Anthomation Assesses The Iron Giant

Howdy guys, Anthomation here. Today I shall review the Brad Bird film nobody knew at first but has come to love, The Iron Giant (1999).

The Iron Giant is a 1999 animated film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird in his directorial debut. It is based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. The film’s development began in 1994 as a musical with the involvement of The Who’s Pete Townshend, though the project was set in a new direction when Bird signed on as the director. The film significantly under-performed at the box office, grossing $31.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million, which was blamed on Warner Bros.’ unusually poor marketing campaign and skepticism towards animated film production following the mixed critical reception and box office failure of Quest for Camelot in the preceding year. Despite this, the film was praised for its story, animation, characters, the portrayal of the title character and the voice performances and has gained a huge cult following over the years.

A giant alien robot (Vin Diesel) crash-lands near the small town of Rockwell, Maine, in 1957. Exploring the area, a local 9-year-old boy, Hogarth, discovers the robot, and soon forms an unlikely friendship with him. When a paranoid government agent, Kent Mansley, becomes determined to destroy the robot, Hogarth and beatnik Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.) must do what they can to save the misunderstood machine from many attacks and other conflicts.

The story is well written and thanks to Brad Bird’s wonderful director, it knows how to convey a good narrative. While this type of story is not totally original and has been at a good quality before this film, it has its own unique charm that makes it feel its own. This film relishes the 1950’s Cold War feel. For example, Hogarth is in school thinking about the metal giant while a duck and cover atomic holocaust video plays on the class tv and then Hogarth’s classmates start throwing out conspiracy theories about the metal giant being made and sent by the Russians to attack America. This movie also has great balance between humor and heart. There’s a scene where Hogarth is saying grace at the dinner, but is also trying to tell the iron giant’s hand (which had broken off in a scene before) to get out of his house which is really humorous. The heart and emotional impact of the film comes most prominently at the climax. I won’t spoil it for you guys, but let’s just say that you will find yourself tearing up at a pretty unexpected source.

The animation is fantastically hand drawn and perfectly explains how Brad Bird made such a big name for himself in the animation industry. The colors of this town in Maine are colorfully displayed, but still grounded enough to show that this is supposed to be a realistic atmosphere. The character movements are very lively and fit the moods and attitudes for each in that specific situation. The character designs are great to look at and have a distinct enough feel without feeling goofy and cartoonish. Lastly, the scaling of the film is fantastic to see whenever the iron giant is on the screen and is moving in some way. 

The characters are arguably the most enjoyable part of the film and can easily bring a smile to anyone’s face. There’s Hogarth Hughes (voiced by Eli Marienthal), an intelligent, energetic and curious 9-year-old boy with an active imagination. There’s Annie Hughes (voiced by Jennifer Aniston), Hogarth’s mother, the widow of a military pilot, and a diner waitress. There’s Dean McCoppin (voiced by Harry Connick Jr.), a beatnik artist and junkyard owner. He is among the first, aside from Hogarth, to recognize the Giant as no threat. And then there is the giant (voiced by Vin Diesel), a 50-foot, metal-eating robot. Of unknown origin and created for an unknown purpose, the Giant involuntarily reacts defensively if he recognizes anything as a weapon, immediately attempting to destroy it. All of these characters bring their own role to film and work beautifully in the film’s message of choosing who you want to be.

The Iron Giant went from that unknown animated film people liked to gaining a massive following to become a household name. Kudos to everyone who made that happen because this film deserves all of the attention it has received. The story is wonderfully conceived, the animation is wonderfully drawn, and the characters are wonderfully thought out. It’s just a wonderful film all around. The 90’s were not a great time for traditionally animated films NOT coming from Disney, but the Iron Giant was one of the few exceptions we continue to treasure for a long time.

Score:

8/10