Iron Giant, The (1999)

reviewed by
Akiva Gottlieb


The Iron Giant ***
rated PG
Warner Bros. Pictures
86 minutes
starring the voices of Jennifer Aniston, Eli Marienthal, Harry Connick Jr.,
Vin Diesel, Christopher McDonald
based on the novel "The Iron Man" by Ted Hughes
based on the screen story by Brad Bird
written by Tim McCanlies
directed by Brad Bird

In the past 5 years, animation has come a long way; or so it seems. New formats, including high-tech computer animation are threatening to take the glamour away from Disney's yearly "masterpiece". However, it is a film like "The Iron Giant", without any sidekicks or musical interludes, that I think can make the most change for the genre. "The Iron Giant" is a wonderful film for adults and kids that just happens to be animated. It is the story of a boy named Hogarth(what?) who, in 1950's Maine, discovers an iron giant made by a foreign country as a weapon. However, this being the movies, the iron giant turns out to have a heart of gold, and learns to triumph over his impulses. Christopher McDonald voices a government agent who is after the iron giant because he believes he can cause harm, and Jennifer Aniston is Hogarth's single mother. While the story is kid-friendly, adults will enjoy the precise reworking of small-town 1950, where people fear the dropping of "the bomb" and learn to "duck and cover". Despite being a fine film, "The Iron Giant" feels a lot like a tired rehash of "E.T." But director Brad Bird has a lot of creative vision, and writer Tim McCanlies("Dancer, Texas Pop. 81") makes the dialogue sound real; a rare quality in an animated film. "The Iron Giant" is a successful experiment that might have been better, but its heart is in the right place, and it truly is a film that adults will enjoy just as much as the kids. Take a chance and see this flick.

a capsule review by Akiva Gottlieb, The Teenage Movie Critic akiva@excite.com http://teenagemoviecritic.8m.com


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