It's no secret that we here at the Disney Desk love our themed months. One idea that Sydney and Carter have been batting back and forth with each other is the idea of covering a single artist's work for an entire month. If we pride ourselves on being a modestly educational show, why not lean in and use an individual creative to demonstrate how their career and animation have evolved over time?

So this May will be the month of Phillip Bradley Bird! Signed to an 'unofficial internship' with Walt Disney Animation at age 14, Bird was a prodigy who bridged the gap between the Nine Old Men and the Renaissance Animators. His rise, fall, return and redemption tie together the Disney Renaissance, the start of Pixar, The Simpsons, and the return of Tom Cruise as a major movie star somehow.

To kick off, we start at the ground floor: his feature directorial debut The Iron Giant. Tune in as we talk WB, Americana, and what makes a soul.