A profound art film for kids and a cartoon for intellectuals

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2002)

Big time spoilers!
Most any Hollywood film can be reduced to a one-sentance description of it's essence. While the deceptively simple ingredients that made "the Iron Giant" could easily have made a typical formula product, such as "a really cool movie with lots of explosions about a kid who makes friends with a misfit giant robot," this film is something profoundly more unique. The sentance that director Brad Bird used to describe the essence of this film was "a gun that learns to love."
When the Giant falls from the sky into the life of Hogarth Hughes, it brings with it chaos, war, fear, greed and exploitation. It is the objectification of the base animal instincts of humanity, posessing unlimited power for technological destruction, but innocent of good or evil like a child. Nobody knows where it comes from- was it made by the Russians, or god? Hogarth wants to keep it for himself- Dean, his friend the existentialist beatnik artist, wants to hide it and pretend it doesn't exist- the government wants it destroyed- and Kent Mansley, the main antagonist, has such a competitive lust to conquer it, he'll wreck families, whole towns, and even himself to do it.
The conflict climaxes at the point of an impending nuclear strike. But the Giant, programmed as a weapon to destroy what attacks it regardless of any other consequences, has discovered it has a heart, and it chooses to step aside from it's destiny, and sacrifice itself to save from death the people it loves. It's a jesus-like sacrifice, but instead of serving god's will, this is a choice of free will, a humanist message that's open to interpretation but wonderfully sincere.
Where other great films use many of these ingredients- deep psychological insight, mythic-poetic archetypes, socio-political allegory (the cold war), great humor and entertainment (squirrels in the pants)- they might end up being insubstantial if they lack the biggest ingredient in "the Iron Giant", heart. It makes me cry every time I hear the Iron Giant's last words. Besides those things, it has universal appeal. As a "family oriented cartoon" film with lots of jokes and pop culture references, which was a commecial failure due to executive mismanagement, this film proves that the value of creative expression is independant from terms like "low art" and the value measurements of commerce. It's a work of art first and a commercial product second. Compared to the current wave of dissatisfyingly hollow, ideologically self-reflexive, corporate-mythmaking computer-generated blockbusters about living toys and dream factories run by friendly monsters, this film should be the standard to judge all future animated features by.