craig T. Nelson), the super formerly known as Mr. Incredible, longs to continue crime-fighting. His entire family struggles with having superior abilities, but being unable to use them in public. When Bob is contacted by the mysterious Mirage (Elizabeth Peña) with an opportunity to test out battle droids on Nomanisan Island, he jumps at the opportunity. Unfortunately, the purpose of the droids is much more sinister, since their creator, Syndrome (Jason Lee), wants to create a world where he alone can make normal people “super.” Suspicious of her husband’s activities, Helen Parr (Holly Hunter), aka Elastigirl, follows him to the island. When she finds her children are with her, the entire family teams up to take down Syndrome and stop his nefarious plans.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 perfect Pixar pieces

#233. Best Animated Feature

In the almost 90 years the Academy Awards have been held, most of the categories have been established early in its history. By 1950, the Oscar categories we’ve come to know were pretty well set. Since then, only two categories have been added. Best Makeup and Hairstyling made its appearance in 1981, but the most recent award for Best Animated Feature has only been around for a mere 15 years. That’s not to say there haven’t been great animated films before 2001, it’s just that there wasn’t much competition. A few won special, technical Oscars for their efforts, but Disney’s animated films would have won many of the previous years’ Oscars just by default if the Award existed before the 21^st century. This week’s two movies look at some winners in the up-and-coming Best Animated Feature Oscar category.

Shrek
Year: 2001
Rating: PG
Length: 90 minutes / 1.5 hours

As I’ve written about before, DreamWorks was able to make the first dent in the monolithic Disney animation empire. Partly because they provided some competition in a very narrow and difficult field of film, DreamWorks essentially made it so the Best Animated Feature Oscar could be possible. Almost in recognition of this feat, four years after their first feature film, DreamWorks would walk home with the very first Best Animated Feature Oscar for Shrek (2001). Up until this point, only Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and Toy Story (1995) had been given any Oscars for their animated efforts, and only because they had been trailblazers of the craft. Still, Shrek set the stage to show that technology had advanced to a point where animated feature films could be produced in a much shorter timeframe, thus giving Disney a run for its money.

It is almost fitting that Shrek was able to win Best Animated Feature, considering how many Disney films it parodied by placing all of fairytale-dom in a single universe (much like what Disney has since done with the TV show, Once Upon a Time). While there are references to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Peter Pan (1953), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Pinocchio (1940), the main thrust of the film is a classic adventure of a damsel in distress. However, the “knight in shining armor” is that of the eponymous Shrek (Michael Myers), an ogre trying his best to keep his life in an isolated swamp in a state of status quo. While Shrek and the now-rescued Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) couldn’t be any more different, a secret event that happens to Fiona at night threatens to reveal that they might, in fact, be more similar than initially thought.

Up
Year: 2009
Rating: PG
Length: 96 minutes / 1.6 hours

One of the qualms many critics have with this new Oscar category is that it essentially hamstrings the film nominated for Best Animated Feature from winning Best Picture overall. Now, an animated film being nominated for the top award is exceedingly rare, but it had happened before the Animated Feature category was even established. In 1991, 10 years before Shrek won the unprecedented award, Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture, losing out to The Silence of the Lambs (1991). However, when the nomination procedures for Best Picture changed in 2009, we suddenly saw an addition to the nominee list: an animated film. With 10 movies now able to be in the running, Up (2009) was nominated for both Best Picture and Best Animated Feature, only managing to win the latter. A year later, Toy Story 3 (2010) would repeat this feat to the same result.

Following a beautiful, touching, and speechless segment detailing the lives of Ellie and Carl Fredricksen (Edward Asner), we find the elderly widower planted firmly in the path of a new construction project. In a final, last-ditch effort to accomplish the goal to live next to Paradise Falls, Carl outfits his house with a plethora of colorful helium balloons, lifting it away to South America. Unfortunately, an accidental stowaway by the name of Russell (Jordan Nagai) is taken along for the ride. The young child just wanted to help Carl so he could earn his last Wilderness Explorer badge: assisting the elderly. When the house lands, the two of them soon realize they have nearly made it to Paradise Falls. As they take the house to its final resting place, they must deal with a strange bird and the former hero who has been trying to catch it.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 Academy awarded animations

#109. Paris, France

Not to be confused with the Texas town of the same name, Paris is known around the world as the City of Light. And why shouldn’t it? The capital of France is the cultural nexus for many of the arts, including painting, music, food, dance, fashion, and romance. As such, it is a light that influences the entire world in terms of artistic culture. So often, it is used as an anchor to orient where people are and where they are going in this world. Much like New York City, people will travel to this bustling town to make or break their careers. As one who has an interest in the arts, I know I would love to visit this metropolis at some point, even if it happens when I’m retired from my day job. This week’s two movies are set in this beautiful city and highlight some of its cultural strengths.

Ratatouille
Year: 2007
Rating: G
Length: 111 minutes / 1.85 hours

Chefs who are trained in Paris tend to be some of the best in the world. The rigor and determination needed to make it in a French culinary school help to give a foundation to anyone who wants to cook fancy food for a living. It’s no wonder Julia Child is now a household name when it comes to French cooking, considering she wrote the book on how to master it. Even she had to learn from the best while she lived in Paris. Considering that French cuisine is its own special challenge, those who are good at it don’t need long to prove themselves. Even though anyone can cook, doesn’t mean that everyone should. And yet, even in this town filled with underdogs, the surprise talent is always something that takes a while to get used to. Nevertheless, they are still given as much a chance as the next.

Even though Gusteau (Brad Garrett) was a famous cook who wanted to bring his vision of culinary inclusion to the world (a bit like the aforementioned Julia Child), his death has unfortunately spoiled his good name. Now that his likeness is being used to push frozen foods, his legacy remains to be found. Enter Remy (Patton Oswalt). Remy is a faithful disciple of Gusteau’s who also just so happens to be a rat. When Remy is shown mercy at the hands of Linguini (Lou Romano), he stumbles across a way to show everyone that he can cook. Since Linguini works at Gusteau’s restaurant, it’s the perfect place to rise up the culinary ranks, even if Linguini is Remy’s front. Unfortunately, Remy’s ratty past comes back to haunt him and jeopardizes the whole plan to bring Gusteau’s back into culinary relevance.

An American in Paris
Year: 1951
Rating: Not Rated
Length: 113 minutes / 1.88 hours

What could be more romantic than falling in love in Paris? After all, even if it doesn’t work out, the memories will still be there (as we were reminded in Casablanca (1942)). Of course, very few people head to Paris with that endgame in mind. It seems that most who decide to move there are there to find their dream job. Apartment complexes are full of such dreamers who are low on income, but high on hopes that they’ll somehow make it big. Many artists will take this gamble with the expectations that their talent will help them stand out among the rest, but not everyone will be this lucky. Painters and pianists are a dime a dozen in this artistically-cultural hub, so what can an American do to keep from losing to the rest of the crowd? And why did he jump straight to Paris instead of going through New York first?

Two friends share an apartment in Paris as they try to obtain their dreams. Jerry (Gene Kelly) is the eponymous American who has joined forces with his pianist friend Adam (Oscar Levant), or at least joined insomuch as they have to pay the rent together. Adam is working with the singer Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary), who in turn is in a relationship with Lise (Lesli Caron), a French girl who Jerry has so conveniently fallen in love with at a local restaurant. Of course, Jerry’s patron, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) is smitten with him, which leads us to the crazy intersection of a masked ball. At the ball, these people sort out who loves who, even if their situations cannot change to make it happen. Still, this doesn’t prevent Jerry from daydreaming about what might happen if he and Lise could actually be together.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 pictures of Paris

#108. Hidden Culinary Talent

Never judge a book by its cover. While general assumptions about people may be correct a lot of the time, there is no way to honestly know everything about someone just by looking at them. All of us have some sort of hidden talent that many don’t know about. What’s more egregious is overlooking someone just because of their appearance. How often do we ignore the quiet person silently reading in the corner, while they harbor talent as an actor or singer? By the same generalization, how often do we write off the loud, obnoxious buffoon, while they keep a deep intellectual talent hidden beneath their noisy exterior? Even though there may be many talents that make us go, “I never would have pegged so-and-so as that kind of person,” one increasingly rare talent is that of a cook. This week’s two films look at some hidden culinary talent.

Babette’s Feast
Year: 1987
Rating: G
Length: 102 minutes / 1.7 hours

An assumption often made about refugees is that they are poor farmers. While this may be true for some, not all refugees are poor or are farmers. The fact that someone is a refugee merely means that their country is in a state of turmoil. Now, most people would stay and put up with it, but occasionally situations dictate the need to move on and move out. Most communities have many varied people who have many varied occupations, not the least of which is a chef. The problem with a chef as a refugee is that often the locations where they end up do not have the resources to support such culinary talents. Most restaurants really work in logistics: making sure food is available so it can be served to customers. Without the restaurant, someone’s cooking skills may go largely unnoticed and ignored.

A much-respected French restaurant once charged a fortune for a multi-course meal so memorable that many only live with the memory of having eaten it once. Of course, as it usually does, war has made this luxury scarce. Meanwhile, in a small Danish village, a woman arrives and begs two sisters to let her stay and work as their maid and housekeeper. This woman is known as Babette (Stéphane Audran) and is a refugee from war-torn France. To celebrate the anniversary of the sisters’ deceased father’s 100^th birthday, Babette convinces them to allow her to fix them a meal they will never forget. As it turns out, Babette has come into some money and is more than willing to use it to put on the best meal this little village has ever had. The sisters are leery of what Babette will cook, but a special military guest is surprised to be eating the same fantastic meal he has had once before.

Ratatouille
Year: 2007
Rating: G
Length: 111 minutes / 1.85 hours

Part of the brilliance of Pixar films is their main characters. From ants who want to work smarter and not harder, to robots who think outside the box, the most endearing aspect of these memorable protagonists is that they are outside the norm. While everyone else is seemingly programmed to do only one thing, these characters see the flaws in the system and try to break away from it. Ratatouille (2007) is no exception. Rats are filthy creatures that eat mainly garbage so the idea that one would be obsessed with cleanliness and fancy cuisine would come as a shock. The bigger shock is that this rat is actually good at cooking said cuisine. As I mentioned earlier in this post, we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and that applies to animals as well (or at least within the confines of Hollywood, that is).

Remy (Patton Oswalt) is a rat with an obsession. He cannot get enough of cooking, especially after watching a cooking show hosted by famous chef, Gusteau (Brad Garrett), whose catchphrase is, “Anyone can cook!” When Remy gets separated from his family after getting caught sneaking in the house of an old lady, he finds that he has washed ashore underneath Paris, mere feet below Gusteau’s famous restaurant. Once again getting caught indoors, Remy comes to the aid of Linguini (Lou Romano), who is just looking to make a name for himself. In a very “Of Mice and Men” fashion, Remy controls Linguini, and soon they’re the talk of the town as the revival of Gusteau’s restaurant. Unfortunately, if they get found out, it’s over. To make things worse, a key critic is ready to unknowingly judge the talent of the unique rat.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 secret chefs

#107. French Cooking

Whenever we think of fancy foods, we invariably think of a night on the town. All dressed up, valet parking, candle-lit tables. So often, the expensive delicacies of foreign foods have made themselves exclusive to high-end restaurants. The epitome of these culinary arts is that of French cuisine. Even though most of the food we immediately think of as being French is somewhat gross (that is: frog legs, escargot, etc.) it still maintains its delicacy status. And yet, food is food. If it can be made in a restaurant, there is a likelihood it can be made at home as well. After all, a chef would only need the same ingredients and cooking equipment to replicate the recipe, no matter the location. This week’s two films look at some French cooking outside the confines of snooty restaurants.

Julie & Julia
Year: 2009
Rating: PG-13
Length: 123 minutes / 2.05 hours

I am certain that no one would argue with me for saying that Julia Child brought French cooking into our homes. The simple fact of the matter is that, with a cookbook, anyone can create the recipes that lie within (through a faithful application of culinary science). For a long time, there was a disparity between the chefs of restaurant fame and the humble housewife. This can be attributed to the lack of knowledge on the part of the housewife, which Julia Child remedied by the publication of her most famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Since cooking (especially French cooking) is an art, one would only need to know its secrets to be able to serve up the delectable dishes to friends and family. Because, at the core of the situation, when a difficult meal is successfully prepared, chefs and housewives alike feel accomplished upon its completion.

Julie Powell (Amy Adams) and Julia Child (Meryl Streep) are bored. Both are tied down to lives they find unfulfilling. While Julie struggles with her writing while working a dead-end job, Julia is trying to figure out what to do with her time as her husband works as a diplomat in Paris. When Julie’s husband suggests that she blog about one of her favorite hobbies, cooking, she gets the idea to cook all 534 recipes from Julia Child’s cookbook in one year. Similarly, when Julia enrolls in the Cordon Bleu cooking school, she enters into a male-dominated career path that is far out of touch with the average homemaker. As a result, Julia determines to show the men a thing or two and sets out to create the aforementioned cookbook that will bring French cooking to a level understandable to everyone.

Babette’s Feast
Year: 1987
Rating: G
Length: 102 minutes / 1.7 hours

Let’s face it: peasants don’t have many options when it comes to cooking. Most of the time, the ingredients you have to make dinner come from materials you’ve collected yourself. Simple grains and occasional dairy would accompany any fruits or vegetables that might be growing nearby, and that’s for the lucky peasants. If they can scrounge up enough money to buy some poultry or are lucky enough to catch a fish in a nearby stream, they can have a feast! And yet, a century before Julia Child could bring the secrets of French cooking to everyone, most peasants did not have the opportunity to eat the culinary crème-de-la-crème that is French cooking. And that’s just considering French peasants. If you’re a peasant from somewhere like, say Denmark, your chances of experiencing French cuisine are slim to none.

Babette’s Feast (1987) was the winner of the 1988 Best Foreign Film Oscar and is a story of selfless sacrifice and generosity. A small Danish village is best known for the two unmarried daughters of the prominent Protestant pastor. It’s not that they are ugly, as both have been proposed to, but rather that they want to stay with their father. Many years after their prime, a refugee by the name of Babette (Stéphane Audran) comes to the village and offers to serve the daughters based on a connection to one of their former suitors. As a memorial to their since-deceased father, the daughters want to have a feast, of which Babette convinces them to let her cook. There is much preparation needed for this important event, and Babette pulls out all the stops to show her gratitude to the village and the daughters for their kindness.

2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 French feasts