NC: I met you when you worked at Klasky-Csupo, the first animation studio to produce The Simpsons' one-minute shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show. What contributions did you make in developing those "bumpers" into the half-hour series?

BB: Jim Brooks and Sam Simon had seen Family Dog and liked its cinematic style. People don't remember, but at that particular time television animation had an incredibly rudimentary visual style; every story started with an establishing shot, medium shots when the characters traveled, close ups when they talked -- the camera cutting to whoever's talking, etc., all done at eye-level. There were no long takes, no fast cutting... it was all dictated by what could be produced quickly and cheaply. Family Dog was just the opposite, it had extreme camera angles with pushed perspective, looooonnnnnggg uninterrupted shots, rapid-fire cutting at certain points, massive pans... everything under the sun. I was a huge fan of Jim Brooks and also of Matt Groening's comic strip Life in Hell. So when they asked me if I'd be interested in helping out on The Simpsons I jumped at the chance. I was not as familiar with Sam Simon's work, but I very quickly realized that he was a brilliant guy as well, and an unsung hero in those crucial early seasons of the show. The Simpsons one-minutes for Tracey Ullman were really funny, but turning them into a full-fledged series was a big challenge -- a half-hour show is exponentially more complicated than a one-minute film. The scripts were brilliant. What I think I brought to it was a cinematic style that helped tell these very sophisticated stories in a uniquely visual way. The show already had two very talented directors in David Silverman and Wes Archer, who had worked on the one-minutes, but I think I was a valuable sounding board for supervising the visual storytelling. I looked at the episodes as miniature movies and I pushed the storyboard artists into looking at filmmakers like Kubrick and Welles for inspiration, rather than emphasizing that they had to get it out fast. We all had to work our collective asses off to get the show out, but I recognized that the material and vocal performances were way better than anything I'd ever gotten to do at Disney, and knew it was a golden opportunity.

NC: Iron Giant got so little marketing and promotion yet has become a bit of a classic thanks to the DVD distribution. What did you learn about being an artist and dealing with the studio system?

BB: I learned that you have very little chance to succeed without studio support. It's even more crucial today, when the marketplace is so glutted. I learned how hard you have to fight to retain a vision and how you absolutely have to be willing to lose. They will completely take advantage of you unless they can see in your eyes that you are prepared to lose it all. The most important things to take away from it are that Warners was the first company to give me a chance to direct a movie and I'm grateful for that. When I got that chance, I made the movie responsibly, got every dime of the budget on the screen and got to make the film I wanted to make. All those things are valuable.

Bird got into character as Edna Mode in The Incredibles.

NC: The Incredibles was the star of the night at the 31st Annual Annie Awards celebration, walking away with Best Animated Feature and 9 other categories. The title of the film describes it all. What obstacles or barriers do you feel you have to overcome in order to continue producing such amazing products?

BB: Even if you've had the good fortune of making films that turned out well, there is no guarantee that your next film will continue the trend. Unless you're remaking the same film, each film is like starting from scratch, with its own set of challenges that you may or may not meet. I never feel that I've hit upon some magic formula. The filmmaking process remains as mysterious to me now as it was on my first film. The only thing I'm sure of is that while a certain amount of stage fright is healthy, I know enough never to panic and that it pays to have the attitude of a "perpetual student" and be alive to the wonderful surprises that always happen on a film, and to take advantage of them when they come.

NC: What advise do have for someone interested in writing and/or animating for film or television?

BB: Look outside of your chosen medium for inspiration. Go to plays, look at paintings, listen to any kind of music that you find inspiring, read books, see the world, etc. Too much modern work feels like rehash, so anytime you can bring your own life experiences or your experiences with other art to the medium of film or television, it is a revitalizing thing. Filmed entertainment is the greatest art form there is, but it needs be constantly cross-pollinated to stay vital.

NC: You are very much a "family guy" yourself with three gorgeous sons. How do you balance family-life with your career?

BB: The responsibility and surprises that having a family brings is one of the things that feeds creativity, and the patience you learn as a parent is very helpful in learning how to manage creative people. But keeping the right balance between work and family is not something that I feel I've mastered... it is something that I'm working on every day ... and I can't say I've always gotten it right.

NC: Can you tell us about the project you are currently working on?

BB: It's an epic love story/mystery with quite a bit of action and comedy in it called 1906. It takes place in San Francisco in the period right before and including the great earthquake and fire that destroyed the city. And it's a live-action film.

NC: What is your proudest achievement so far artistically?

BB: That I've managed to make several original films that are different from one another, and that I was able to make them the way I wanted. It took me a long time to find people with enough vision to give me the chance, but I did find them eventually... and I'm very lucky.

NC: Thank you, Brad, for taking the time for this interview! And keep making us smile.

Nancy Cartwright is best known as the voice of spiky-headed Bart Simpson on The Simpsons. She has voiced dozens of cartoon characters in a career that has spanned more than 20 years. Currently, she can be heard as the voice of Rufus the Naked Mole Rat on Disney's Kim Possible and Todd Daring in Disney's The Replacements. To learn more about Nancy's career, listen to her audio book My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy.