I am an animation guy. My career has been spent working for animation studios, I have a Masters Degree in animation from the University of Southern California, and I’ve always believed that animation is the purist form of film making. That said, I haven’t blogged a ton on this site about animation or animated films. There’s no particular reason for that, other than maybe since I spend my days working in animation, I view this blog as a refreshing change from that. That changes today, as I write about a film that is not only one of my favorite animated movies, but is one of my top-10 favorite films of all time. After successful stints on The Simpsons, Family Dog and King of the Hill, and before he became well-known to the mainstream with The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Brad Bird made his feature film directorial debut with The Iron Giant in 1999. The film was actually a box office failure, but the blame for that falls 100% on Warner Brothers for not marketing the film properly. I can only surmise that they had no idea what they had in this film, and they gave it an August release date with very little publicity. In the years since, it has found a dedicated audience of cinema-philes as well as animation geeks who swear by the film’s deep story, important thematic elements, and beautiful animation and art direction. This is actually a film that has strong cross-over appeal, and has found fans who aren’t necessarily fans of animation.

Why it’s essential

There are three main components to this film that make it so special, and all of them are related to the script penned by Tim MacCanlies with an assist from Bird, and adapted from the novel by Ted Hughes. First of all, the story is beautifully structured, and we have rising tension until we reach the final crescendo at the end. That leads into the second great component of the script that is the multiple strong thematic elements that are expertly woven together so that we really care about the characters and the story. Speaking of the characters, they are wonderfully developed and have great depth with realistic back stories. Even though they’re hand-drawn animated characters, they feel like real people. All of these components are combined to create a film that elicits extreme emotional responses from the audience, and shows us what real humanity looks like. This is very much a “boy and his dog” story, and like many great films with that theme, the boy and the Giant both learn from each other.

The hero of The Iron Giant is a young boy named Hogarth Hughes. His Ordinary World shows him as the child of a single mother named Annie (Jennifer Aniston), who struggles to make ends meat as a waitress at a diner in the small town in Maine in which they live. The film takes place in the 1957 right after the Soviets launched Sputnik, and paranoia of the Red Menace, as well as Nuclear Holocaust, were first and foremost in the minds of everyone. Hogarth’s Call to Adventure occurs after rumors of something crashing off shore begin to spread. When the power goes out, Hogarth goes into the woods to investigate and eventually comes across a 70-foot tall metal man. He Refuses the Call by running away, but turns off the power grid as the Giant falls onto an electrical plant, setting off an electrical reaction. He Crosses the First Threshold when he goes back into the woods and befriends the Giant, even as he continues to refuse the call by trying to keep it from following him home. “You stay,” he says. “I go. No following.” Eventually he brings it home and hides it in the barn. Hogarth brings the Giant comic books to look at, and after initially being interested in a villainous robot character that looks like the Giant, Hogarth shows the Giant a Superman comic and tells him that Superman is the real hero.

The second act begins with the Tests, Allies and Enemies section and all three components are well-represented in this film. Hogarth is presented with the main test of keeping the Giant a secret, even after it’s struck by a train and is broken into a bunch of pieces. It ends up not being a problem as the pieces emit radio signals and the Giant is able to put himself back together. Hogarth gets to know a local beatnik artist named Dean (Harry Connick, Jr.), who turns into his main ally. And the enemy is a government agent named Kent Mansley (Christopher MacDonald), who figures the Giant to be a Soviet weapon, and is bent on destroying it. Throughout the first half of the second act Hogarth teaches the Giant about many things we take for granted. One of the most touching moments in the film is when they come across two hunters who have just killed a deer, and Hogarth has to explain death to the Giant. He tells him that it’s bad to kill, but it’s not bad to die, because we all have souls and souls don’t die. The Approach happens when Hogarth discovers that he can keep the Giant at Dean’s scrap metal shop, and the Ordeal is when Mansley discovers where they are and calls in the army, led by General Rogard (John Mahoney). Dean mocks up the Giant so that it looks like one of his metal sculptures, fooling the general and making Mansley look like an idiot. That leads to the Reward with Hogarth and the Giant playing Superman in the junkyard. But Hogarth uses a toy ray gun to pretend to shoot the Giant, which activates a defense mechanism within the Giant and he fires a laser out of his eyes and nearly incinerating Hogarth. Shouting at the Giant and calling him nothing more than a big gun, Dean sends the Giant away. The Giant wanders into town where it rescues two boys who were falling off of a tower. He looks at Hogarth, who has caught up with him and tells him that he is not a gun.

The Road Back happens when Mansley sees the Giant in the town. Telling the general that the Giant is attacking, Mansley gets General Rogard to attack the Giant, who grabs Hogarth and runs away. During the pursuit the Giant discovers that he can fly and consciously prevents himself from firing back at the fighter jets and tanks that are firing on him. That us, until he’s hit so hard by a missile that he crashes. He sees Hogarth lying unconscious on the ground. Thinking Hogarth is dead, the Giant goes into full battle mode and nearly destroys the entire military force to the point where Mansley convinces General Rogard to lead the Giant away from the town so that it can be destroyed by a nuclear weapon. The Resurrection is a literal one, as Hogarth, who was not dead, stands in front of the Giant and tells him that he can be whatever he wants to be and that he doesn’t have to be a gun. The Giant finally recognizes Hogarth, and goes back to normal. Meanwhile Dean convinces the General that the Giant is friendly, but they have to stop firing on it. Unfortunately Mansley gets his hands on the walkie talkie and shouts for the missile to be fired. They all watch as certain death approaches, and Hogarth tells the Giant that when the missile comes down everyone will die. Knowing what he has to do, the Giant kneels down to Hogarth. In one of the most touching and heartbreaking moments in the history of animation, the Giant tells Hogarth, “I go. You stay. No following.” Then he takes off towards the missile. As he approaches it, he remembers Hogarth telling him that he can be whatever he wants to be. “Superman,” he says as he closes his eyes and smashes the missile, destroying it and himself. The Return With the Elixir happens when we see Hogarth is now well liked by the other kids and school and Dean and Annie have gotten together. Dean gives Hogarth a screw that the General had said was the only piece of the Giant that was recovered. That night while in bed, Hogarth sees that the screw is beeping and trying to get out. He smiles and says, “See ya later,” as he opens the window and the screw rolls away. We see the pieces of the Giant congregating in Iceland, reassembling.

Clearly The Iron Giant has a strong story that is well-structured. However, the best crafted story isn’t going to resonate without characters with whom the audience can relate and root for. Brad Bird and his team did an exceptional job of creating characters that were deep, believable and sympathetic. Even Kent Mansley isn’t a character completely without sympathy. Yes, when we first meet him he’s a snarky asshole, but his motivation is national security. The best villains are the ones who believe themselves to be the heroes of their own stories, and Mansley clearly believes that he’s the one who’s acting heroic here. He doesn’t see himself as the bad guy at all. His problem is that he’s bought into the paranoia of the age, and he believes in shooting first and asking questions later.

Look at the character of the Giant, voiced by Vin Diesel. Even though this character doesn’t have a lot of dialogue or varying facial expressions, the animators at Warner Brothers did an amazing job of giving him heart. The Giant serves as the proverbial fish out of water, and has to discover his own humanity. As the story progresses and the Giant does discover it, we sympathize with him. We’re concerned when he loses it. Then at the end, when the Giant performs the ultimate act of humanity in sacrificing himself so that others may live, the film makers created what may be the single most emotionally powerful moment in the history animation. I understand that that’s a bold statement that some my see as hyperbolic. Yes, I’ve seen Bambi. Yes, I’ve seen Dumbo. Yes, I’ve seen Up. The Giant’s sacrifice in The Iron Giant is more emotionally powerful than the most gut wrenching moments in all of those films.

Hogarth, the hero of the film, is terrific character. He’s a young boy who isn’t a brat, and I look at Hogarth as being right up there with Elliott from E.T. He’s a precocious boy with an adventurous spirit and a kind heart. He’s mischievous, but in a playful way. He’s the kind of kid that adults won’t get annoyed with watching. His flaw is that he’s awkward and can’t make friends, so in befriending the Giant he learns enough about himself sot that at the end of the story his character arc is completed by him now being a kid with a lot of friends.

All of the characters in The Iron Giant in one way or another are likable in some way. If you’re an aspiring screenwriter and you’re trying to develop likable characters with depth and pathos, this is a film and a script that you should study.

This is a story that is not only well-structured with great characters, but is also funny, charming and highly entertaining. Bird and his crew added depth to the story by making it very deep thematically. There are a lot of thematic elements working together and complimenting each other in The Iron Giant. It’s very much an anti-gun and anti-violence movie. It’s a film about friendship and loyalty. It’s a film about staying true to what you believe and choosing your own path when the masses might be trying to push you in another direction. The Iron Giant is one of those films that affects you in a meaningful way. Ultimately this is a film about humanity, and what it means to be a human being. When the film is over, you feel like you’ve been through something. In fact, this is one of those rare films that allows you to feel almost every emotion that’s possible to feel, and it does all of this in a brisk 90 minutes. It’s exhausting, but highly satisfying.

The Iron Giant is a sophisticated film. Don’t let the fact that it’s animated fool you. Yes, it has a lot of gags, and there are moments in it that clearly play to the family audience. But this is a smart and emotional film that was carefully crafted by people who knew what they were doing. If you haven’t seen The Iron Giant, put it on your list. It is truly essential.