"We make films that we ourselves would want to see and then hope that other people would want to see it. If you try to analyze audiences or think there's some sophisticated recipe for success, then I think you are doomed. You're making it too complicated"
About this Quote
Brad Bird is arguing for a kind of creative selfishness that’s actually a public service. “We make films that we ourselves would want to see” sounds like an artisanal creed, but the subtext is managerial: stop letting market research drive the car. He’s defending taste as a discipline, not a vibe. The “we” matters too. Bird isn’t describing a lone auteur communing with a muse; he’s talking about a studio pipeline where a thousand micro-decisions can get sanded down by committee fear. Personal taste becomes a north star that keeps a huge team from drifting into bland competence.
The line about “analyz[ing] audiences” is a jab at the fantasy that culture can be reverse-engineered. Bird’s rhetoric is deliberately plain, almost anti-clever, because the enemy he’s naming is “sophisticated recipes” - the kind that justify endless notes, test screenings, and franchise-friendly sameness. When he says you’re “doomed,” it’s not mystical; it’s statistical. If you chase an imagined average viewer, you end up making something for no one in particular.
Contextually, Bird’s career sits at the crossroads of animation-as-art and animation-as-industrial product. Pixar and modern studio animation proved you could be broadly popular without writing down a formula - by committing to specific tonal choices, emotional clarity, and craftsmanship. His point isn’t “ignore the audience.” It’s that the only audience you can honestly model is the one in the room making the film. Anything else is theater, and the movie becomes the casualty.
The line about “analyz[ing] audiences” is a jab at the fantasy that culture can be reverse-engineered. Bird’s rhetoric is deliberately plain, almost anti-clever, because the enemy he’s naming is “sophisticated recipes” - the kind that justify endless notes, test screenings, and franchise-friendly sameness. When he says you’re “doomed,” it’s not mystical; it’s statistical. If you chase an imagined average viewer, you end up making something for no one in particular.
Contextually, Bird’s career sits at the crossroads of animation-as-art and animation-as-industrial product. Pixar and modern studio animation proved you could be broadly popular without writing down a formula - by committing to specific tonal choices, emotional clarity, and craftsmanship. His point isn’t “ignore the audience.” It’s that the only audience you can honestly model is the one in the room making the film. Anything else is theater, and the movie becomes the casualty.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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