Official Synopsis
“The Iron Giant” is the tale of an unlikely friendship between a rebellious boy named Hogarth (voiced by Eli Marienthal) and a giant robot, voiced by a then little-known actor named Vin Diesel. The voice cast also included Jennifer Aniston and Harry Connick Jr.
I have heard tales of people being emotionally scarred because of The Iron Giant. Kids crying at the Iron Giant’s demise (spoiler alert? 15+ years too late). The generation behind mine and the one behind it were apparently the generations that the film impacted the most. My generation, GenX-ers, is comprised mostly of heartless imps that were mainly emotionally devastated by the likes of The Grave of the Fireflies. Yeah, I can’t think too much about that movie nowadays, especially being a parent.
Anyway, I digress.
The Iron Giant is a Brad Bird masterpiece, as well as his feature film debut, from the late 90s (1999 to be exact). Before he brought a family of superheroes together to save the world or Tom Cruise to scale a huge skyscraper, Bird put together a lonely, fatherless child named Hogarth to find comfort and joy in a alien iron being. Truly a boy and his robot sort of deal. Oh, the adventures they would have.
Speaking of which, let’s get right to them.
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The first act of the movie gives a lot of time to establish The Iron Giant’s existence and his travels to a small town off the coast of Maine. With not much to say and obviously confused about his whereabouts, as well as the strange inhabitants that surround him, he settles in the woods searching for metal to devour. On the flip side, a young boy named Hogarth is trying to search for a permanent friend to fill the void his father left in his life and the void his mother can’t fill because she is working all the time to make ends meet. One night, home alone while his mother works an extra shift, he wanders out to the woods and stumbles upon the iron giant and helps to save its life and begin a new friendship in the process.
The first act is honestly just as simple as that description made it. The opening act plays the story in a safe manner, never really going off an unpredictable script, which provides some unconscious comfort for kids, as you don’t want something to be too scary or off the beaten path. Despite the predictability of the story structure, we get a great sense of character development in a short amount of time we have with introductions. Hogarth is an easily relatable character to kids, as he is trying to find his way through life, though stumbling quite a bit along the way. Kids get to an age where they have to do that, almost a childhood walkabout in a sense. The Iron Giant is an innocent mute, sort of in the same vein as a non-violent Frankenstein, who just wants to find someone that shares his non-violent beliefs and someone he can learn from in the process. When the two meet, the moment is endearing. Even the clear dichotomy of height and species can’t actually defer the connection (literal and figurative) the two beings establish in the first act. Again, while the story is predictable in structure, it really does a great job in terms of writing and character development. Credit Bird and writer Tim McCanlies for that creation.
The second act starts with the introduction to our first and main antagonist, Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald), who is a military advisor trying to make his mark in the world before the military cans him for being useless. Convinced that an alien has landed on the planet, and having a bit of proof through a train wreck that a conductor claims was caused by a giant robot, Kent does his best in act two to find the giant and disrupt Hogarth’s way of life, whom he believes is hiding the giant. Kent even goes as far as to rent the vacant room in Hogarth’s mom’s house to keep an eye on Hogarth and eventually track down the giant. To counter Kent’s character, Hogarth turns to cool cat Dean McCoppin, whom we meet in act one during a squirrel/diner scene (trust me, it’s what it sounds like), who does his best to help hide the Iron Giant from the grasp of the government’s grip, while mack-ing on Hogarth’s mom. Eventually, the grasp of the government gets too tight and the Iron Giant is discovered by the government, which brings us to act three.
Act two is built to last, though it does get a little long in the tooth towards the end. I enjoyed McDonald’s Kent for about three-fourths of it before I started to wonder when Hogarth’s mom was going to step in and show the man the door. If some guy was creeping on my kid he would probably find an Iron Giant’s foot up his…well, you know. Anyway, the act felt a bit stale right at the end, as if it wanted to add more to the story, but simply couldn’t find the details. The second act did touch briefly on the added problem of the Iron Giant being a war machine, which we see through brief flashbacks. That element of the story did sprinkle in some intrigue to help stretch act two out, as well as give reason for action in act three, but it still seemed to feel a bit stretched.
Anyway, by act three we have the government coming into the small town in Maine to gum things up a bit. Eventually, this leads to a terrible decision made by the military, and by Kent, to use a weapon of mass destruction to bring down the Giant. Once the assault begins against the Iron Giant the action intensifies. The ending, which is a bit devastating for kids (my son was on the edge of tears — he is eight), certainly ends well and leaves the possibility of more films sometime in the near future. Well, after the DC movies are out. It could be a while. Vin Diesel should be available between Guardians of the Galaxy and Infinity Wars. In other words, make it happen, WB!!!
Overall, I thought The Iron Giant was good for the most part. It certainly did age a bit in terms of looks, mostly because the days of hand drawn animation (there were some computer renders in there for good measure — an even balance, if you will) are far and few between for things not labeled under anime. The style of the animation did fit the bill, though, and gave off a cool 50s style to it, which I appreciated.
Anyway, for me, as an adult, I couldn’t connect with the movie as well as my kids could. I have heard so much about this film over the last 3-5 years, so my expectations might have been unreasonable. That haven’t heard about it, so they went into it with fresh eyes. Having said that, the reaction from my kids in the household (all five of them, including the ‘almost’ three year old) really drove home that this film still has some mileage on it. It still affects those who are completely drawn into it. It touches the heart of kids after all these years and reminds them of wonderful and terrible things in the world. That is what makes this movie a classic. And for once, and you won’t have me admit this in any other review, so mark it down now, this film might have been over my head and beyond my years to fully appreciate.
With that said, my score is based on my kids reaction and not my own. They showed me through their reactions and connectedness that this movie is every bit of a classic that its generation made it out to be over the years. Bravo to WB for bringing this back in style and bravo to Brad Bird for knocking it out of the park the first time around.
On the features side of this signature edition blu-ray release, here’s what you’re looking at:
– The Giant’s Dream documentary NEW!
– A personal letter from director Brad Bird
– “The Iron Giant: Signature Edition” trailer
– Theatrical version commentary by Brad Bird
– Additional scenes, including alternate opening
– Mini documentary segments
– Teddy Newton The X Factor
– Duck and Cover sequence
– The Voice of the Giant
– Motion Gallery
– Brad Bird trailer
One feature is new and it’s brilliant. Definitely a good retrospect on the making of the movie, as well as Brad Bird’s directorial debut on a feature film. It will most certainly give you reason for Pixar picking him to create and direct The Incredibles. Now, if he can direct a Star Wars film, we’ll all be happy.
The rest of the features are solid and just add value to the solo new one. Good stuff overall.
