By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit that they deserve. In this installment: American writer, director and producer Tim Hill, who helmed Muppets From Space, Hop, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Sponge On The Run, The War With Grandpa and more.
There are few cinematic realms where creatives are more unsung than family entertainment. If family films aren’t ignored completely by film commentators, they’re frequently sneered at, and if they do happen to be praised, the credit usually goes to studios or production houses as opposed to the actual creatives themselves. While kudos are regularly and deservedly laid at the collective feet of the likes of Pixar, Laika and Dreamworks, the actual writers and directors of these studios’ family films often go unheralded.
On top of that, family films are pretty much viewed as a lower art form largely devoid of quality and meaning. This, once again, brings up the whole issue of auteurism and quality. While many argue that a cinematic auteur must make deeply personal, meaningful films of the highest quality, we disagree. To us, an auteur is any creative who has an identifiable through-line when it comes to their work – an element of “authorship” – regardless of whether that work is good or bad…which, of course, are highly subjective terms anyway.
All of this brings us to Tim Hill, an accomplished writer, producer and director who has worked exclusively in the field of animated and family entertainment. Tim Hill was born in 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a family with something of a filmmaking lineage: his uncle was the great George Roy Hill, the legendary director of seminal works including Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, The Sting and Slap Shot. “It’s neither a blessing nor a curse,” Hill told Looper of the family connection. “I’ve never really talked about it too much. But he did help me out. I was a production assistant on a couple of his movies. He was great. So, it’s been a blessing having him as an uncle. I don’t think it really did much. I don’t think I got helped or hurt.”
Hill began his career proper in the 1990s as a writer on the animated Nickelodeon show Rocko’s Modern Life, and then moved up into a writer/producer position on the family shows Exit 57, KaBlam! and Kenny The Shark. Hill first really made his mark on Nickelodeon’s hilarious, anarchic and highly original animated series SpongeBob SquarePants, the wonderfully goofy tale of the eponymous anthropomorphic yellow sea sponge and his whacky pals in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom. The now-classic show was created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg, who had worked with Tim Hill on Rocko’s Modern Life. Hill developed SpongeBob with Derek Drymon and art director Nick Jennings, and also wrote the pilot episode, as well as writing or co-writing four episodes for the first season.
“We weren’t trying to hit certain marks for Nickelodeon or anything like that,” Hill told The Television Academy of SpongeBob SquarePants, which of course is now nothing less than a cultural phenomenon. “I don’t know if the network really knew what to do with it, because it was pretty out-there. They had a good following as a network, so they could afford to take risks. I’m glad they did, but we had no idea what it was going to be. I hear from relatives who love to watch the show with the kids. That was a big advantage of SpongeBob – you didn’t just park the kids in front of the TV to watch some cartoon. Adults enjoyed it as well. That’s part of the legacy: you can still watch it at any age and get a laugh out of it or appreciate it.”
After helping to create an essential piece of pop culture with SpongeBob SquarePants, Tim Hill next moved on to one of the most enduring pieces of pop culture of all time when he was tapped to direct 1999’s feature film Muppets From Space, a very funny and charming entry in the movie series which focuses on the complex genealogy of the much-loved Gonzo. All of the Muppet gang is featured, and the film makes the most of its intergalactic possibilities. In short, Tim Hill makes a very good fist of it here.
“It was tough because there were two scripts,” Hill told Looper. “They hadn’t decided which one they wanted to do. One was Pigs In Space and the other was Muppets From Space. They were both funny. It was just they couldn’t quite make up their mind. They were asking, ‘Should we do the Gonzo story? Or should we do a pure space parody, a goofy Pigs In Space movie?’ What they went with, I think they made the right choice.”
Though not as highly regarded as some of the other entries in the series, Muppets From Space is a lot of fun, and was one of the first Muppet projects to come out since the death of founder, creator and guiding force, Jim Henson. “I really wish I’d met Jim,” Hill told Looper. “He seemed like such a cool guy. But [Muppets puppeteer, voice actor and creative mainstay] Frank Oz was very good. He was sort of the conscience of the Muppet brand after Jim passed. He was really helpful to me, as was [Jim’s son] Brian Henson. They were all really supportive. Jim Henson was such a creative spirit.”
From Muppets From Space, Hill moved on to a host of other family-friendly flicks, delivering warmth and good humour in abundance on 2001’s Max Keeble’s Big Move (an amusing slab of tween anarchy), 2006’s Garfield: A Tale Of Two Kitties (a sequel with Bill Murray again voicing the famously sarcastic cat), 2007’s Alvin And The Chipmunks (a popular franchise starter), and 2011’s Hop, now an Easter holiday season essential. In 2020, Tim Hill went full-circle, taking the reins on The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run, which sees everyone’s favourite anthropomorphic yellow sea sponge embarking on a mission to rescue his beloved pet sea snail Gary.
“It has a great theme and is built as an homage to [late SpongeBob creator] Steve Hillenburg,” Hill told Nick Alive upon the release of the film. “Everyone comes together to help SpongeBob because of all the things he has done for them. We thought in a way it’s about what this character has meant to people over the years. It’s a celebration of creativity and humour, and by extension, it’s an homage to what Steve gave to all of us during his lifetime. That’s why I wanted to do the movie, because there was something deeply personal about it, which goes beyond just having a great story and memorable characters.”
After establishing himself as something of a quiet master when it comes to mixing puppetry, animation and live action, Hill made his first fully live action film in nearly two decades with 2020’s uproarious The War With Grandpa, in which a kid (Oakes Fegley) engages in a full-scale prank war with his grandfather, played by Robert De Niro. A mix of Home Alone-style, pre-teen barbarism and wry “old guy humour”, The War With Grandpa – like much of Tim Hill’s work – is a lot of fun, but with a little added nuance. “These people don’t really know each other that well,” the director told Third Coast Review. “Grandpa comes over for Thanksgiving every year, but that’s about it. What I liked was that it said something to me about the relationship between a kid and his grandfather that I hadn’t really seen before.”
A major figure in the development of two massive pop cultural franchises; a savvy hand at mixing live action filmmaking with puppetry and animation; a skilled creator of rock-solid family entertainment; and a man with a natural instinct for what works at the box office and how to connect with audiences…Tim Hill is definitely in need of a little more praise.
Make, Believe, Magic The Worlds of The Jim Henson Company is on now at The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. For all information, click here.
If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs Martin Bell, Joan Freeman, Rod Amateau, Sam Wanamaker, Paul Aaron, Savage Steve Holland, Rudy Wurlitzer, Keith Gordon, Alan Metter, Lynne Littman, Chuck Russell, John Derek, Don Chaffey, Harley Cokeliss, Jeannot Szwarc, Craig Gillespie, David Greene, Ernest Pintoff, Paul Williams, Jo Heims, Lee H. Katzin, Christoper Cain, Ken Wiederhorn, Barbara Loden, David Mackenzie, Alan Rudolph, James Lee Barrett, Edwin “Bud” Shrake, Joan Tewkesbury, Jamaa Fanaka, Jack Starrett, Joseph Sargent, Jeffrey Schwarz, George Sidney, Philip Dunne, Zak Hilditch, Luke Sparke, Cyrus Nowrasteh, Morgan Matthews, Tom Laughlin, Diane Keaton, Ed Hunt, Nancy Savoca, Robert Vincent O’Neil, Marvin J. Chomsky, Sam Firstenberg, Jack Sholder, Richard Gray, Giuseppe Andrews, Gus Trikonis, Greydon Clark, Frances Doel, Gordon Douglas, Billy Fine, Craig R. Baxley, Harvey Bernhard, Bert I. Gordon, James Fargo, Jeremy Kagan, Robby Benson, Robert Hiltzik, John Carl Buechler, Rick Carter, Paul Dehn, Bob Kelljan, Kevin Connor, Ralph Nelson, William A. Graham, Judith Rascoe, Michael Pressman, Peter Carter, Leo V. Gordon, Dalene Young, Gary Nelson, Fred Walton, James Frawley, Pete Docter, Max Baer Jr., James Clavell, Ronald F. Maxwell, Frank D. Gilroy, John Hough, Dick Richards, William Girdler, Rayland Jensen, Richard T. Heffron, Christopher Jones, Earl Owensby, James Bridges, Jeff Kanew, Robert Butler, Leigh Chapman, Joe Camp, John Patrick Shanley, William Peter Blatty, Peter Clifton, Peter R. Hunt, Shaun Grant, James B. Harris, Gerald Wilson, Patricia Birch, Buzz Kulik, Kris Kristofferson, Rick Rosenthal, Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah, Jerrold Freeman, William Dear, Anthony Harvey, Douglas Hickox, Karen Arthur, Larry Peerce, Tony Goldwyn, Brian G. Hutton, Shelley Duvall, Robert Towne, David Giler, William D. Wittliff, Tom DeSimone, Ulu Grosbard, Denis Sanders, Daryl Duke, Jack McCoy, James William Guercio, James Goldstone, Daniel Nettheim, Goran Stolevski, Jared & Jerusha Hess, William Richert, Michael Jenkins, Robert M. Young, Robert Thom, Graeme Clifford, Frank Howson, Oliver Hermanus, Jennings Lang, Matthew Saville, Sophie Hyde, John Curran, Jesse Peretz, Anthony Hayes, Stuart Blumberg, Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.
