The Iron Giant

IRON GIANT dir. Brad Bird, 1999. Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, Eli Marienthal. Format: Digital Projection. 87 minutes. PG.

In October 1957 shortly after the USSR launched Sputnik, an object crashes lands near the small coastal town of Rockwell Maine. 9-year-old Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) sets out to investigate finding a 50-ft alien robot (Vin Diesel) who eats metal and can’t remember where he came from or why he was built. The two find themselves hiding from xenophobic and overzealous Federal Agent Kent Mansley in local artist and beatnik Dean McCoppin’s (Harry Connick Jr.) junkyard. A loving ode to classic science fiction, Brad Bird’s animated masterpiece is a touching tale of friendship, a subversion of 50’s nostalgia where the impact of violence and paranoia boils just under the surface, and a deeply affecting exploration of what it means to be a hero. This movie has something for everyone in the family to enjoy and remains one of the smartest animated films in the modern era.