IRON GIANT
Despite the decade's reputation for depravity and lowest common denominator crappiness, the 90's have actually produced a whole slew of intelligent and superbly crafted family films. From wickedly imaginative fantasies like The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach to more down to earth dramas like Harriet the Spy and Fly Away Home, a wide range of high quality films have brightened up what might otherwise be known as the John Hughes kicked-in-the-balls period. Now there's a new movie to add to the modern family classics category, a movie that will also take its place among the best all around films of the '90s and the greatest animated features ever made. And to my delight, this movie happens to be about a giant robot. Iron Giant delivers as a giant robot film, depicting all manner of robotic adventure for its wonderful, retro-styled title automaton. You get to see the robot flying, fighting, carrying people, shooting beams out of its eyes - everything you'd expect. But for this film, that stuff is only the surface - even if it doesn't need to be. Most likely, Iron Giant is not what you expect. It could easily join Toy Story and Babe in a trilogy of warm, compassionate fairy tales with universal appeal. Like its predecessors, Iron Giant is a nearly flawless masterpiece of cinematic storytelling. The basic premise - boy befriends giant robot from space - is an old one, but it comes out feeling like something entirely unique. It is fortified with healthy doses of humor and invention that will appeal to adults even more than to children. At the sneak preview screening I attended, the audience was mostly made up of adults who seemed to think they were just treating their small children to the latest kiddy flick. They ended up laughing loud and hard from beginning to end. Most importantly, Iron Giant continues the Toy Story/Babe tradition by instilling a strong sense of humanity and emotion into a character we wouldn't have imagined could be so moving. I never in a million years would have expected to care about a talking pig the way I do Babe, so that was one of that film's most surprising qualities. It also seems a bit odd to get tingles from a clunky action figure of a spaceman super hero, but that's just what happens when I watch Buzz Lightyear realize he's only a toy and try to fly anyway. I did expect to like the giant robot of Iron Giant, because I'm the sort of guy who likes that sort of thing. But I couldn't have hoped for such a moving, Frankenstein's-monster-like personality inside this cool-looking mass of metal. All of the characters, even the humorously xenophobic villain, have enough dimension and humanity to them to make the story inescapably compelling. At one point in the movie it occurred to me that the giant might live out a certain tragic tradition of giant robot stories, and suddenly I found myself crying. Now that I didn't expect.
Unlike recent non-Disney hits like Anastasia and Prince of Egypt, it's actually difficult to think of Iron Giant (which was produced by Warner Brothers) in terms of Disney animation. Despite being an all ages animated fable, Iron Giant is a completely different animal. I like Tarzan, and the way it sticks its toes just a little bit outside the borders of the Disney formula. I think it is more dramatic and emotional than most Disney films, and I appreciate the lack of musical sequences. When compared to Iron Giant, though, Tarzan seems laughable and by-the-numbers. Iron Giant doesn't skewer animation tradition, but it doesn't follow formula at the expense of story. You don't get the feeling that this is a commercial endeavor, where merchandising and marketability are first or even second priorities. They're not even a factor at all. This is just good old fashioned storytelling that seems to be effortlessly universal in its appeal. Iron Giant isn't a musical either, but unlike Tarzan it doesn't bow to the Toy Story inspired Middle-Aged-Rock-Crooner-Replaces-Show-Tunes formula. The story takes place in the '50s, and most of the music (besides Michael Kamen's mythic score) is period source music that usually wafts out of some distant radio, like in the kitchen of the café where young Hogarth's mom works. We're talking sound design more along the lines of Jaws than Beauty and the Beast. It helps to give the film a realistic, live action feel. The atmosphere is somewhat akin to that of Kiki's Delivery Service - a magical animated fantasy that manages to depict reality a little more convincingly than many live action films. (It is significant to note that producer Pete Townshend recorded a rock opera concept album based on the same Ted Hughes book the film is based on. Keeping this in mind, it's hard to believe the filmmakers were actually able to fulfill their vision. Call me pessimistic, but I think Disney would have forced songs on them.) Tarzan, despite its fairly serious tone (I am still very fond of the scene where Tarzan kills a leopard and hoists its corpse above his head) is saddled by a couple of cartoony comic relief sidekicks who occasionally let their zany antics and references interfere with the story. They're tame by Disney standards, so they don't seem that bad in Tarzan. But Iron Giant has no comic relief characters or wacky sidekicks. At the same time, I can't think of a Disney movie that made me laugh half as hard as Iron Giant. Instead of having characters in the story whose job it is to be funny, the main characters themselves are funny and face funny situations. Director Brad Bird helmed early episodes of The Simpsons and helped establish many of the show's longstanding storytelling techniques, so perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that the many funny scenes in Iron Giant are masterfully executed.
It is surprising, though, or at least refreshing, how genuinely warm and human the movie is. I think a lot of people will see that it's a non-Disney animated feature and expect the kind of saccharine pseudo-sweetness they get from movies like Balto or the sinister works of Don Bluth. You know, the movies where shots of cute animals or sad orphan girls batting their eyelashes are what passes for emotion. Hogarth is the real thing - a believable and likable child protagonist. You can relate to him because he's smart and self-reliant and likes to watch monster movies. In his Family Dog episode of Amazing Stories, Bird displayed a knack for depicting realistic children and getting great performances out of child voice actors. This tradition is continued with Hogarth, who is superbly portrayed by Eli Marienthal. In most ways, Hogarth behaves just like a normal kid, reading comic books and playing in the lake. To me he seemed just like the kids who were in the theater, telling each other that the giant wouldn't harm anyone because "he's a good guy." But while Hogarth seems like a normal kid, it also seems perfectly natural when he forms unusual friendships and performs acts of genuine heroism. I think a lot of filmmakers, and not only those who work in animation, could learn from the characterization in this movie. Hogarth's relationship with the robot begins with a situation thematically similar to the unforgettable pitbull rescue in Babe: Pig in the City. Hogarth encounters the huge metal creature stomping through the woods and he thinks - maybe even correctly - that it's trying to kill him. Hogarth gets his chance to escape when the metal monster trips into a web of power lines. Seeing it writhe in pain, Hogarth perhaps sees that there is something human about the giant, and he risks himself to save it from electrocution. This act of kindness is the beginning of a relationship in which the boy helps the machine realize that he can be more than a weapon. The giant turns out to be almost more of a boy than Hogarth, so much so that he idolizes Superman. Even if Iron Giant were a shoddy piece of filmmaking, I'd probably be suckered just by that wonderful notion: the powerful giant robot from outer space who likes to play Superman. Lucky for me (and everyone who's not a sucker) that's just one of many beautiful touches on this animated masterpiece, which is easily my favorite film of the year so far. It's an instant classic which will surely be remembered alongside the likes of the aforementioned Kiki's Delivery Service, Toy Story and Babe - movies that make you smile just thinking about them.
--Bryan Frankenseuss Theiss
"I write rhymes so fresh I try to bite my own verses." --Tash
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews