Word: birding
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Most movie directors have individual contracts with their studios; the Pixar directors are employees of the company, contributing on all studio projects. The so-called Brain Trust--Lasseter, Bird and Stanton, along with directors Lee Unkrich, Bob Peterson, Brenda Chapman, Pete Docter and Gary Rydstrom and one recent recruit, Little Miss Sunshine writer Michael Arndt--convenes regularly to spitball ideas and, Lasseter says, "help one another make these films. We're very honest...
...apparent wall between work and fun; often, Lewis says, he must force people to go home. "This was the first and only job for a lot of people here," says Bird, who as director of the 1999 animated feature The Iron Giant and as one of the developers of The Simpsons, is the rare Pixar Pooh-Bah who came from the outside. "I think they're under the delusion that things are this nice everywhere...
...Seven Dwarfs. Like Walt in his early genius period, Lasseter saw that the secret of an animated movie is story and characters--and the enemy of innovation is complacency. "We fear becoming a studio where we act like we know what we're doing when we don't." Bird agrees: "For better or for worse, Pixar is always gonna throw itself in the deep end and try to figure out a way to not drown. I love that about this place...
When he starts work on a movie, Bird looks for core thoughts. The core here: "Cooks are givers, and rats are takers. In the larger world there are people who are givers and people who are takers. Cooking, feeding people, is a giving act. All art at its best is a giving act that continues to give as long as the art is consumed. As with a cook, you're handing it over to someone to enjoy...
...voiced by Peter O'Toole), a food critic so severe he is known to trembling chefs throughout Paris as the Grim Eater. Ego puts a forkful in his mouth, and in a flash, fond memories--of a loving mother giving him delicious food--play across his face. As Bird describes the moment, "His eyes drift down toward the dish, like, 'Is it this? It is this. I love food again. This is what I was missing.'" A taste of something wonderful can humanize almost any misanthrope, even a critic...