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| Review by Benn Robbins |
I love The Iron Giant.
It IS my favorite animated film of ALL TIME.
It is a treasure and unfortunately, like most treasures, a lot of people have yet to find it.
I still can’t believe that this film isn’t the highest grossing animated film of all time.
In fact I can’t believe that this film ostensively brought down Warner Bros Animated film department in 1999.
Perfect blending of traditional hand drawn animation and almost seamless computer 3D animation, The Iron Giant, should have been a hallmark of film making and usher in a new world of animated feature.
One not just for kids, but for everyone.
What went wrong?
Why did no one see it?
It blows my mind that people I know have yet to see this movie.
This is a rare film.
A perfect film.
And I had the absolute pleasure of seeing it again for the first time in a giant (pun intended) theater. I say again, because not only did I see this film about 5 times in the theater when it came out, I have watched it innumerable times on Laserdisc, DVD, and at art house film screenings. I say the first time, because this new Signature Edition has two new added scene that were previously, only available on the Special Edition DVD as rough unfinished animatics.
I will not tell you which ones as there will be a DVD and Blu Ray release soon and you need to see them for yourself. They are cool to see and neat that they added them but they are ultimately unnecessary to the overall story and not crucial for your ultimate enjoyment of the film.
The film itself is enough for you to enjoy it with or without these new scenes.
The Iron Giant, for those of you who don’t know, is the beautiful story of a boy and his love for an enormous metal man that has mysteriously fallen to earth in coastal Maine in the mid 1950’s after the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite began it’s orbit around the Earth and further deepened the fear and paranoia of the Cold War between the US and the USSR.
The Young Boy, Hogarth Hughes, discovers and helps the Iron Giant and quickly becomes its only friend in this strange new world. Hogarth helps Giant learn right and wrong, teaches it about life and death, and that it can be whatever it chooses to be. All is going swimmingly until a call to the Government brings in a skeptical government agent who begins to threaten the likelihood of a happy ending to the boy and his robot’s friendship forever.
Funny, thoughtful and intriguing, The Iron Giant has everything anyone with some semblance of a heart or soul could want. It will make you laugh and pull at the heartstrings with all it’s might.
The film is written and directed by Academy Award winner Brad Bird (Ratatouille, Incredibles, Tomorrowland) and this film is a precursor to his great story telling prowess to come. Based on a book of the same name, by Ted Hughes and produced by Pete Townshend of The Who, who originally wanted to produce a rock opera based on the book but was convinced by collaborator Duff McAnuff (producer of The Who’s Tommy the Musical) that it was better suited for an animated film.
And thank god he did. What Bird has given us is a heartfelt story love and friendship that will span the ages.
The movie also features a great voice cast as well.
Jennifer Aniston as Hogarth’s mom, Annie, is surprisingly great at voice acting and should do more of it. Harry Connick Jr. is perfectly cast the beatnik artist/junk dealer, Dean, who helps Hogarth protect The Iron Giant. Christopher McDonald as Kent Mansley, “I work for the Government.”, absolutely steals almost every scene he is in and really embodies the emotional fear mongering that the government is capable of. Especially at that time. Eli Marienthal is Hogarth Hughes. He immerses you emotionally and viscerally in this story and you feel everything Hogarth does because of it. Without his performance this movie doesn’t work.
Rounding out the cast are a group of wonderful supporting players featuring, John Mahoney as the Army General, Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Tensedge, James Gammon as Floyd. Special mention must go to Vin Diesel in his greatest role ever as The Iron Giant (only seconded by his turn as Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy). Only speaking about 52 words the entire film. the emotional rollercoaster he takes you on beginning with the reveal of the robot to the dramatic and emotionally draining ending of the film is nothing short of amazing.
The film is a blend of traditional hand drawn 2D animation and seamlessly blended 3D computer animation we are all so inured to now a days. Not wanting to have the 3D animation of the giant be distracting tot the audience, Bird and crew developed a “wobble to the lines of the computer animated elements to give it that natural “hand drawn” feel. The film is a loving homage to the films of Bird’s youth that inspired and led him to be an animator himself. The characters are all so beautifully developed and realized that you love every moment of them even the awful “G”-Man, Kent Mansley.
You will become completely invested in their lives and story from the get go.
I will tell you how good this film is.
We came in just as the opening credits were finishing and so the lights were down and we just grabbed the first two seats we could find. The audience laughed and cheered and there was a significant number of sounds of sobbing at the end. When the credits rolled and the lights came up I was blown away, and equally heartened, to find the theater was was about 60% children and parents.
They were so engrossed in the film that I didn’t even know they were there.
Speaking of sobbing. I have never not ugly sobbed at the end of this film.
This film is so amazing that my best friend, a person whom his entire life had never cried once in all the time I have known him, at the end of the film, opening day in 1999, when we saw it, said to me, tears in his eyes, “there is no greater love than the love a boy has for his giant robot.”
I always convey this story about when I first saw this movie with a friend of mine, to emphasize it’s impact and power it has.
And yet hardly anyone saw it. It is criminal.
At the time, 1999, I think Warner just didn’t really know what it had on it’s hands. What precious cargo it was about to release into the world and so it balked at the advertising of this film. People had slowly stopped going to traditional animated films and wanted more and more CGI films like Toy Story 2. So, people didn’t see it.
Fast forward 16 years and the number of people who have seen The Iron Giant has grown, but not enough. I had hoped that that both showings of this film the one on Wednesday the 30th of September, and the one I saw on October 4th, would have been all sold out for both showings. I heard it wasn’t and the showing I saw at Legacy Deluxe in Dedham, Massachusetts defiantly was only about 50% filled. It is a shame. I know so many people who would love this movie and I have shown it to so many but not enough.
It is out there on DVD and soon it will be on Blu-ray when they release this Signature Edition. I hope it is in time for Christmas and Chanukah because you all deserve to give this to yourselves and your loved ones as a gift.
Because this film is a gift. A gift sent from the mind of Brad Bird to all of us.
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