In the February 2007 Spline Cast, Spline Doctors Andrew Gordon and Adam Bergen interviewed Brad Bird, where they posed this question:
SD: On that kind of same path, what is it that separates good CG animation from absolutely amazing CG animation, in your opinion?
BB: Well, you know, are we staying purely on the topic of animation, or are we talkin’ about films?
SD: Um, you know, like, where mostly I think animation students are going to listening to this.
BB: Okay, so I won’t say the top five things, which is story, story, story, story, and storytelling. There’s also storytelling. And story. And storytelling. And story. And telling the story well. And story.
