Written by Ted Hughes, the novel "The Iron Man", was set in England, when a metal being comes crashing to earth and feeds on whatever metal he comes by. To stop this, local farmer boy Hogarth lures the Iron Man into a trap, but later befriends the giant and gives him a home in the local dump. But soon, an unidentified creature comes to earth to rage war. The giant combats him and succeeds. Under his command, the creature uses it's beautiful singing voice to calm the Earths people and stop all violence. I tell you all this as those who have seen the adaption know that the story is almost completely different. The story was a critique of conflict and war in humanity. But to tell the truth, the story sound good on paper and who know's maybe it would be entertaining, the story we got instead used a majority of the source material and told a beautiful story about relationships and conflict. Except instead it is set in America during cold war.
Now for the story: As I said above, in 1950's America, in the early stages of mistrust between USA and USSR, a being crashes and causes havoc. As Hogarth investigates, Washington has also become aware of this disturbance and sends in Agent Mansley (voiced by a brilliant Christopher McDonald). But that's not all that's going on. After Hogarth finds the giant, he saves him from being damaged and later befriends him, living out every 50's kids dream, owning a robot. But he must keep him secret and with the help of Dean, a local beatnik, they discover what he can do and teach him the ways of hero's and humans. Addressed here is the prejudice of the unknown and values of relationships, like the Russians are victim to propaganda and prejudice, as is the giant himself (I should say in case you guys kill me, VIN DIESEL VOICES THE GIANT, how awesome is that). And the relationships are very subtle from the mother and Hogarth, the giant, Dean, Mansley and General Rogard. I must say the voice cast is very good. When I found out that Jennifer Aniston of Friends fame voiced Annie Hughs, I was gob-smacked. I never heard Rachel, I saw the hard-working mother who loves her son.
You know what, I found little to nothing wrong with this movie, every actor did well and this is one of the best films of Brad Bird. You'll see more of his work in the Incredibles and Ratatouille, both are my favorite Pixar movies. My only qualm, I guess, is the length. I always felt as though it was too short, but that to me shows how time can fly when I am having fun watching a good movie. I never wanted it to end and when it did, it is one of the most heartbreaking and yet uplifting scenes in animated history. The style is very good, it seems very idyllic and very 1950's. The fact that Brad likes to draw hi characters first and then plug them into a computer is noticeable by nicely they are drawn. And as well as the nice design, it very much feels like a Disney film, without it being a Disney film. This was around the time when Warner Bros. were trying to do Disney and failing miserably, films like The king and I or Quest for Camelot This brought about a major change in the studio and started a resurgence into how well they produce their animated films leading to classics like Happy Feet and Batman: Return of the Joker. I of course won't bore you with the poor advertising campaign, but I believe that if they did re-release it, the film may as well reach the blockbuster mark.
So it really is one of my favorite animated films and I enjoy watching it around this time of the year. It has action, drama and great comedy (It's like an episode of Doctor Who) and if you do see it, you will not regret it.
This video is buy apollomovieguy on youtube, all credit goes to him.
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