An entertaining and heartfelt cartoon version of "E. T." and "Star Kid. *** out of ****.

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2000)

THE IRON GIANT (1999) ***
Starring the voices of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Christopher McDonald, and Eli Marienthal Directed by Brad Bird. Running time: 87 minutes. Rated PG (for animated violence and mild language)
By Blake French:
"The Iron Giant" is much like a cartoon version of "E. T: The Extraterrestrial" and "Star Kid." It is an effective, empathetic journey into the life of its characters. Although the film is animated, it keeps a mature edge on its concepts. There are no outrageous characters, over the top musical numbers, or a bombarding number of shallow, unbelievable happenings. This is an animation in which children will enjoy for its message, but also adults because of its qualities and depth. If we were to replace the cartoons with real people, that would be possible here. That is how down to earth this movie is.
The story details the life of a lonely boy named Hogarth Hughes, who is about nine years of age. He lives a very dual and boring lifestyle with his mother, Annie. He has made a hobby of gathering animals from the wild to be his household pets. His mother is a very busy individual, working full time as a waitress for a small town coffee shop.
This is a fabulous, descriptive opening. We learn several elements about the characters, structure, as well as the movie's style. We learn that Hogarth's single mother is extremely busy and has little time with her son. We also see that due to the significant time this child spends alone, he has a great imagination. This is the internal problem, that Hogarth is somewhat lonesome spending all this time by himself. This film has well-developed characters, better than some more adult movies.
One day, while alone in the house watching television, something happens to Hogarth. His electrical power supply to his TV set goes bad. In a desperate attempt to fix the problem, he climbs on the roof of his house to discover half his antenna has been bitten off. What could have done this? The first clue is the massive footprints leading into the woods. Whatever made these prints destroyed everything in its path.
The thing that caused the destruction, technical difficulties, and placed colossal holes in the ground, is a massive iron giant from space who has recently crash landed on earth. Hogarth quickly greets the robot and makes friends with it. The story propels from there after we see the humanity and gentle attitude of the android whom we share empathy with and are able to understand and relate to. The first act is solid and clear cut, proving to us that this is not only a well-animated cartoon, but also a well structured one.
The film introduces the external problem when an insane detective places his nose where it doesn't belong and discovers the gigantic metal creature. Hogarth is forced to keep his robot secret so that it is not taken away. This detective's purpose in "The Iron Giant" serves as more than meets the eye. His motives are understandable and developed, although shows signs of existing as a plot device rather than a real character. Also, he is used to increase the line of dramatic tension as he grows closer and closer to finding the robot. This is a very sufficient and well-written character who contributes to a lot of positive material and many possibilities for the film.
The only problem I had with the film is how it never actually explained what the iron giant was. It is an amazing creature, able to heal itself, shoot out lasers, contribute in conversations, and yet we never know how it is able to do these things. Did it come from another plant seeking help for its dying race? Is it on a mission to gather important materials for its existence? Perhaps the android was built by a cruel human inventor on earth but was overtaken by the size of it ands thus allows it to escape into space and become lost--leaving the iron giant no choice but to return to his home where he discoursed along the way and crashed. The possibilities are endless. Too bad the filmmakers took such a shallow look at our title character, otherwise, this would have been one of the year's most entertaining family films.
Brought to you by Warner Bros.