The
Iron Giant
Rated
PG
Now showing
There used to be a time when the line between kid films and
family films was almost indistinguishable. From classic Disney
animation to E.T., these films offered something for
everyone to enjoy rather than segregating audiences into focus
groups. Somewhere along the line, though, families stopped
going to the movies together. Sure, parents begrudgingly take
their kids to see The Rugrats Movie or another Disney
retread, but rarely is there much in these movies to keep
adults engaged. What filmmakers seem to have forgotten is
that the best family features appeal to a wide variety of
audience members, not just pre-teens.
It's easy to be skeptical when approaching Warner Bros.'
latest stab at the animated family genre, The Iron Giant.
Until now, the studio's been responsible for some of the
most embarrassing, lackluster animated family fare of the
'90s. Does anyone remember The Quest for Camelot?
The King and I? Exactly. For this reason alone, The
Iron Giant's success is even more shocking than that
of The Blair Witch Project. WB has crawled out of
its animated grave and crafted a wonderfully entertaining,
humorous and touching family film whose appeal ranges from
6-year-olds to 66-year-olds.
The year is 1957, and the setting is Rockwell, Maine. Hogarth
Hughes (voice of Eli Marienthal) is a prototypical loner
child: When he's not looking for pets that his mother, Annie
(voice of Jennifer Aniston), will allow him to keep, he
escapes into the fantasy world of B-grade horror and sci-fi
movies, and comic books.
One night, while he's watching TV, Hogarth's own life actually
becomes a comic book. Hearing a noise, he follows a path
of destruction through the woods to a nearby power station.
It's there that he first sees the Iron Giant (voice of Vin
Diesel), a 100-foot-tall robot from space that eats metal.
Naturally, Hogarth and the giant become friends, but danger
lurks: A government agent, Kent Mansley (voice of Christopher
McDonald), convinced that the unexplained phenomenon is
a threat to American security, arrives in Rockwell, determined
to learn the truth.
Warner Bros.' initial smart move was hiring Brad Bird to
write and direct the film. Bird is best known for directing
several episodes of The Simpsons (and also for serving
as executive consultant to King of the Hill), and
his satirical, somewhat subversive approach to comedy makes
the film quite adult-friendly. Bird has The Iron Giant
firing on all cylinders, and the reasons are as easy to
spot as they are hard to achieve. The movie's script is
tight, paced at lightning speed, intelligent and filled
with engaging characters. It manages to be both funny and
dramatic, without one drop of syrupy manipulation. It also
conveys a context of Red-scare paranoia and Cold War history
that adults will appreciate, and messages about friendship,
loyalty and gun control that kids should see (it's an odd
combination of E.T. and Dr. Strangelove).
Also, Bird thankfully eliminated the cheesy songs endemic
to most animated film, instead focusing attention on character
development and the film's gorgeous animated look (the town
isn't called Rockwell for nothing).
Some reviews of The Iron Giant have called the film
the best family film of the summer, while others say it's
the best family film of the year. Forget those praises;
in fact, forget the genre entirely. The Iron Giant
is one of the best films of the year--period.
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Willamette Week | originally
published August 11,
1999
|
