Seven years ago, traditional animation gasped its last, and on its dying spit bubbles floated one of the greatest animated movies ever made. Barely noticed among its peers (a class that included, in that year of 1999, Pixar’s Toy Story 2, Disney’s Tarzan, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut and two other Warner Bros. projects, Pokemon: The First Movie and The King and I), The Iron Giant flopped hard, and audiences everywhere missed an immediate classic.

Giant was a critical success. It’s one of the highest performers on Rotten Tomatoes, where it’s collected a pretty fabulous ninety-three positive reviews — and just three ‘rotten’ ones. It was appreciated for its lack of traditional animation standbys — adorable talking animals, for one, or spontaneous celebratory songs — and for its heartfelt, well-drawn story.

The movie released quietly on DVD, and that was basically all she wrote. But thanks to the recent success of Brad Bird, who directed Giant and followed it with The Incredibles (perhaps Pixar’s strongest film yet), Warner Bros. finally wisened up and put out a special editon DVD, opening the door for entirely new audiences to see the movie. It took much too long, but The Iron Giant finally got its due.

The story is deceptively simple, and easy to reduce to a single-sentence summary: A mysterious metal man plummets to Earth and befriends a young boy. But it’s unfair to reduce it this way, because the movie is anything but simple. It’s surprisingly dark, set against the early days of the international space race and the successful launch of Sputnik, and laced with Communist paranoia and the looming threat of atomic holocaust. (In one memorable scene, a classroom of fifth-graders watch a black-and-white film instructing them to hide beneath their desks for protection; it’s set to a toe-tapping song: “Time to duck and cover / the bombs are comin’ down!”)

The Iron Giant himself is exactly what I said he was: a mysterious metal man. He rockets to Earth during a terrible storm, landing in the sea near a small coastal town. He is sighted by locals who are, of course, ridiculed for their crazy talk. The chatter eventually becomes too loud, however, and the government sends a special investigator to look into the claims. Meanwhile, the Giant befriends young Hogarth Hughes, who inadvertently saves the Iron Giant’s life.

The characters are fabulous, expertly drawn and then brought to life by some surprisingly top-notch vocal performances. You might not be drawn to a live-action film starring Jennifer Aniston and Harry Connick, Jr., but you’d be crazy to miss their work here. Aniston portrays Hogarth’s widowed mother, and brings a convincing weariness to the role. Connick, on the other hand, is the local beatnik, a junkyard owner who assembles his crappy belongings into ‘art’ and can’t sell them. He’s Hogarth’s ally in their quest to keep the Giant out of sight and safe from…

Kent Mansley, the malicious, bumbling government investigator. Mansley’s the life of the movie, a persistent wannabe hero who wants to be anywhere else, investigating anything else. But when he finds that the Giant is real, he’s like a snapping turtle that won’t let go, and about as bright. Mansley is voiced by Christopher MacDonald, one of those talented character actors you’d probably recognize if you saw. (He’s probably best-known — unfortunately — for his role as Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore.)

The friendship between Hogarth and the Giant is, unsurprisingly, the heart of the film. The Giant is harmless, probably due to a bump on the noggin that he sustained during his crash-landing, but there’s more here than meets the eye; when the Giant’s purpose emerges during the third act, his transformation is spectacular, just cool as hell. It’s Hogarth who — again, unsurprisingly — becomes the Giant’s touchstone during the movie’s fantastically intense finale. But there’s nothing schmaltzy about this friendship. Hogarth does what every eleven-year-old boy would do if he suddenly had his own giant robot from outer space: he plays with him. The Giant takes Hogarth on midnight stomps through the countryside, plays space invaders with him, shows him what a real cannonball is like on a visit to the lake.

Which brings me to the Giant himself, who is probably the coolest animated character I’ve ever seen. He’s just marvelous to watch, and that he can be as expressive as he is, what with his rigid metal makeup and all, is fascinating. The Giant is voiced by Vin Diesel, who sounds as if he was recorded at the bottom of an empty well, and the tape was then broadcast during a meteor shower. I’m not a Diesel fan at all, but I’ve long discarded my opinions for the duration of this movie; Diesel knocks this one out of the park, even managing to crack the Giant’s shell and give him a big helping of heart. The Giant’s big scene, near the end of the movie, has him speak a single word, and laugh at me if you will, but that moment reduces me to a six-year-old kid every time.

The story is inspired by the children’s story by Ted Hughes. I found the book in a used bookshop a couple of years ago, and it’s charming and dark and wonderful, but it doesn’t share much with the movie. Hughes’ story was a thinly-disguised social commentary, and while the movie adopts some of that sensibility, it foregoes the heavy-handedness in most cases (its anti-gun theme is probably as heavy as it gets, and might be the movie’s only real flaw).

The film is nothing short of beautiful, and is probably the strongest example of how to merge traditional two-dimensional animation with computer graphics. I’ve yet to see a movie that matches The Iron Giant’s accomplishments in this regard. The use of computerized animation is tasteful and restrained, and the result is a seamless blend of the two styles. When I learned that the Giant himself was almost entirely rendered in CGI, I was stunned; unless you’re an animator yourself, you probably won’t ever notice a difference between the character and his environments.

When my cousin visited recently, I was awaiting the arrival of an Iron Giant figure that I bought on eBay. He cracked wise about my adoration of the movie, despite never having seen it. “I hate animated movies,” he said more than once. But he agreed to give it a try, and by the movie’s end, he was thoroughly converted. (And later admitted that the toy did look cool as hell.) The movie never speaks down to its audience, and is so intelligent and self-aware that you can’t help but fall hook, line and sinker for it. At least, I did. And this is hands-down my favorite animated movie of all-time. It might never top the classics list, but that’s a giant — heh — oversight.

Sunday, August 6, 2006   

1. Alvin wrote:
   August 7th, 2006 at 1:02 am

   I remember catching The Iron Giant at the cinema. It wasn’t heavily promoted, mainly due I think to the other heavyweight films you mention, and I remember only a smattering of people watching the movie.

   And what a movie! It was fun, surprising and heartwarming at the same time. My giant (heh) of a friend fell in love with it.

   Thanks for the great review, it brought back memories, and hopefully it’ll help spread the word.

2. Ward wrote:
   August 7th, 2006 at 2:00 pm

   I am probably one of the biggest IG fans out there. Seriously. I’ve been meaning to talk about this movie on my blog for some time now, complete with excerpts from the IG message boards that WB had up for a few months. The guys who worked on the film were posting things almost daily at the time. Great informative stuff, too! Excellent review here!

3. Jg wrote:
   August 7th, 2006 at 2:03 pm

   What are you talking about, Ward? You did that great review of the special edition DVD when it released…

4. Ward wrote:
   August 8th, 2006 at 7:35 am

   I’m talking a full-on review, baby! Enough to melt your brain with all my geekiness IG knowledge! Stay tuned, my friend.

5. darrell wrote:
   October 29th, 2006 at 8:14 am

   What an inspiring, warm film. I bawled like a baby at the end of the movie! In a world without values and morals where kids are spending their days playing video games and mock-killing one another — this is a shining example that we can still teach good values such a selflessness to our kids through quality tv. a plea to future animators…draw upon this film for inspiration.

6. John Demos wrote:
   June 27th, 2007 at 5:29 pm

   I love this movie,so does my 4 year old, I was wondering if there will be anIron Giant 2?????? Hope so, John

7. Prateek wrote:
   March 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

   Yea, completely agree. It is a beautiful movie.
   Another 2-D animated movie with use of computer graphics that I really liked was “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”. Its got wonderful soundtracks.

8. Anton wrote:
   August 31st, 2008 at 6:37 pm

   I didn’t see it at the cinema, despite having a 4 year old at the time. I was fed up with the plethora of poor animated films at the time. However, I somehow came into possession of the VHS tape one afternoon and watched it with my wife and son. We loved it. We were very pleasantly surprised and I couldn’t believe that I missed seeing this in theatre. I’ve watched the movie about a hundred times since, introducing it to my younger son as well. It is now his favorite animated film and he has seen it about 30 or 40 times as well. It’s a great film and definitely one of my top 2 animated movies ever made. I wish they would make a part two.

9. Alex wrote:
   May 9th, 2009 at 12:02 pm

   The Iron giant is my favorite anamation and im 14 the story line is great, If you made a second movie im sure most of the people i know would watch it

10. Jg wrote:
    May 25th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    Alex, I’ll get right on that.

11. Tammye wrote:
    July 23rd, 2009 at 9:14 pm

    I and my family would love to see a second part to this film. The end leaves you hanging and hoping for another part to this movie.

12. j gratton wrote:
    August 10th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

    I just watched The Iron Giant again
    and hope you make a second movie.
    I love the story.

13. elijah wrote:
    August 21st, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    yea your right

14. elijah wrote:
    August 21st, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    yea your right

15. Nilton wrote:
    November 1st, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    Melhor animação que já assisti com meu filho, gostaria muito, mas muito mesmo que fizessen a segunda parte do filme…

    Parabéns ao Brad Bird e toda equipe.

    From Brazil
    Nilton

the blog and design portfolio of Jason Gurley. (Learn more.) This site has been around since 1998; me, since 1978. In 2005 I drove 3,000 miles to see a movie. 2009 is pretty aimless so far, but I'm sure I'll get around to something sooner or later.

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01. dreaming of falling
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