Kirkpatrick contributed to the screenplay of The Iron Giant, an adaptation that relocates a British poet's story to Cold War America and builds its ending around a single decision made by a machine that was designed as a weapon. The restraint of that ending, which trusts children to sit with it, is the film's defining quality.
He has written and directed feature animation for several studios, including a stop motion escape comedy set on a chicken farm and a computer animated film about suburban wildlife. His work consistently pairs broad comedy with a genuine emotional argument, and he has also written for the stage.
Recurring subjects: self determination, communities under threat from outside authority, and comedy used to make a serious idea approachable. His screenplays give supporting characters distinct comic voices, and he writes toward a single clearly stated theme rather than layering several, which is why his films are easy to summarise and hard to forget.
The animated feature he co-wrote failed commercially on release and has since become one of the most admired American animated films, regularly cited for treating children as capable of handling grief. His subsequent animated features have reached large family audiences, and his stage work has drawn major theatre nominations.
For viewers who want animation with a real moral argument. Suited to families, and to anyone who has never seen the robot film and should correct that.
