The Iron Giant

1999 giant robot movie

Rating: 17/20 (Dylan: 12/20; Emma: 6/20; Abbey: 16/20)

Plot: Hogarth finds a new large metallic buddy one day. Unfortunately, the government wants to destroy him. With the help of a guy who owns a junkyard, he tries to keep a monstrous hunk of metal that is impossible to hide hidden.

Brad Bird's second best movie, The Iron Giant is a humorous and ultimately touching E.T. clone that succeeds on almost every level. I did have to deduct points for the lame Superman reference at the end though because it was just too much. The 1950s are captured perfectly with beautiful animation. I especially like the way the titular robot contrasts with nature, the visuals contributing to a theme, I guess. There are shots that, although maybe not as beautiful as some recent CGI-shots, are almost frameworthy. The giant itself is a sympathetic character. You can identify with him even though he's not a human character both as he struggles with identity and has tanks shooting at him. Of course, he is an anthropomorphized robot, the kind you can only get in a cartoon. This is a simple story animated simply with a great score and hardly a single wasted moment. It's a great last splash of 2D wonder before computer animation would completely take over.

John Mahoney's also got a part in this. I knew a guy who was in a movie with John Mahoney who was Frasier's dad. And Kevin Bacon was in an episode of Frasier which means there are only four degrees of separation between Kevin Bacon and me.