Are You With Us?: The Iron Giant
By Shalimar Sahota
July 30, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Starring – Vin Diesel (The Iron Giant), Eli Marienthal (Hogarth Hughes), Jennifer Aniston (Annie Hughes), Harry Connick Jr. (Dean McCoppin), Christopher MacDonald (Kent Mansley), John Mahoney (General Rogard)
Length – 86 minutes
Cert – U / PG
The Iron Giant celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, having originally opened August 6, 1999. Unfortunately, despite overwhelmingly positive reviews, audiences were spoiled with more marketable competition.
Being a fan of Ted Hughes' novel, The Iron Man, I remember looking forward to the animated adaptation of The Iron Giant, happy that it was even happening. News and previews indicated that the film didn't really follow the novel at all, though, so I decided not to watch it. However, that was ten years ago when I thought like a teenager. Thankfully, I am older now and therefore more stupid. That's right, growing old is awful kids.
Set in October 1957, during the height of the Cold War, a giant metal robot (Vin Diesel) crash-lands in Rockwell one night. An old man who witnessed the crash tells his story in a restaurant the next day, but of course no one believes it, not even young Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal). That changes later that night, when Hogarth discovers that his television antenna is missing. Searching the woods, he finds large footprints that lead him to an iron giant eating an electricity pylon. Hogarth saves the giant from full-on electrocution, earning himself a new friend. However, as news of the sightings spreads, it isn't long before government agent Kent Mansley (Christopher MacDonald) comes down to Rockwell to investigate.
The Iron Giant is one of those few films that just about damned near nails everything perfectly. What's more surprising is how this adaptation achieves this with so few elements from the novel making it over. Director Brad Bird and screenwriter Tim McCanlies have practically re-written their own story with the title character. And with Bird, the story always comes first. As seen with The Iron Giant and his later films, he picks suitable voice actors and avoids plastering their names all over the poster. The film is also funnier than most so–called comedies. A segment involving Hogarth trying to get the giant's hand back to him makes for an absurdly well written piece of slapstick
Given the time period, the film is layered with lots of little touches highlighting the Cold War, including newspaper headlines, Sputnik and a cheery Atomic Holocaust video, parodying the infamous Duck and Cover. However, these will most likely be lost on younger audiences, which is probably for the best. A little digging shows that the Cold War aspect of it all brings out the worst in us, with the enemy being our own paranoia. This is personified by the ruthless government agent Kent Mansley. Admittedly a one-dimensional character, the film still works by keeping him merciless in his actions.
Hogarth comes across as a stereotypical young boy. He wants a pet, he knows how to turn an ice cream shake into a landslide and stays up late to watch an intentionally bad horror film. It's his relationship with the giant where the film incorporates the best of E.T. (Hogarth educates the giant about the Earthly surroundings), Frankenstein (the giant does a Boris Karloff impression towards the end) and even Terminator 2 (Hogarth tells the giant to use his powers for good). The giant himself is also very childlike, never thinking about the consequences of his actions until Hogarth mentions it.
The ultimate message of non-violence is all over the place, subtle at times and more obvious in others. A shooting of a deer rivals Bambi in the trauma department, while the giant declares to Hogarth that he is "not a gun." In what must have been a move by Warner's marketing department, Hogarth even gives the giant a role model to look up to in Superman. Unusually, when the giant does use his weapons of mass destruction, you can't help but cheer.
With a budget of $48 million the film reached $23 million domestically. Its worldwide gross is unaccounted for. Why didn't it take off? 2-D animation was still doing strong business; The Price of Egypt managed over $200 million worldwide the previous year, and The Emperor's New Grove reached over $165 million in 2000. Maybe releasing it the same week amongst four other new releases; Dick, Mystery Men, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Sixth Sense, wasn't such a good idea? Writer Tim McCanlies put it down to Warner's lack of marketing, effectively not knowing how to release it.
Its reputation has only grown over time. The film won nine Annie awards and even a BAFTA. In the UK, Channel 4's Top 100 Cartoons had The Iron Giant ranked #12, above the likes of many Disney classics, such as Bambi, Lady & The Tramp and Aladdin. Tim McCanlies went on to write and direct the brilliant Secondhand Lions, while Brad Bird later directed Pixar's The Incredibles and Ratatouille.
It may not be the faithful adaptation of the novel, but nevertheless it's nice to see both writer and director adopting their own unique story rather than rushing out a lazy adaptation. All that's left now is for some hotshot director to go all out on a live action version, only for it to get slaughtered after critics call it a lame Transformers rip-off.