In his acceptance speech, “Ratatouille” director Brad Bird, who won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, thanked the junior high school guidance counselor who tried to talk him out of a career in movies. Backstage he emphasized that that conversation really did help him. “It seemed impossible,” Bird said, “and life has a way of smacking you down. If you get up enough times, things happen.”
A winner for his second animated feature in a row, Bird said getting an Oscar for “Ratatouille” was “no less sweet” than his win for “The Incredibles.”
But Bird is moving to live action for his next film, “1906,” about the San Francisco earthquake. He said San Francisco of that time was “a very volatile mix of great things and then you throw an earthquake in there. That goes great with popcorn.”
But will Bird ever be back competing for toon honors “I want to make more animated films. So I hope so.”