The Iron Giant

Loosely based on Ted Hughes' novel The Iron Man, it features an ensemble cast consisting of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, James Gammon, Cloris Leachman, John Mahoney, Eli Marienthal, Christopher McDonald and M. Emmet Walsh. Set during the Cold War in 1957, the film centers on a young boy named Hogarth Hughes, who discovers and befriends a giant robot of extraterrestrial origin. With the help of beatnik artist Dean McCoppin, Hogarth attempts to prevent the United States military from finding and vanquishing the Giant.

The film was initially conceived in 1994 as a musical with the involvement of Pete Townshend of the Who. In 1996, Bird signed on as director and McCanlies was hired to write the screenplay. The film was animated primarily using traditional animation, with computer-generated imagery used to animate the Giant and for other effects. The crew of the film was understaffed and completed it with half of the time and budget of other animated features. Michael Kamen composed the film's score, which was performed by the Czech Philharmonic.

The Iron Giant premiered at Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on July 31, 1999, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. on August 6. Although it received critical acclaim, and is widely regarded as a modern animated classic and one of the greatest animated films of all time. In 2015, an extended and remastered version of the film was re-released theatrically.

Plot

In 1957, during the Cold War, a fifty-foot-tall extraterrestrial robot crash-lands off the coast of Rockwell, Maine. The following night, nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes investigates reports of power outages and discovers the Giant feeding on electrical lines at a substation. Though initially frightened, Hogarth later returns to save the Giant from electrocution.

Hogarth befriends the Giant, discovering him to be gentle, curious and childlike. The Giant eats railroad tracks, oblivious to an oncoming train which collides with and damages him. The Giant's scattered pieces automatically return to him, allowing him to self-repair. Hogarth shelters the Giant at his home and shows him his comic books, explaining the difference between heroes and weapons and comparing him to Superman.

Incidents related to the Giant attract the attention of paranoid federal agent Kent Mansley, who arrives in Rockwell to investigate. While initially skeptical, Mansley eventually believes in the Giant's existence and views him as a national threat. Suspecting Hogarth knows more than he admits, Mansley rents a room in the home of Hogarth and his widowed mother Annie to watch him. To keep the Giant safe and well-fed, Hogarth brings him to a wrecking yard owned by beatnik artist Dean McCoppin, who reluctantly agrees to hide him. When Hogarth and the Giant witness hunters killing a deer, Hogarth explains death to the Giant, which unsettles him.

After discovering a photograph proving Hogarth's connection to the Giant, Mansley interrogates him, then summons U.S. Army General Shannon Rogard and soldiers to the scrapyard. Forewarned, Dean disguises the Giant as a sculpture to deceive the soldiers into leaving. Later, when Hogarth playfully points a water gun at the Giant, he instinctively activates one of his defensive weapons. Horrified that he could be lethal, the Giant flees toward the town in shame. Dean realizes the Giant can only attack in self-defense, and he and Hogarth pursue him.

In Rockwell, the Giant rescues a pair of boys falling from a building, briefly winning the support of the townspeople as he reunites with Hogarth. Mansley spots him and urges Rogard to attack. In the ensuing confrontation, Hogarth is rendered unconscious and the Giant, believing Hogarth has died, enters a heavily-armed battle mode and retaliates against the soldiers. As conventional weapons fail, Mansley persuades Rogard to launch a nuclear missile from the USS Nautilus.

Hogarth regains consciousness and subdues the Giant by reminding him that he can choose who he wants to be. Dean convinces Rogard to stand down, but Mansley impulsively issues the missile launch command before realizing the missile will strike the Giant in the middle of town and kill everyone. Mansley attempts to flee, but is thwarted by the Giant and promptly secured. Determined to save Rockwell, the Giant bids farewell to Hogarth and flies upward to intercept the missile, colliding with it high above Earth and detonating it harmlessly in the exosphere, apparently sacrificing himself.

Months later, Annie and Dean admire a memorial statue of the Giant in the town park. Hogarth receives a package from Rogard containing a jaw joint recovered from the Giant. That night, the joint becomes active and Hogarth happily watches it roll away. Far away on the Langjökull glacier in Iceland, the Giant's head smiles as his scattered parts converge for his reassemblage.

Voice cast

thumb|[[Christopher McDonald, Brad Bird and Eli Marienthal in March 2012 at the Iron Giant screening at the LA Animation Festival]]

Eli Marienthal as Hogarth Hughes: A nine-year-old boy with an active imagination. Marienthal's performances were videotaped and given to animators to work with, which helped them develop expressions for the character. The Giant's voice was originally going to be electronically modulated, but the filmmakers decided they "needed a deep, resonant and expressive voice to start with", so they hired Diesel.
Harry Connick Jr. as Dean McCoppin: A beatnik artist who owns a wrecking yard. Bird felt it appropriate to make the character a member of the Beat Generation, as they were viewed as mildly threatening to small-town values during that time. As Dean is an outsider himself, he is among the first to recognize that the Giant is not a threat.
Christopher McDonald as Kent Mansley: A paranoid and short-tempered federal agent sent to investigate sightings of the Giant.
John Mahoney as General Shannon Rogard: In 1991, Richard Bazley, who later became the film's lead animator, pitched a version of The Iron Man to Don Bluth while working at Bluth's studio in Ireland. He created a story outline and character designs but Bluth passed on the project. After a stage musical was mounted in London, Des McAnuff, who had adapted Tommy for the stage with Townshend, believed that The Iron Man could translate to the screen, and the project was ultimately acquired by Warner Bros. Pictures. Ted Hughes died before the film's release, but his daughter, Frieda Hughes, saw the film on his behalf and loved it.

Writing

Tim McCanlies was hired to write the script, which displeased Bird somewhat, as he wanted to write it himself. The Giant's backstory was purposefully left out to keep the story focused on his relationship with Hogarth. Storyboard artist Teddy Newton played a role in shaping the story and the screenplay of the film.

Animation

The financial failure of Warner Bros.' previous animated film, Quest for Camelot, significantly influenced the production of The Iron Giant. By the time the film entered production, Warner Bros. informed the staff that there would be a smaller budget and time-frame to get the film completed. Although the production was watched closely, Bird commented, "They did leave us alone if we kept it in control and showed them we were producing the film responsibly and getting it done on time". Bird said his team had "one-third of the money of a Disney or DreamWorks film, and half of the production schedule" but the payoff as having more creative freedom, describing the film as "fully-made by the animation team; I don't think any other studio can say that to the level that we can." The group would gather in a screening room to view completed sequences, with Bird offering suggestions by drawing onto the screen with a marker. Lead animator Bazley suggested this led to a sense of camaraderie among the crew, who were unified in their mission to create a good film. and was designed by filmmaker Joe Johnston and refined by production designer Mark Whiting and Steve Markowski, head animator for the Giant.

The art of Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper, and N.C. Wyeth inspired the film's design. Whiting used colors that evoked the time period in which the film is set, and expressed its emotional tone; for example, Hogarth's room was designed to reflect his "youth and sense of wonder". Animators studied Chuck Jones, Hank Ketcham, Al Hirschfeld and Disney films from that era, such as 101 Dalmatians, for inspiration in the film's animation.

Music

The score for the film was composed and conducted by Michael Kamen, making it Bird's only film not scored by his future collaborator, Michael Giacchino. Bird's original temporary score, "a collection of Bernard Herrmann cues from '50s and '60s sci-fi films," initially scared Kamen. The score for The Iron Giant was recorded in a rather unconventional manner, compared to most films: recorded over one week at the Rudolfinum in Prague, the music was recorded without conventional uses of syncing the music, in a method Kamen described in a 1999 interview as "[being able to] play the music as if it were a piece of classical repertoire." Kamen's score for The Iron Giant won the Annie Award for Music in an Animated Feature Production on November 6, 1999.

Post-production

Bird opted to produce The Iron Giant in widescreen—specifically the wide 2.39:1 CinemaScope aspect ratio—but was warned against doing so by his advisers. He felt it was appropriate to use the format, as many films from the late 1950s were produced in such widescreen formats. He hoped to include the CinemaScope logo on a poster, partially as a joke, but 20th Century Fox, owner of the trademark, refused. This was due to concerns that the film was not merchandisable, to which Bird responded, "If they were interested in telling the story, they should let it be what it wants to be." It was regarded as a lower-budget film, in comparison to the films distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

Themes

When he began work on the film, Bird was in the midst of coping with the death of his sister, Susan, who was shot and killed by her estranged husband. In researching its source material, he learned that Hughes wrote The Iron Man as a means of comforting his children after his wife, Sylvia Plath, died by suicide, specifically through the metaphor of the title character being able to re-assemble itself after being damaged. These experiences formed the basis of Bird's pitch to Warner Bros., which was based around the idea "What if a gun had a soul, and didn't want to be a gun?"; the completed film was also dedicated to Hughes and Susan. McCanlies commented that "at a certain point, there are deciding moments when we pick who we want to be. And that plays out for the rest of your life", adding that films can provide viewers with a sense of right and wrong, and expressed a wish that The Iron Giant would "make us feel like we're all part of humanity [which] is something we need to feel." The film opened in Los Angeles and New York City on August 4, 1999, with a wider national release occurring on August 6 in the United States. This was largely attributable to the reception of Quest for Camelot; after its release, Warner would not give Bird and his team a release date for their film until April 1999. After wildly successful test screenings, the studio was shocked by the response: the test scores were their highest for a film in 15 years, according to Bird. IGN stated that "In a mis-marketing campaign of epic proportions at the hands of Warner Bros., they simply didn't realize what they had on their hands."

The studio needed an $8 million opening to ensure success, but they were unable to properly promote it preceding the release. They nearly delayed the film by several months to better prepare. "They said, 'we should delay it and properly lead up to its release,' and I said 'you guys have had two and a half years to get ready for this,'" recalled Bird. with some reporting that the studio had spent more money on marketing for the intended summer blockbuster Wild Wild West instead. Warner Bros. scheduled Sunday sneak preview screenings for the film prior to its release,

Home media and television syndication

After criticism that it mounted an ineffective marketing campaign for its theatrical release, Warner Bros. revamped its advertising strategy for the video release of the film, including tie-ins with Honey Nut Cheerios, AOL and General Motors and secured the backing of three U.S. congressmen (Ed Markey, Mark Foley and Howard Berman). Awareness of the film was increased by its February 2000 release as a pay-per-view title, which also increased traffic to the film's website.

The Iron Giant was released on VHS and DVD on November 23, 1999, with a Laserdisc release following on December 6. Warner Bros. spent $35 million to market the home video release of the film. The VHS edition came in three versions—pan and scan, pan and scan with an affixed Giant toy to the clamshell case, and a widescreen version. In 2000, television rights to the film were sold to Cartoon Network and TNT for $3 million. Cartoon Network showed the film continuously for 24 consecutive hours in the early 2000s for such holidays as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving.

The Special Edition DVD was released on November 16, 2004. In 2014, Bird entered discussions with Warner Bros. regarding the possibility of releasing The Iron Giant on Blu-ray. On April 23, he wrote on Twitter that "WB & I have been talking. But they want a bare-bones disc. I want better," and encouraged fans to send tweets to Warner Home Video in favor of a Special Edition Blu-ray of the film. The film was ultimately released on Blu-ray on September 6, 2016, and included both the theatrical and 2015 Signature Edition cuts, as well as a documentary entitled The Giant's Dream that covered the making of the film. This version also received a DVD release months earlier on February 16 with The Giant's Dream documentary removed. It was quick to drop out of the top ten; by its fourth week, it had accumulated only $18.9 million—far under its reported $50 million budget. T.L. Stanley of Brandweek cited it as an example of how media tie-ins were now essential to guaranteeing a film's success.

The film went on to gross $23.2 million domestically and $8.1 million internationally for a total of $31.3 million worldwide.

Critical response

The Iron Giant received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 96% approval rating based on 144 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The endearing Iron Giant tackles ambitious topics and complex human relationships with a steady hand and beautifully animated direction from Brad Bird." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigns the film a score of 85 out of 100 based on 29 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. The Reel Source forecasting service calculated that "96–97%" of audiences that attended recommended the film. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called The Iron Giant to "not just a cute romp but an involving story that has something to say", and compared it to the films of Hayao Miyazaki. Michael Sragow of The New Yorker dubbed it a "modern fairy tale" with the "power to open up a viewer's heart and mind." Time Richard Schickel deemed the film "a smart live-and-let-live parable" full of observations on life, death, and the military-industrial complex. Writing for The New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder called it a "smooth, skilled example of animated filmmaking." Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal described it as a beautiful, "deliciously funny and deeply affecting" work of art.

David Hunter of The Hollywood Reporter predicted The Iron Giant to be a sleeper hit and called it "outstanding", while Lael Loewenstein of Variety called it "a visually appealing, well-crafted film [...] an unalloyed success." Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly commented, "I have long thought that I was born without the gene that would allow me to be emotionally drawn in by drawings. That is, until I saw The Iron Giant." Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle thought the storytelling was far superior to other animated films, and said it contained a richness of moral themes. Jeff Millar of the Houston Chronicle agreed with the basic techniques as well, and concluded the voice cast excelled with a great script by Tim McCanlies. The Washington Post Stephen Hunter described the film as "beautifully drawn" and "sleek and engaging" but felt it has "the annoyance of incredible smugness."

The Hugo Awards nominated The Iron Giant for Best Dramatic Presentation, while the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America honored Brad Bird and Tim McCanlies with the Nebula Award nomination. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts gave the film a Children's Award as Best Feature Film. In addition The Iron Giant won nine Annie Awards out of fifteen nominations, winning every category it was nominated for, with another nomination for Best Home Video Release at The Saturn Awards. IGN ranked The Iron Giant as the fifth favorite animated film of all time in a list published in 2010. In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated The Iron Giant for its Top 10 Animated Films list.

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="width:100%;"

|+ style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Awards

! Award

! Date of ceremony

! Category

! Recipients

! Result

| rowspan="15"| Annie Awards

| rowspan="15"| November 6, 1999

| Best Animated Feature Film

| Allison Abbate, Des McAnuff, and John Walker<br />Warner Bros. Pictures; Warner Bros. Feature Animation

| rowspan="2"

| rowspan="2"| Outstanding Individual Achievement in Effects Animation

| Allen Foster

| Michel Gagné

| rowspan="2"

| rowspan="3"| Outstanding Individual Achievement in Character Animation

| Jim Van der Keyl

| Steve Markowski

| Dean Wellins

| Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production

| Brad Bird

| rowspan="3"

| Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production

| Michael Kamen

| rowspan="2"| Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

| Alan Bodner

| Mark Whiting

| rowspan="3"| Outstanding Individual Achievement in Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

| Mark Andrews

| Kevin O'Brien

| rowspan="2"

| Dean Wellins

| Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

| Eli Marienthal<br />For playing "Hogarth Hughes".

| rowspan="3"

| Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production

| Tim McCanlies (screenplay) and Brad Bird (story)

| BAFTA Children's Award

| November 12, 2000

| Best Feature Film

| Brad Bird, Allison Abbate, Des McAnuff, and Tim McCanlies

| Florida Film Critics Circle

| January 9, 2000

| Best Animated Film

| Brad Bird

| rowspan="2"

| Genesis Awards

| March 18, 2000

| Best Feature Film – Animated

| Hugo Award

| September 2, 2000

| Best Dramatic Presentation

| Brad Bird (screen story and directed by),<br /> Tim McCanlies (screenplay by),<br /> and Ted Hughes (based on the book The Iron Man by)

| Las Vegas Film Critics Society

| January 18, 2000

| Best Animated Film

| rowspan="3"

| Los Angeles Film Critics Association

| January 20, 2000

| Best Animated Film

| Brad Bird

| rowspan="2"| Motion Picture Sound Editors Awards

| rowspan="2"| March 25, 2000

| Best Sound Editing – Animated Feature

| Best Sound Editing – Music – Animation

| New York Film Critics Circle

| January 10, 2000

| Best Animated Film

| Santa Fe Film Critics Circle Awards

| January 9, 2000

| Best Animated Film

| Saturn Awards

| June 6, 2000

| Best Home Video Release

| rowspan="3"

| Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

| May 20, 2000

| Best Script

| Brad Bird and Tim McCanlies

| rowspan="2"| Young Artist Awards

| rowspan="2"| March 19, 2000

| Best Family Feature Film – Animated

| Best Performance in a Voice-Over (TV or Feature Film) – Young Actor

| Eli Marienthal

Legacy

The Cartoon Network series Mad did a parody of the film as well as the film The Iron Lady for their Season 3 premiere entitled The Iron Giant Lady. In the sketch, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is the Giant and inspires other gynoids to take positions of political power.

The designers of the 2015 video game Ori and the Blind Forest were guided by inspirations from the film, alongside Disney's The Lion King.

The Iron Giant appears in Steven Spielberg's 2018 science fiction film Ready Player One. Aech had collected the parts of the Iron Giant, which she later controls during the film's climax to oppose Mechagodzilla, aided by Gundam. After the Giant sacrifices itself and sinks into a river of lava, it gives a thumbs up to the heroes while sinking in a direct homage to the T-800’s sacrifice at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Alberto "Beto" Tlahuetl, director of the Mexican cumbia band "Grupo Soñador", stated that he was inspired by the film to write the song "El Paso del Gigante" (initially called "El Gigante de Hierro", i.e. The Iron Giant) after dreaming of the Giant dancing in the streets of Los Angeles. The lyrics emphasize the theme of never giving up on a daughter's love by being her biggest protector.

Signature Edition

A remastered and extended cut of the film, called the Signature Edition, was shown in one-off screenings across the United States and Canada on September 30, 2015, and October 4, 2015. Both scenes were storyboarded by Bird during the production on the original film, but could not be finished due to time and budget constraints. Before they were fully completed for this new version, they were presented as deleted storyboard sequences on the 2004 DVD bonus features. The film's Signature Edition was released on DVD and for digital download on February 16, 2016, with a Blu-ray release following on September 6.

Notes

References

Bibliography

James Preller The Iron Giant: A Novelization. Scholastic Paperbacks (August 1999). .

External links

Original theatrical trailer

Plot

Voice cast

Writing

Animation

Music

Post-production

Themes

Home media and television syndication

Critical response

Legacy

Signature Edition

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links