From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. You can also hear the show at KCRW.com.

My guest, Director Brad Bird, has used animation as a format to tell stories of real emotional intimacy from The Iron Giant, a really underseen neglected film, to The Incredibles, which you may have heard of, to his newest film as a director, Redat Tui.

Brett, thanks so much for being here.

It's a pleasure.

What's the movie about?

The movie is about a rat who has a very

special gift that puts him at odds with all his fellow rats, and that's that he has a very

advanced taste and smell, senses, and wants to use them for fine cooking. And through a bunch of very strange events,

he actually winds up in a position to kind of do that

by working in tandem with this sort of hapless garbage boy

who has no skills whatsoever.

It's kind of a Serenot kind of thing.

It's probably the most intimate animated film storytelling I've ever seen.

Really?

It really is such a small scale story, given that it basically takes place almost in one location, really.

Yeah, it primarily, it has a way disproportionate amount of it takes place in the kitchen.

And that sounds horrifying, doesn't it?

But if you can get enough stuff happening and it means enough to the audience and they've

been through a journey before they get to the kitchen, then everything that comes down in the kitchen has some consequences and you're interested.

And I've never heard anybody say, too much time in the kitchen man so far.

You know, everybody doesn't even realize because, well, to a rat, too, a kitchen

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