Brad Bird, the guy who made Ratatouille and The Incredibles, directed this little beauty for his feature debut. The Iron Giant is the hilarious and touching tale of a small boy and his giant robot. It’s a bit like My Dog Skip, only with a robot. To cut a long story short, problems ensue, and it comes to one of the most emotional devastating heads in the history of cinema. Seriously, this little, traditionally animated film about a boy and his robot packs one of the most potent emotional punches of pretty much any film I can think of.
The beauty of this film is that is operates on several equally effective levels: it’s funny, contains themes of social alienation, pacificism and self-improvement, it works as an allegory for cold war paranoia and has a beautifully sad ending the equal of any work of serious drama. Forget Ratatouille and The Incredibles, this is Brad Bird’s best film.
The Iron Giant (1999), directed by Brad Bird, is released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Certificate U.
