Brad Bird made his first animated film when he was 11 - it was 15 minutes long and took three years. His latest, The Incredibles, lasts two hours and its production was like a car crash, he tells Steve Pratt.

Making The Incredibles was "one big car crash of a film and, miraculously, we survived" says writer and director Brad Bird.

The former executive producer and director on TV's The Simpsons could also add that he's not only survived but succeeded in creating one of 2004's biggest hits with the animated movie enjoying a record-breaking opening weekend in US cinemas of $70m-plus.

The success gave production company Pixar another hit following Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo. Perhaps more importantly, this tale of a family of superheroes pushes the boundaries of animated film-making. It's the first that has humans as leading characters as well as a story that blends James Bond action with domestic sit-com.

Bird, who wrote and directed The Incredibles, says it wasn't just a matter of overcoming one hurdle. The scale of the project demanded the makers get over many hurdles, whether it was creating humans, recognised as the most difficult to animate, or simulating fabric and hair underwater. It had four times the number of sets of any Pixar film, as well as being the longest at getting on for two hours. Hence his car crash comment.

The film is the first from Pixar made from someone from the outside the company. He's known John Lasseter, the Toy Story director and one of the moving forces behind Pixar, for a while. They went their separate ways after school. While Lasseter went to work for LucasFilm, Bird worked for Steven Spielberg, who gave him the opportunity to work on Family Dog in his Amazing Stories series. That led to The Simpsons.

But Bird was aware that Toy Story, the first computer-animated feature, raised the bar for animation film-makers. After making the animated Iron Giant, he pitched the idea for The Incredibles to Pixar and "they went for it", he says. "The movie is a blend of all kinds of movies, TV shows and comic books I liked growing up. Spy movies, action movies and the superhero thing combined with my own feelings about the family I grew up with."

The story has Bob Parr (aka Mr Incredible) and his family of superheroes hanging up their tights and masks to become an ordinary suburban family. When the world finds itself in need of them again, they zoom back into action.

Unlike other animated movies, people get hurt and injured. This was a conscious decision to do something different and not apologise for it. "I like genuine jeopardy in movies," says Bird. "Sometimes people are so well-intentioned about protecting their children. They design shows that have superheroes bashing each other for half-an-hour but no-one gets injured or dies. To me, that's a worse message to give a kid - to have a world where there's jeopardy but no consequences."

He's also prepared for other people to see things in the narrative that he hadn't intended, at least not consciously. "In a room of smart people I'd like to say everything was intentional. The truth of the matter is you're writing something you want to see and hope other people feel the same way. The goal was to be fluffy and chilling and all the good stuff that goes with popcorn," he says.

"Certainly we're now seeing a number of ideas that film-makers have wanted to do for quite a while but have been stymied. The reason a lot of superhero films are happening is not because people are suddenly wanting to do them, but because they can present a lot of crazy stuff you see in comic books in a convincing manner. Now it's just a matter of resources to put any idea on screen and make convincing."

Bird began drawing when he was very young. His early work was a series of drawings telling a story "and I think in my three-year-old way I was trying to do movies", he recalls. "Around 11, it occurred to me something was making these films happen and there was a job there. We happened to be with a guy who took animation class at college and asked him how they did it.

"Then my dad got a camera and I started making movies. The first was The Tortoise And The Hare, which took me three years to make and was 15 minutes long. The characters started moving simply and by the end you can see me learning things. I sent it to Disney and it went very well."

In The Incredibles, he also provides the voice of Edna Mode, who makes costumes for superheroes. It happened by accident after he provided the voice on the temporary soundtrack before the role had been cast with an actor. "It was not the intention for me to do the voice. When I was saying how I wanted her to look to people, I found myself doing the voice to describe how I wanted her," he says.

"Superhero movies have these flamboyant costumes and never explain who's making them. Every once in a while they half-heartedly show some muscle-bound hero sewing in the basement. I just thought that if you have a world of superheroes, someone would be doing the designing."

With his voice - a mix of German and Japanese - Edna proves a real scene-stealer. So is Bird a frustrated actor? "No", he says. "I love the medium of film because I love the arts but the more I work in one art, the more it makes me want to work in others."

* The Incredibles (PG) opens in cinemas nationwide on November 26.

Published: 18/11/2004