Image courtesy of Mary at Just Plum Crazy

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Tomorrowland director at a special media event for the movie’s home video release. We talked about his career and the movie itself. Much like the characters in Tomorrowland, Bird is a dreamer. He had a dream for his career and a dream for Tomorrowland.

Question: You started doing creative this really young. What was your inspiration? Why did you go the creative route?

Bird: “I don’t think you choose it, I think it chooses you. I was blessed with really great parents who, didn’t want to interfere with it… When I started doing a lot of drawings I had lots of paper and lots of pencils all the time. When I started getting into animation they made sure that I could get a camera that could shoot one frame at a time. And my dad bought a used enlarger and kinda we kind of glued it together, and stuffed the camera inside the enlarger with some newspapers and–– and I didn’t have pegs so I took two pieces of tape and I laid down about four layers this way and four layers that way and I shoved the–– the drawing into the corner of the paper and that’s how I registered it.

There were people like Walt Disney who were in your living room every week and they always seemed to be introducing something new and different. One week he would be talking about animals in the wild. The next week it would be a historical drama and then there would be cartoons or something about the history of fairytales or outer space. And this guy was, every week… doing this. And, he had this place. And that was his job. So that was “a job” that existed in the world. And suddenly it seemed to me that the world was full of really cool jobs. And–– and that’s when it became like ‘there’s a way for me to go here.'”

Question: Walt Disney isn’t part in the movie Tomorrowland. Was he originally part of the script? 

Bird: Not really…  He’s involved in the backstory, but he was just one member of this sort of, secret society of geniuses. There was 100 years of people that got into the secret society of geniuses and they were artists and writers and designers and scientists and he was just one. But we kind of made this history in our mind. And it’s suggested [an extra] on the Blu-Ray. But we didn’t get into too much detail with it because it takes you down, it takes you away from the story rather than being the story.

Question: When people go to Tomorrowland, what do their families think happened to them?

Bird: “They don’t actually disappear. They’re actually still in their place, but they’re implanted with the vision of the place. And the idea is that you implant everybody with the vision first and then as people get comfortable–– comfortable with the vision then the vision starts coming to them.

Question: Why do new people to Tomorrowland only get transported to the cornfield outside Tomorrowland, and not inside?

Bird: “We wanted that image of everybody in the field. I think that it’s–– it’s setting the dream off and, but you have to go to the dream. The dream doesn’t come to you… You have to go toward it. And that’s part of the idea of the future is ‘We have to imagine what it is, say that we want to go there, and then take the steps.’ It’s not gonna happen, I mean, everybody says, “Dreams are–– are important.” They are, but they’re only step one. Dream is what is the easy part, it’s the important part but it’s the easy part because all you have to do is ‘have it.’ To then pursue it is the hard part. And that’s part of what it is.”

Want a look behind the scenes?

This post was written as part of my participation in a special media event at Disneyland to celebrate the home video release of Tomorrowland! It comes out today on DVD and Disney Movies Anywhere. If you haven’t seen Tomorrowland yet (or even if you have), check out 5 fun facts about the movie by clicking here and see my boys’ video review of the movie by clicking here.