Year: 1999
Director: Brad Bird
Country: US
Language: English
The Iron Giant opened in theaters during the Summer of 1999, unfortunately one of the biggest Summers in Hollywood history. Its main competition was The Matrix, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Disney's Tarzan, all films with an extraordinary marketing budget. Thus The Iron Giant flopped at the box office through no real fault of its own. Beloved by critics, the film did have great success when it received a home video release.
In this, a young boy (Harry Connick Jr.) befriends a giant robot (Vin Diesel) from outer space that a paranoid government agent wants to destroy.
During the 90's there was a mad rush to produce animated films from just about every studio in Hollywood. This was directly as a result of Disney's Renaissance, a comeback which started with The Little Mermaid (1989) and peaked with The Lion King (1994). May studios came off as Disney wannabe's, making poor animated fares such as Anastasia (1997) and Quest for Camelot (1998). Director Brad Bird wanted to make a film that didn't appear just to be children fodder, thus he adapted Ted Hughes 1968 Sci Fi novel The Iron Man.
The main premise of the picture is rather serious “What if a gun had a soul, and didn’t want to be a gun?” Holy sh*t. The film has an obvious (and timely) gun control message, but its really about being more than the sum of your parts and treating others with respect. I was impressed with the story, character development and well made animation. I also enjoyed being immersed in the 1950's. The Iron Giant doesn't just look like the time period, it feels like the time period.
I think this is one of those films that get better with age (the age of the viewer and time after release). As a child I don't remember being affected by it, but now I find myself in awe of the beautiful visuals and philosophical tale being presented. Even Hollywood can churn out intelligent animation if the right people work on it.
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