THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The reason that superheroes have a special place in our hearts is that no matter what they look like or the prior mistakes they made, the one thing that mattered the most is how they put others first. In 1999, we got another hero that was unlike any other.
PLOT
Based on The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, The Iron Giant takes place in a fictional 1957 during the Cold War. A giant mechanical figure crashes on Earth into Maine. A local ship captain notices it crash and shares to his town that it could be an alien from Mars. No one believes him except Hogarth Hughes, a child who lives with his single mother Annie. One night, he chooses to pursue it when finding it responsible for damaging his TV antenna. He tracks it all the way down to a power station. He sees the robot eat the metal around it, until getting electrocuted. He saves its life by shutting off the station and feeding it a rock. When telling his mother about it, she does not believe him because she is already upset for him sneaking out. The ship captain calls the government to check out his alien claim. Gov. agent Kent Mansley is sent to investigate the power station. He does find Hogerth’s BB gun as evidence, but doesn’t truly believe the claim until noticing his car bitten off. Hogarth does encounter the robot again and begins a friendship with it by teaching it to talk. He does take notice of the bump on its head, likely the cause of not remembering its purpose. When he chooses to return home, it follows him. The robot tries to eat the tracks of a railroad, but puts it back together before getting hit by a train. Despite the damage to itself, it is able to reassemble, piece by piece. Hogarth chooses to hide it in his barn, later naming him ‘Giant’. When Mansley discovers the news of the train accident, he quickly checks it out. When a witness tells him he saw the robot, he visits the Hughes’ house to call his superior General Rogard (Josh Mahoney). Before his arrival, Hogarth is able to hide the left arm of Giant that snuck off on its own, while having dinner with Annie. When Mansley calls the general, his superior demands actual proof of his discovery before coming down to check it out. He does suspect Hogarth as a key suspect when realizing that the cut off signature ‘Hog Hug’ means ‘Hogarth Hughes’. He does confront the boy about it, but he doesn’t confess to what he saw. As the night progressed, Giant’s left hand returns to it. Hogarth does hang out with it that same night to show his comic books. He thinks it can be a hero of good like the fictional superhero Superman, rather than being a force of evil like the fictional villain Atomo. They do sneak out as well and go to a junkyard where Giant can feast in metal. It does accidentally summon the horn of a car. Not knowing how to turn it off and rather than consuming it, he throws it across the home of the junkyard owner, Dean McCoppin. He is at first scared of the giant figure, but Hogarth defends his friend and makes clear of its gentle presence. He also convinces him to let Giant hide in the junkyard. Originally, it was supposed to be for one night but when Mansley rents a room at his house, the stay has to be much longer. Annie encourages her son to hang out with their new roommate at a diner. Just as Mansley attempts to interrogate him and demand the Giant’s location, this gets avoided when the boy sneaks a laxative in his milkshake. As Hogarth bonds with Giant, Mansley continues investigating in the woods until finding Hogarth’s camera, containing picture proof of the robot’s existence. He confronts the boy again, only this time with the proof as leverage. He caves and admits his location to be at the junkyard. Mansley puts him to sleep with chloroform, to avoid warning Dean. However, Hogarth does wake up at night and tricks his rival to go to sleep so that he can warn his friend. When General Rogard arrives with an army to the junkyard, Giant is disguised as scrap metal artwork. This appears to be so humiliating that Rogard plans to fire Mansley for wasting his time. As they leave, Hogarth plays with his friend as celebration of keeping their cover. However, Giant acts defensively with his weaponry when taking notice of the toy gun. When Dean sees how powerful it is, he saves Hogarth from a laser blast that came from its eyes. He calls it out on its actions, causing it to run away out of fear of what could’ve happened. When Dean notices the toy gun, he quickly deduces that it was only acting defensively. Knowing this, he and Hogarth plan to follow it. Giant gets recognized in town after saving two boys falling from certain death. When Mansley and Rogard notice, the army decides to attack, mistaking that it attacked first. Giant runs away after reuniting with Hogarth. Dean warns Mansley that he has a child with him and will only attack defensively. Instead of sharing this to the general, he lies and says he killed a kid. Giant, with Hogarth in his hand, avoids the military for the moment when activating its flight system. He is then quickly shot down and crashed back to the ground. When Giant mistakes Hogarth to be dead, it gives in to its defensive system and becomes a weapon of mass destruction out of grief and anger. When Dean and Annie find Hogarth’s body, they discover him to be alive and unconscious, hoping to get him to a hospital. When he wakes up, he demands to help his friend. Mansley plans to kill Giant with the use of a nuclear missile launch by the USS Nautilus, as long as it’s away from the town. Thankfully, when Hogarth makes it to town with Dean & Annie, he reaches to Giant in time to calm him down. As Dean explains to Rogard that the robot is friendly, it is also noticed that Mansley was lying of Hogarth’s death. Paranoid, Mansley calls Nautilus to launch the missile. The problem is that the missile was targeted as Giant’s current position that is in the city. Giant chooses to make the sacrifice by flying towards the missile in space and let it destroy itself when colliding. While the town is relieved to be saved, Hogarth is saddened to lose a friend. Months later, Giant is considered a hero and a statue is made by Dean, now dating Annie, out of its honor. He then gives Hogarth a gift that was from Rogard, a bolt that is supposably the only piece of Giant that was ever found. At night, Hogarth wakes up and notices the bolt to be active. He lets it leave his room, knowing that his friend is alive and is reassembling. The film ends in a snowy area, showing that Giant is indeed doing so.
THOUGHTS
I think the biggest challenge that every other film studio has is making an animated film that will have the same quality as a Walt Disney classic. It comes with great surprise that Brad Bird, who’d later direct 3 Pixar films, brought Warner Bros.’ equivalent with this gem. Like a lot of animated films, this was one of many that I watched during my childhood and it remains entertaining within each viewing since it was first released. It blows my mind how it wasn’t a box office success at the time. I mean you know you’re looking at a timeless film of the animation is aging well. Aside from that, I always find satisfaction from this movie because of how the titular lead’s journey is expressed through the theme of identity. The Iron Giant is like Superman whereas being afraid of its abilities, desires to fit in and wants to be good. Thanks to an incredible voice acting performance from Vin Diesel, we felt the character to be a gentle and curious figure that only becomes aggressive when provoked. After being amazed of seeing it fly, I was definitely caught off guard seeing it in attack mode. However, seeing Giant smile while being reassembled warmed my heart because it knew it was on its way to reunite with his best friend. Enter Hogarth Hughes, who was perfectly voiced by the young Eli Marienthal. You like this kid because he is headstrong: He is scared of what comes his way, but fear doesn’t stop him from overcoming obstacles. He’s brave deep down because he jeopardized his own safety when calming an angry Giant. The reason he chooses to quickly bond with the robot because he was able to have a deep understanding with it overtime, as he does with actual people. A picture in his bedroom showed an Air Force pilot. That is supposably his deceased father. With him not around, the boy’s mentorship was able to fill the hole in his heart. While he couldn’t stop the sacrifice that was made, it became a blessing in disguise because that goodbye wasn’t permanent. When he says ‘See you later’ to the active bolt, his confidence was regained after realizing his friend was coming back. Before Giant though, the closest thing he had to a friend was someone he just met, Dean. Thanks to the voice performance by Harry Connick Jr., he embraced the character to be a laid back person who was passionate with his scrap metal artwork. His advice ‘You are who you choose to be’ is truly awe inspiring because it’s true, the only person that can decide what kind of person you want to be is yourself. As for Hogarth and Giant, they chose to be good by the end. Anybody could’ve played Annie, but Jennifer Aniston was a good choice. Thanks to her voice performance, she succeeds in portraying her as a hard working and devoted mother. She doesn’t believe her son about the robot because it was sensible for her to not believe in the bizarre. But when discovering the truth, she understood how whole he became with an unlikely friend. Since The Iron Giant is a hero, it’s common for a superhero movie to have some kind of villain. And thanks to an awesome voice performance from Christopher MacDonald, we got one that’s arguably iconic in the form of Kent Mansley. At first, he is an average man that can be well mannered. That all changed after seeing his car bitten off by Giant. His discovery caused him to be a paranoid man and acted harsh to eliminate a possible threat. The more he grew afraid of the robot, he grew more selfish as in putting himself over the country he’s supposed to protect and serve. You know he wasn’t thinking when he launched the missile before Giant ever left the city. Since he got held at gunpoint, he clearly got his comeuppance afterwards. This is easily a movie I can love with all my heart but despite that, I do believe I’ve noticed some problems after the hundreds of times watching it. First off, I can admit the squirrel shenanigans was funny to see. It feels like one in a million seeing a squirrel go up someone’s pants. While it got funnier when Dean unzips his pants to free the animal, doesn’t it sound logical for him to get to the bathroom before choosing to slightly humiliate himself. I don’t want to pick on the joke, but that could’ve been avoided. Also, how did the Giant place the piece of metal behind Hogarth so quietly? He may have been asleep, but the robot’s 50 feet tall, which sounds impossible to be silent like anything smaller. It’s even crazy how the robot was unnoticed by Mansley since every step he takes makes a thud. I’m even creeped out seeing a cow not move when the robot was sprinting towards the town. Of all the things Mansley could’ve done to get the upper hand, he should’ve checked out the junkyard unannounced to confirm Giant’s existence. Had he done that and get more picture proof, he would’ve not gone through humiliation, along with losing his mind through paranoia. And lastly, how did not one soldier confirm with Rogard that Mansley was lying? That should’ve not been ignored because there were witnesses watching the conversation between him and Dean. Had one solider said something, Mansley would’ve been cuffed sooner for lying and causing unnecessary conflict. Overall, The Iron Giant is an outstanding animated film for showing that there is a hero in all of us. If you want an animated movie that isn’t from Walt Disney, this is my top suggestion.
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