Excellent, thought-provoking animated feature.

Rating: Null/10 (9 December 1999)

Finally, finally, finally a worthy alternative to the ruthless, cookie-cutter Disney stranglehold on feature animation; this film is not only thoughtful, entertaining, and technically excellent, it avoids all the assembly-line pitfalls the Disney features have fallen into lately. No lame "comic" relief (and even better, no Rosie O'Donnell), no attempts to "update" the story with a "nineties twist", no terrible songs, no multiple story climaxes . . . in short, everything that's wrong with Disney push-button dreck is right about THE IRON GIANT.
The story is told simply, with very little extra embellishment, and with genuine warmth, humor and sincerity, so it's a shame more people didn't see it in the theatres (but, honestly, those are probably the very reasons they didn't). The main character, Hogarth, is a likeable little boy, realistically portrayed. It's a credit to the filmmakers that they didn't feel the need to have the character be hip, flippant or disrespectful, a sad trend in movies. He's very much like a real little boy.
Forget TARZAN, with its main character surfin' through the jungle with his Brooklynite talk-show host gorilla sidekick for painful "comedy" relief (where's the relief from the comedy relief, I'd like to know), and do yourself and your kids (and your brains) a favor, and check out this underrated gem. We took our kids to TARZAN, and they couldn't tell you a thing about it (I'm sure it's blurred together with all the Disney flicks since LION KING), but wouldn't stop talking about THE IRON GIANT.

An absolute treat.