Animated movies take a notoriously long time to make, but it’s been hard going through life without a new Brad Bird picture to look forward to. If you came of age during Pixar’s heyday, you absolutely came away with one of his films on your favorites list; not for nothing, he also directed Tom Cruise in what’s probably the greatest Mission: Impossible stunt of all time. If I sound biased, I apologize — there’s just something in the way Bird balances taut, hard-boiled wit with the whimsy of an improbable situation. For my money, The Incredibles is Pixar’s best movie ever, which is a blessing and a curse because that was also like, 20 years ago.
The studio really could have used something like Ray Gunn. Bird’s latest is a triumph 30-odd years in the making, but shockingly, he never pitched it to Pixar, hoping to court an older audience than the crowd the Disney subsidiary usually pulls. Seeing the film in all its glory (Bird found a home for Ray Gunn at Netflix, but see it in theaters if you can), that instinct makes a lot of sense. Like The Incredibles, it tests the very limits of a PG rating, wielding its retrofuturist world with an eye for both its wonder and its hidden depths.
