Beautiful fusion of children's classic with the Cold War

Rating: 9/10 (22 March 2005)

Relocating Ted Hughes' seminal children's story to Cold War America could have gone dreadfully wrong and it's a real credit to director Brad Bird and his team that they pulled it off so beautifully while demonstrating the day of traditional animation is far from over.
From his first appearance during a storm at sea, this iron giant is spectacularly realised and his friendship with young Hogarth sensitively and intelligently explored.
The film's given a snappy '50s Beat sensibility, from the exceptional animation design and cool soundtrack to characters such as the offbeat artist Dean, who can't help but recall an idealised Jack Kerouac.
But it's the immersion of the story in the nuclear paranoia gripping the US of the period that proves to be so effective, as agents of the government which has nothing to fear but fear itself allow their suppressed terror to goad the metal alien into revealing its purpose as a thinking gun.