July 2000

The Iron Giant

Review This!

I don’t know why it took me so long to finally get around to seeing "The Iron Giant". I’ve wanted to see it since it came out last year. It thought it would be good. Apparently I was right.

I was watching the TV Guide channel the other night, as I tend to a lot in the summer time. I had no intention of watching whatever crap the Networks were trying to push on me (for more on this, see Airwave Pollution). Anyhow, HBO scrolled by. I was hoping that they would be showing something decent, but didn’t have high expectations since Cinemax was rerunning "Cobra" for the 20th time this month. Then HBO rolls by. The newly designed easy to read red-for-movie bar tells me that "The Iron Giant" is on. "Hmmm, this has possibilities," I mutter out loud because I like the sound of my own voice. But then all doubt is erased from my mind. I read the description of the movie in the red-for-movie box. This synopsis is the most beautiful sentence ever written in the English language.

It says this: "A boy befriends a giant robot from outer space."

I knew this was the plot already. But when put in such terms I have no choice but to turn the TEEvee to HBO without delay. I don’t even care what else is on. No more channel surfing needed.

So I actually missed the first couple of minutes. I was watching something else which now slips my mind. Whatever it was, who cares. I was all about the "Iron Giant" now. Let me give a simple taste of what the movie is actually about before I go any further. "The Iron Giant" is about a boy who befriends a giant robot from outer space. That is all you really need to know. However, I will fill in a few more details for you. This movie is set in the fifties. The giant robot is being hunted by the government out of fear. The movie is a cartoon.

What happens is that this dastardly and judging-a-book-by-its-cover government agent comes to town and is trying to get this kid who found the robot to spill the beans. The kid won’t because he is your typical children’s movie nerd who doesn’t have any friends except for a giant robot and he loves the robot. The robot loves the kid. They are pals. The robot and the boy befriend the hipster who runs the local scrap yard and everything is peachy. Then the government comes and the plot thickens. Also, the robot has this defensive programming to completely annihilate anything that threatens it. I won’t ruin the rest of the movie for you except to say that there’s a sad part. The thought of anything bad happening to the boy and his giant robot buddy from outer space was too much for me to handle. It made me cry bitter tears of robotic compassion.

The plot of "The Iron Giant" is fairly typical and simple, but this is actually a very enjoyable flick. Especially if you are into giant robots from out space. This movie has superb animation and is very well written. I laughed. I cried. I got to see a giant robot from outer space kick ass all over the place. The only thing that I can think of that would be better that "The Iron Giant" would be if it were to rain naked ladies- and even that might be too close to call.