AmateurMovieReviews.com

By Simon Woodhouse

In recent years computer animation has started to take over from traditional, hand drawn cartoons. This trend seemed to start with Toy Story, the first full-length feature from Pixar Studios. The movie generated a pile of cash, and so inevitably spawned a sequel. For a while Pixar seemed to have the computer animation field to themselves, but recently other studios have been getting in on the act. Unfortunately some of the results haven't been all that good. Pixar's films do so well because they don't just rely on the computer animation, they also have lovable characters you can't help but like. In fact, the computer animation is almost incidental; it's the script that makes the films work. The Iron Giant is probably the last truly great, conventionally animated movie, and just like the Pixar stuff, it's the characters and the script that make it so good.

The film is very loosely based on a children's book written by Ted Hughes back in the late 60s. The moviemakers, however, have changed the story wholesale, even altering the original title - The Iron Man. But despite this butchery of a classic, the end result is an extremely watch-able, extremely enjoyable film that's got a real personal charm about it.

Ordinarily I'm not a fan of cartoon films. I find Disney's bile inducing stuff from the 90s totally unbearable. Singing teapots and heavy moralistic overtones aren't my idea of entertainment (then again, perhaps I'm not their target audience). The Iron Giant contains none of these things. No one sings, there are no comedy sidekicks providing slapstick 'laughs', and the story doesn't involve a wholesome family unit.

Set on the East Coast of America during the 50s, the film pays homage to the classic Sci-Fi theme of mysterious invaders from another planet, which was actually just a metaphor for US paranoia about the Soviet Union and the nuclear arms race. Hogarth Hughes (voiced by Eli Marienthal) isn't really interested in what's happening in the USSR, but that's understandable because he's only ten years old. Like most boys of his age, he's into comic books and trashy Sci-Fi films. The child of a single mother - Annie Hughes (voiced by Jennifer Aniston), Hogarth spends his days entertaining himself with an over active imagination. Home alone one night when his mother is forced to work late at the diner, Hogarth hears a mysterious noise outside and sets off into the woods to investigate. Here he encounters the Iron Giant, a fifty-foot tall metal man who comes from who-knows-where. Though the first meeting doesn't go very well - Hogarth is terrified, they soon become firm friends.

As far as big-screen robots go, the Iron Giant has to be amongst the coolest. Not only does he look great, but considering he's got no movable facial features besides his mouth, he manages to convey the whole range of human emotions. This metal monster is 'voiced' by Hollywood hard man Vin Diesel. But the robot doesn't really talk, only uttering the odd word here and there. However, this limited vocabulary is enough to provide a few really touching moments.

Being made of metal, the Iron Giant has to eat metal to survive. When various pieces of farm machinery start showing up with large bite marks in them, someone calls the government, who send Kent Mansely (voiced by Chris McDonald) from the Unexplained Phenomena Department (a forerunner of the X-Files I guess). Mansely is a man convinced of his own self-importance, even if no one else is. In order to help him hide the Iron Giant from Mansely and the government, Hogarth seeks the help of local beatnik artist Dean McCoppen (voiced by Harry Connick Jr). Between them they manage to keep the robot out of harms way, until Mansely convinces the army to come to town.

Though the plot is simple, it's certainly not patronizing. Unlike Disney films, there isn't a stereotypical, extremely ugly villain (a not so clever way to teach kids that all good looking people can be trusted). Rather than having a personification of 'evil', the movie suggests that an irrational fear of the unknown is far more dangerous.

Not helped by a lackluster marketing campaign on the part of Warner Bros, the movie fared badly at the box office. This is a shame, because it's a breath of fresh air in the world of feature length cartoons. There's humor, but it's neither childish nor smutty. All the actors provide voices that perfectly match their respective characters. In fact, this film is probably Jennifer Aniston's finest celluloid moment. Harry Connick Jr's laid back tone absolutely fits the character of Dean, against which the over-excitable Mansely is an excellent contrast. So even if you're not a fan of cartoon films, I'd recommend The Iron Giant. But a word of warning, the penultimate scene is a bit of a tear jerker, and right up there with the death of Bambi's mom. So if you're a big, butch guy like me, just pretend you've got something in your eye.