The Iron Giant (1999) - Bird's heavily themed family animation debut

♥♥♥♥ 

 

A stylish and retro-cool poster for Brad Bird's The Iron Giant

1950s Maine, the United States: Boy Hogarth is mad about sci-fi magazines during the atomic scare period, when a giant robot from space lands in the forest near his home ...

 

The Iron Giant is written by Tim McCanlies (North Shore (1987)), Brent Forrester (Love (2016-18)) and great Montanan filmmaker, debuting co-writer/director Brad Bird (Ratatouille (2007)), loosely adapted from Ted Hughes' (The Hawk in the Rain (1957)) The Iron Man (1968).

Wonderful, inspired and deeply colorful and vivid animation, which is endowed with a keen comical eye and excellent voice performances from Eli Marienthal (American Pie (1999)), Jennifer Aniston (We're the Millers (2013)), Harry Connick Jr. (New in Town (2009)), and others.

The story's political angle, - weapon are evil and the state and authorities are deceitful, ignorant and hungry for wars, - is a bit too pregnant for a family film. The Iron Giant is nevertheless still a very special and delightful picture.

 

Related posts:

Brad Bird: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - Cruise and Bird's phenomenal action spectacle 
The Incredibles (2004) - Unwanted animation action slam-dunk

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 50 mil. $

Box office: 31.7 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.63 times its cost)

[The Iron Giant premiered 31 July (USA) and runs 87 minutes. Bird was inspired by the murder of his sister, shot dead by her estranged husband, because Hughes' novel was a comforting tale for his children following their mother, poet Sylvia Plath's suicide. Production took place in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #9 to a 5.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, steadily declining from there to end with a 23.1 mil. $ (72.9 % of the total gross) gross. The flop was attributed to Warner Bros. lacking marketing campaign, apparently stemming from lack of faith in the film due to their failure with the preceding year's big animation Quest for Camelot (1998). The film won a BAFTA, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. IMDb's users have rated it in at the site's Top 250 at #239, sitting between Network (1976) and The Handmaiden (2016). Bird returned with The Incredibles (2004). Marienthal returned in 3 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in American Pie 2 (2001). The Iron Giant is certified fresh at 96 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Iron Giant?