Jeff Doyen’s review published on Letterboxd:
Look at that, Warner Bros. created an amazing animated feature, and they left it for dead. Why does that sound familiar?
25 years, and a few weeks ago, Warner Bros. dumped an animated film to theaters, and much like most of their animated efforts at the time, rather they were produced in-house at Warner Bros. Feature Animation or acquired by a third-party animation house, the film crashed and burned in cinemas. But unlike said animated films, like Quest for Camalot, the animated King and I, or A Troll in Central Park, it was immediately regarded as a classic by those who saw it. And over time, the film’s popularity would continue to grow, and now, 25 years later, it is collectively referred to as one of the best animated features ever made.
I knew at some point I would get back around to this one. I was hoping it was last week, since Flashback Cinema brought this back to theater for its anniversary. I would’ve gone, but I had to pick up my sister in Detroit, and the car trip took a little longer than anticipated. But it’s fine, I already saw this in theaters back in 2015 with my brother for the Signature Edition rerelease. But now that I finally got back around, does it still hold up?
What do you think? Of course it does. The Iron Giant is still a magnificent feature. A wonderful animation classic and a brilliant debut from master director Brad Bird.
Practically everything works here. The animation here is wonderful. While a bunch of their films were underwhelming, rather from a critical or financial standpoint, Warner Bros. Feature Animation really had a great collection of talented artists and animators on staff. And as the studio’s second and final fully-animated feature, they went out swinging. The team did a tremendous job recreating 1957 Maine, from the backgrounds, to the character designs and animation, to the effects, and all that that implies, on top of the seamless compositing of the Giant, that I always forget is fully computer animated, unlike the hand drawn world around him.
The filmmaking here is fantastic, a real knockout from a debut filmmaker. Brad Bird’s direction is incredibly sharp and definitely lays out the ground work and style that can be seen in his later works. The story he developed with the story artists and screenwriter Tim McCanlies greatly adapts the Ted Hughes story for the big screen, it’s tightly paced and has compelling themes of paranoia and finding purpose against what you were made for. While it has and continues to be compared to films like E.T., I think what makes this interesting is the approach that Bird had in mind. This was made as a tribute to his sister, who was killed by her estranged husband at gunpoint, and pitched the film, asking the question, “what if a gun had a soul?” A bold take for an animated film to follow through, especially around this time when everyone was following the Disney Renaissance’s formula, but Bird is always pushing the envelope at what can be done in an animated feature, and his team really delivered here. And to think this all started because The Who’s Peter Townsend wanted to adapt his own interpretation of the book as a musical feature!
Speaking of which, the music here is fantastic. Michael Kamen did a wonderful job giving the music a timeless feel while greatly owing up to classic film scores of the 1950s. The cast of characters are well rounded out. Along with the greatly realized characters, comes the even greater vocal performances. Eli Marienthal is fantastic as our leading child Hogarth, Jennifer Aniston is wonderful as his mother, Harry Connick Jr. was superb as the resident beatnik, Christopher McDonald is both funny yet intimidating as Kent Mansley — a paranoid government agent who’s paranoia of anything that’s not American-made or breed is still commonly apparent in today’s modern landscape — others like John Mahoney, M. Emmet Walsh, Cloris Leachman, and James Gammon were terrific in their secondary parts, and we cannot forget the main man himself, Vin Diesel does a surprisingly good job as our lead robot. He gives so much soul and depth as the iron man, despite having very few lines, much like another Vin Diesel CG role. I Feel Like I Do enjoy the cast here.
And since I did watch the Signature Edition this time around, there were a few minor nitpicks that I had with the restoration. While stuff like adding back scenes that couldn’t be finished in time were fine, like I do appreciate how they try to give more breathing room for Annie and Dean’s relationship, but it is slightly noticeable that the new scenes were done years later after the fact, despite bringing back some of the animators. That, and the one thing that always bugged me is that the climax was supposed to be extended, but they didn’t get to do that, even with the DVD’s bonus feature containing the deleted scene with Bird stating, “If I had my perfect version…”. Speaking of which:
Man, Warner Bros. really just dumped two of the best animated films in the summer of 1999
Like I said earlier, I would’ve gotten around to see this again in theaters last week, but because of the overly long trip to Detroit and back, I had to instead had to watch it at home. I even had to pull out my 2015 Signature Edition DVD to watch it (should really upgrade to the Blu-ray release soon). While the restoration of the film looks fantastic, the DVD packaging as a whole is fine a bit underwhelming, much like the menu format that Warner Bros. have adopted since early 2010s. Much of the bonus features are lifted over from the 2004 special edition DVD, which adds up since Brad Bird practically begged for a better Blu-ray print and WB wanted a barebones release. The only new bonus features added here are a Signature Edition trailer, a tribute video called Hand Drawn that played in front of the theatrical rerelease, and a Blu-ray exclusive documentary called The Giant’s Dream. Warner Bros., like always, could’ve done better for this special edition release. Oh, and the quote-unquote “original cut” is slightly altered, too. It’s the same movie, but it’s not the same as the theatrical cut that came before it, like what they usually do for restorations.
But regardless, The Iron Giant is still a marvelous animated film, rather you’re watching the original theatrical cut, the restoration or the Signature Edition. It’s great that it has finally gotten the respect it so rightfully deserves, and will continue to do so for years to come. If you haven’t seen it yet, what the hell are you waiting for?! This is a must watch!
Of course the Jennifer Aniston mom is hot (“When did this turn into beautiful world?”)
1999 in Film / My Home Video Collection / My Favorite Movies / Movies Watched in 2024
