Tim McCanlies

I think Tim McCanlies is one of the very best directors of this generation. With the Iron Giant and now Secondhand Lions he has made 2 very entertaining and heartfelt movies about all things heroic. I truly hope that Warner Brothers allows him to do Superman. Anyone else agree with me?

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No, I don't agree with you.

I despised The Iron Giant and found it pretentiously and annoyingly preachy (and of course sacchrine sweet, all thanks to the script [which he inly adapted BTW, he did not direct the project]), Dancer, Texas Pop 81 was duller than dishwater, and I wouldn't pay to see Secondhand Lions. He doesn't rank anywhere among "directors of his generation" (let's see: David Fincher, Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Tim McCanlies - which of these names does not belong???). If he wants to keep his guild card, he should start helming episodes of "7th Heaven" or "Touched by an Angel", maybe a Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-TV project or three, leave feature films alone.

Don't agree at all.


But thanks for asking! I had no idea there was anyone on the planet, other than perhaps his mother, who thought of McCanlies as anything other than a hack. Good to know.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I find this hard to believe. While I agree that he's nowhere near one of the "very best directors of this generation," I don't see how you could've come to conclude that many view him as a hack, given the fact that The Iron Giant was met with such rave reviews.

Well, such mixed reviews. Or whatever. In any event, I didn't like it one bit.

And again, he only wrote the screenplay (from the story treament which was adapted from the book), so it's hardly "his" movie anyway.

The unofficial count is 94 positive, 4 negative. Now, the Tomatometer might not be the end all and be all of critic quantification, but that's a rather definitive tally.
Sure, no argument there. His role, however, was significant, and the critics were about as unanimous as they get. I'd think that'd be at least enough to elevate him beyond someone that everyone's supposed to recognize as a "hack."

You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

I thought he was much younger than he is so I thought he was one of the newer guys on the scene.

Since this thread seemed to turn into a discussion of The Iron Giant, I had to share this.

I loved the movie--it was well-written and well-directed, plus the schmaltz factor wasn't nearly so sickly sweet as so many other boy-and-his-whatever animated films.

But I was watching an episode of Duck Dodgers with Selena a few weeks ago, wherein Dodgers gets a robot crewmember. The robot loves Dodgers (calls him "Friend") but Dodgers hates the robot and tries to get rid of him throughout the episode. During the ensuing wackiness, a meteor is unleashed near the end that heads for their ship, which has no way of escaping it.

And all of a sudden they begin lampooning the entire bomb scene from The Iron Giant, almost word-for-word and image-for-image. They even used the freakin' facial expressions. I about died when Dodgers said, "I love you," with his front teeth showing, just like Hogarth's.

What was cool, though, was that Selena caught on to the joke at the same time I did. That's my observant baby.

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