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The Iron Giant
USA 1999
Reviewed by Leslie Felperin
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Rockwell, Maine, 1957. An enormous iron man crash-lands on Earth, reassembles itself and sets about consuming the metal it needs to live. Nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes, son of single mother Annie, happens on the giant one night in the woods and saves its life when it tries to eat a power station. Rockwell's strange goings-on bring government agent Kent Mansley to town. Hogarth persuades local beatnik Dean McCoppin to keep the giant at the junk yard Dean owns where it will have enough to eat. Hogarth teaches the giant English and teaches it not to use its destructive powers.
Eventually, the giant is discovered. Convinced it is a weapon, Mansley calls in the military. Seeing that conventional weapons are of no use, Mansley gets the army to launch a nuclear attack on the giant. Hogarth persuades the giant not to fight. It launches itself into the sky, detonating the bomb safely in outer space but seemingly destroying itself in the process. Some time later, Dean has made a statue in the giant's honour and is now part of a family with Annie and Hogarth, who still mourns the giant. But all over the world, pieces of the giant are slowly finding each other...
Review
Not only is The Iron Giant one of the more emotionally satisfying films of the year, but it also affords a cheering opportunity for all those who'd like someone other than Disney to have a cartoon hit. Given its illustrious record with shorts starring Bugs Bunny and crew, it's surprising it's taken Warner Bros this long to make a serious stab at original features.
It was a particularly smart move to hire Simpsons veteran Brad Bird to direct. In collaboration with screenwriter Tim McCanlies, Bird brings with him a very Simpsonian knack for mixing humour with sentiment so that the morality never clots into indigestible preaching. This means the "you can be whatever you want" message Hogarth teaches the Iron Giant emerges as a subtle lesson in free will. Similarly, the Simpsons line in nimble parody emerges with a hilarious pastiche of a 50s safety film 'Duck and Cover' while unforced allusions to 50s atomic-horror films, vintage comics, The X Files and the Beat Generation oxygenate an already bubbly story. Even the clean, stylised animation, although distinctive, conjures up the gestural simplicity of Bird's training ground at its best.
In the film's knack for darkness and emphasis on line, there's a trace memory of Andrew Davidson's woodblock illustrations for Ted Hughes' original story on which this is loosely based. Purists might demur at The Iron Giant's radical departure from its source, the significantly differently titled The Iron Man. Gone is the truly blood-frosting image it conjures of the space-bat-angel-dragon, as big as Australia and bent on licking life from the planet. Perhaps such stuff would be a little too scary for children if given visual form. The giant here is more like E.T. crossed with a Transformer than Hughes' mysterious emanation of the Earth, but this adaptation still incorporates delicious memories from the original - the giant munching thoughtfully through a junkyard of metal, the sense of his awesome scale and his gift for self-assembly (an ability many parents would wish on the presents opened on Christmas morning) - that sweeten the near-tragic, genuinely moving climax. Given the film's enormous box-office success so far, expect the inevitable follow-up, although the film-makers probably won't use Hughes' own harrowing sequel The Iron Woman.
Credits
- Director
- Brad Bird
- Producers
- Allison Abbate
- Des McAnuff
- Screenplay
- Tim McCanlies
- Screen Story
- Brad Bird
- Based on the book
- The Iron Man by
- Ted Hughes
- Camera Supervisor
- Mark Dinicola
- Editor
- Darren T. Holmes
- Production Designer
- Mark Whiting
- Music/Music Conductor
- Michael Kamen
- ©Warner Bros
- Production Company
- Warner Bros presents
- a Brad Bird film
- Executive Producer
- Pete Townshend
- Associate Producer
- John Walker
- Production Associates
- Sandro Mario Corsaro
- Ralph Garcia
- Bryan Kulik
- Barry O'Donoghue
- Scene Planners
- Gina Bradley
- George (Bingo) Ferguson
- James Keefer
- Dan C. Larsen
- Karen Hansen
- Production Manager
- Amy Richards
- Department Heads
- Story:
- Jeffrey Lynch
- Computer Graphics:
- Tad Gielow
- Layout/Workbook:
- William H. Frake III
- Background:
- Dennis Venizelos
- Clean-up:
- Lureline Kohler
- Effects:
- Allen Foster
- Scene Planning:
- Steven Wilzbach
- Animation Check 2D/3D:
- Myoung Smith
- ACME:
- Rhonda L. Hicks
- ACME Supervisors
- Colour Models:
- Tania Mitman Burton
- Scanning:
- Irene M. Gringeri
- Ink & Paint:
- Sarah-Jane King
- Final Check:
- Dennis Bonnell
- Final Scene Planning:
- Kim Patterson
- Post-production Supervisor
- Jeannine Berger
- ACME Digital Specialists
- Will Bilton
- James Hathcock
- Freddie Vaziri
- Animatic Production Specialists
- Andrew Jimenez
- Dale A. Smith
- Casting
- Marci Liroff
- Associate:
- Shaunda Grace Jones
- Artistic Casting/ Development
- Tom Knott
- Marci Gray
- Dave Master
- Chris Chavez
- Katherine Concepcion
- Storyboard Artists
- Dean Wellins
- Mark Andrews
- Kevin O'Brien
- Viki Anderson
- Steven Markowski
- Piet Kroon
- Fergal Reilly
- Additional Story
- Teddy Newton
- Stephen G. Lumley
- Harry A. Sabin Jr
- Moroni
- Ron Hughart
- Brian Kindregan
- Colour Stylists
- Constance R. Allen
- Anthony C. Cianciolo Jr
- Sylvia Marika Filcak
- Tanya Moreau-Smith
- Catherine P. O'Leary
- Devon P. Oddone
- Cathy Wainess-Walters
- Colour Modellists
- Olga Tarin Duff
- Dawn Knight
- Helga Beatrix Vanden Berge
- Camera Operator
- Christine Beck
- Technology
- Supervision:
- Steve Y. Chen
- Lem Davis
- Emmanuel C. Francisco
- Bill Perkins
- Arjun Ramamurthy
- David F. Wolf
- Engineers:
- George Aluzzi
- Cathy E. Blanco
- Keith Kobata
- Jose F. Lopez
- Darryl McIntosh
- Brian Peterson
- Leonard J. Reder
- Alan L. Stephenson
- Aaron L. Thompson
- Arnold M. Yee
- Cheng-Jui Yu
- Zizi Zhao
- Operations:
- Lori A. Arntzen
- Kevin D. Howard
- Rusty Howes
- Hector A. Martinez
- Alexis Pierre
- Usha Ramcharitar
- Paul Skidmore
- Gene Takahashi
- CGI Animation
- Richard Baneham
- Grace Blanco
- Brad Booker
- Andrew D. Brownlow
- Yarrow Cheney
- Minhee Choe
- Stéphane Cros
- Adam Dotson
- Bruce Edwards
- Mark R.R. Farquhar
- Ron Hughart
- Yair Kantor
- Les Major
- Mike Murphy
- Susan L. Oslin
- Glenn Storm
- Vincent Truitner
- Technical Directors
- Brett Achorn
- Daniel Bunn
- Steven Burch
- Kolja Erman
- Babak Forutanpour
- Brian Gardner
- Corey Hels
- Roger Huynh
- Hiroki Itokazu
- Darren D. Kiner
- Andy King
- Michael Leung
- Sébastien Linage
- Mike Meckler
- Lyle S. Nojima
- Brian Schindler
- Teddy T. Yang
- Head of Animation
- Tony Fucile
- Supervising Animators
- Richard Bazley
- Bob Davies
- Stephan Franck
- Tony Fucile
- Gregory S.E. Manwaring
- Steven Markowski
- Mike Nguyen
- Wendy Perdue
- Christopher Sauvé
- Dean Wellins
- Animators
- Richard Baneham
- Adam Burke
- Jennifer Cardon
- Mike Chavez
- Ricardo Curtis
- Ruth Daly
- Marcelo Fernandes de Moura
- Jeff Etter
- Lauren Faust
- Ralph Fernan
- Steve Garcia
- Lennie K. Graves
- Russell Hall
- Adam Henry
- Ken Hettig
- Kevin Johnson
- Ben Jones
- Ernest Keen
- Jae H. Kim
- Holger Leihe
- Lane Lueras
- Craig R. Maras
- Roy Meurin
- Randy Myers
- Melina Sydney Padua
- Scott T. Petersen
- Andrew Schmidt
- Sean Springer
- Mike Swofford
- Derek Thompson
- Craig Valde
- Jim Van Der Keyl
- Roger Vizard
- Alex Williams
- Mark A. Williams
- John D. Williamson
- Additional Animation
- Joanne Coughlin
- Devin Crane
- Jean Cullen De Moura
- Phil Langone
- Brian Larsen
- Boowon Lee
- Helen Hee Seung Lee
- Michael Mullen
- Shane Prigmore
- Eddie Rosas
- Andy Schuhler
- Michael Shannon
- Kyung S. Shin
- Peter Sohn
- Stephen Steinbach
- Michael Venturini
- Visual Development/ Character Design
- Tony Fucile
- Ray Aragon
- Victor J. Haboush
- Lou Romano
- Laura L. Corsiglia
- Dominique R. Louis
- Teddy Newton
- Clean-up Leads
- Eric J. Abjornson
- Nathalie Gavet
- Karenia Kaminski
- Marty Korth
- June Myung Nam
- Don Parmele
- Doris A. Plough
- Robert Tyler
- Clean-up Keys
- Paul Bauman
- Andrew Beall
- James Burks
- Yelena Geodakyan
- Wantana Martinelli
- Domingo C. Rivera Jr
- Karen Rosenfield
- Kyung S. Shin
- Calvin Suggs
- Hamish MacKinnon
- Michael Venturini
- Tran Vu
- Effects Animators
- John Bermudes
- Jesse M. Cosio
- John Dillon
- Rick Echevarria
- Marc Ellis
- Michel Gagné
- Earl A. Hibbert
- Brett Hisey
- John MacFarlane
- Kevin M. O'Neil
- Volker Pajatsch
- David Pritchard
- Gary Sole
- Ryan Woodward
- Digital Effects Artists
- Miae Kim Ausbrooks
- Rick Echevarria
- Kevin Oakley
- Ryan Woodward
- Andrew Jimenez
- Animation Checkers
- Susan Burke
- Daryl Carstensen
- Charlotte Clark-Pitts
- Katie Gray
- Gillian Higgins
- Louie C. Jhocson
- Pam Kleyman
- Madel Flancia Manhit
- Penelope G. Sevier
- Carol Li-Chuan Yao
- Nick Yates
- Workbook Designers
- Mark Andrews
- Stephen G. Lumley
- Layout Artists
- James P. Alles
- Teresa Coffey-Wellins
- Frederick J. Gardner III
- Louis Gonzales
- Karen Hamrock
- Workbook Designers
- Conor Kavanagh
- Francis Lang
- Emil Mitev
- Felipe Morell
- Ronald M. Roesch
- Lisa Souza
- Audrey Stedman
- Bill Thyen
- Michael Tracy
- Craig Voigt
- Jennifer Yuan
- Lead Bluesketch Artist
- Mercedes J. Sichon
- Bluesketch Artist
- Irina Goosby
- Background Artists
- Christopher Brock
- Ruben Chavez
- William Dely
- Dennis Durrell
- James Finn
- Greg Gibbons
- Annie Guenther
- Joel Parod
- Craig Robertson
- Jonathan Salt
- Nadia Vurbenova
- Wei M. Zhao
- Digital Background Artist
- Craig Kelly
- Iron Giant Designers
- Joe Johnston
- Mark Whiting
- Hiroki Itokazu
- Teddy T. Yang
- Steven Markowski
- Michael Bay
- Artistic Co-ordinator
- Scott F. Johnston
- Art Director
- Alan Bodner
- Character Sculptor
- Carla Larissa Fallberg
- Music Performed by
- The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
- Electronic Music Score Programmers
- James Brett
- Michael Price
- Orchestrations
- Michael Kamen
- Robert Elhai
- Blake Neely
- Music Score Producers
- Gohl/McLaughlin
- Michael Kamen
- Christopher Brooks
- Music Editor
- Christopher Brooks
- Music Score Recorder/Mixer
- Steve McLaughlin
- Music Consultants
- James Austin
- John 'Juke' Logan
- Soundtrack
- "Honeycomb" by Bob Merrill, performed by Jimmie Rodgers; "I Got a Rocket in My Pocket" by Jimmy Logsdon, Vic McAlpin, performed by Jimmy Lloyd; "Comin' Home Baby" by Bob Dorough, Ben Tucker, performed by Mel Tormé; "Duck and Cover" by Teddy Newton, arranged by Preston Oliver, performed by Brad Bird, Shannon Gregory, Dean Wellins; "Blue Rumba" by Bobby Black, performed by Pepe Dominguin; "Genius after Hours" by/performed by Ray Charles; "Capitolizing" by/performed by Babs Gonzalez; "Cha-Hua-Hua" by Adam Ross, Joe Lubin, performed by Eddie Platt; "Blues Walk" by/performed by Lou Donaldson; "Let's Do the Cha Cha" by Willie Boyd, Richard Nance, performed by The Magnificents; "Searchin'" by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, performed by The Coasters
- Sound Design
- Randy Thom
- Principal Dialogue
- Troy Porter
- Doc Kane
- Production Sound
- Gregory M. Gerlich
- Re-recording Mixers
- Gregory H. Watkins
- Kevin E. Carpenter
- Digital Playback Operations
- Chad Algarin
- Mark LaPointe
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Dennis Leonard
- Supervising Dialogue Editor
- Curt Schulkey
- Sound Effects Editor
- Beau Borders
- ADR
- Mixers:
- Troy Porter
- Doc Kane
- Foley
- Artists:
- Dennie Thorpe
- Jana Vance
- Engineer:
- Frank 'Pepe' Merel
- Mixer:
- Tony Eckert
- Editor:
- Mary Helen Leasman
- Consultant
- Ted Hughes
- Voice Cast
- Jennifer Aniston
- Annie Hughes
- Harry Connick Jr
- Dean McCoppin
- Vin Diesel
- The Iron Giant
- James Gammon
- Foreman Marv Loach/Floyd Turbeaux
- Cloris Leachman
- Mrs Tensedge
- Christopher McDonald
- Kent Mansley
- John Mahoney
- General Rogard
- Eli Marienthal
- Hogarth Hughes
- M. Emmet Walsh
- Earl Stutz
- Jack Angel
- Robert Bergen
- Mary Kay Bergman
- Michael Bird
- Devon Borisoff
- Rodger Bumpass
- Robert Clotworthy
- Jennifer Darling
- Zack Eginton
- Paul Eiding
- Bill Farmer
- Charles Howerton
- Ollie Johnston
- Sherry Lynn
- Mickie T. McGowan
- Ryan O'Donohue
- Phil Proctor
- Frank Thomas
- Patti Tippo
- Brian Tochi
- additional voices
- Certificate
- U
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors (UK)
- 7,785 feet
- 86 minutes 31 seconds
- Dolby stereo digital SR/DTS/SDDS
- Colour/Prints by
- Technicolor