from Warner Bros.
Directed by
Brad Bird
Starring (the voices of):
Jennifer Aniston (Annie Hughes)
Harry Connick Jr. (Dean McCoppen)
Vin Diesel (The Robot)
James Gammon (Army General)
Cloris Leachman (The Teacher)
John Mahoney (Mansley's Boss- Gen. Rogard)
Eli Marienthal (Hogarth Hughes)
Christopher McDonald (Kent Mansley)
M. Emmet Walsh (Earl)
Written by
Brad Bird
Tim McCanlies
Ted
Hughes (novel, play) |
 The Iron Giant
Rated PG for fantasy action and mild language
Directed by Brad Bird
Written by Tim McCanlies and Brad Bird, based on the book, The
Iron Man, by the Poet Laureate of England, Ted Hughes
Starring the voices of Jennifer Aniston, Eli Marienthal, Harry
Connick Jr., and Christopher McDonald
81 minutes
The Iron Giant, based on the book The Iron Man written by
Ted Hughes and set in the 1950s, is the story of a adventuresome
boy named Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) who befriends a giant
100 foot tall robot who crash landed on Earth during a savage
storm at sea. After finding out his TV antenna has been broken
off his house, Hogarth follows a trail of destruction which leads
to the giant robot, who Hogarth saves but shutting off the electrical
power at the power station. A friendship develops, with Hogarth
trying to teach the giant robot same basic rules of life on Earth
while at the same time trying to hide him from his mom (Jennifer
Aniston) and other people who just wouldn't understand.
They are chased by the evil Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald)
who believes that the giant robot is some sort of human creation
(probably Soviet) sent to the U.S. to destroy us. He believes
Hogarth knows about the robot and its location and will stop
at nothing to get that information out of him. Hogarth is aided
by Dean McCoppen (Harry Connick Jr.), a scrap metal dealer (the
robot eats metal) and beatnik artist. Along with their fears
of being discovered, Hogarth and Dean have to deal with the giant
robot's newly discovered (and potentially dangerous) reaction
to weapons.
This movie is very crisply written, drawn, and animated. One
can see how this could have been a bigger movie with live actors
and computer animated robots, but I'm glad it wasn't. There is
something so nice about the simplicity of the drawing that makes
this such a charming movie to watch. The story pokes fun at the
silliness of the 50s belief system that if there was a nuclear
blast and if you "duck and cover" under your desk you
will be saved. It points out, maybe a little too heavy-handedly,
that a little power in the wrong hands is a dangerous thing.
But most of all it is a story of a little boy and a giant robot
whose unlikely friendship can teach us a lesson about life and
death and the importance of caring for others almost more than
you do yourself.
Trina Ernst
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