A boy and his robot

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2015)

If you were a young, fatherless boy in the not-so-innocent but still portrayed as the innocent 1950's, and if you found a robot with amnesia that had powers way beyond anything you'd ever dreamed of, then this is the movie for you.
With a simple yet prescient message of tolerance for all, The Iron Giant stands metal heads and shoulders above many other animated features as it concentrates on character development as opposed to showing off CGI pyrotechnics.
The voice work is excellent, particularly Vin Diesel who manages to inject his character as the Giant with great emotion in only a few simple words. Jennifer Aniston as Annie, Harry Connick, Jr., and Eli Marienthal all portray their parts as people as opposed to just actors reading lines.
The animation is fine, although I've seen better, but it captures the period well enough. There are a couple of plot holes--mainly about the Giant managing to keep hidden so well when he is a, well, giant--but the movie is so gripping and the music moving (and a little maudlin at times) that you just can't help getting caught up in it.
Highly recommended.