 |
Other NonAnime Reviews Prince of Egypt Review* Gotham Girls Review* Jackie Chan Adventures Review* Godzilla 98 Review Titan A.E. Review* |
The Iron Giant is a delightful Warner Brothers animated feature that didn’t make much of an impact at the box office when initially released. Much like The Last Unicorn, The Iron Giant is the kind of film that will build a respectable following through cable TV and video outlets. It’s an offbeat film that deserves the attention of anyone looking for an American alternative to the Disney formula, and along with movies like Prince of Egypt and Titan A.E., proves that the Japanese don’t have a monopoly on making intelligent animated movies.
The Brad Bird-directed film presents a nice parable about friendship, innocence, and earned trust. In the late 1950s, a little boy named Hogarth (perfectly voiced by Eli Marienthal) witnesses a giant robot crash from the sky. Hogarth befriends the alien android and comes to trust him, even though the robot has a disturbing habit of eating as much metal as it can. The two adult males in the movie form a dichotomy; Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.) is an easygoing hipster who listens to cool jazz, and Kent Mansley ( Christopher McDonald) is a paranoid government agent. Happily, neither side is a caricature, but their personalities neatly represent how children often view adults.
If any of this seems familiar to you, that’s because The Iron Giant is based on British writer Ted Hughes’ book called The Iron Man. Who songwriter Pete Townshend adapted the novel into a concept album in the early 1990s, and serves as The Iron Giant’s Executive Producer. Along the way, the main character’s name was changed from Iron Man to Iron Giant, presumably to avoid confusion with the Marvel Comics superhero. Brad Bird only adapted a portion of Hughes’ book, however – and what remains is greatly Americanized. Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man always resembled the classic film The Day The Earth Stood Still, and the resemblance is even stronger with The Iron Giant’s Cold War references. To Bird’s credit, the missing elements won’t trouble an audience unfamiliar with Hughes’ book.
The Iron Giant is a great example of how good a family film can be when its creators don’t belittle the audience. Hogarth is a refreshingly normal little boy; he is neither a brat nor a prodigy. The Giant is unquestionably frightening and awesome, especially when viewed from a low angle, which makes it easy for us to forgive many of the characters’ fear of him. Parts of the film are potentially frightening or disturbing to the youngest members of the audience, but that’s more of an indictment about the insipid nature of most family films than it is about The Iron Giant.
The Iron Giant is a good film that many of us overlooked when originally released in 1999. I’m glad I finally saw it, and I encourage all who visit Animation – American and Japanese to check it out. This is a real sleeper.
|
Other NonAnime Reviews Prince of Egypt Review* Gotham Girls Review* Jackie Chan Adventures Review* Godzilla 98 Review Titan A.E. Review* |
Get your ownFree Home Page