One of my Favorite Movies Ever.

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2013)

I was probably 12 the last time I saw it. After work I saw it on the animation/kids DVD section at Target for 5 dollars. So I picked it up, remembering that I enjoyed it and thought it'd be a nice addition to my DVD collection. And now I can say that it is definitely in my top 5 favorite animated films, and one of my favorite movies ever.
As a kid, I loved the whole idea of a little kid running into a gigantic alien robot and having to keep him a secret, very similar to E.T., except Hogarth's alien friend is over 50 feet tall and difficult to keep secret. When I saw it back then on VHS, I enjoyed it just as much as any other animated movie I liked at the time. But I didn't really grasp how wonderful the film truly was because I didn't fully understand what truly makes a movie great. It was a cartoon, so I didn't take it seriously as watching "Lord of the Rings" with my dad for the first time, and treated it as such: a good, fun animated movie, but not on par with something "live-action" and "teen/adult oriented". Now having watched it again at the age of 21, there is so much this film does, so simply and subtly in fact, that it is basically perfect.
You already know the synopsis for the film, but what about the characters in the film? The best thing about all of these characters, Hogarth, his mom Annie, the agent Kent, the junkyard artist Dean, and of course the Iron Giant. The relationships between these characters are so enjoyably real and seamless, their personalities meshing, connecting, and clashing as they interact with one another. Hogarth's relationship with his mom seems like a very real mother/son relationship, and the fact that he doesn't have a dad isn't shoved in your face like most Disney movies would with dead parents not being present. It very subtly presented with a brief picture of his dad on a picture frame towards the end of the film, but by then you've already got the picture that he only has a mom and why. And the fact Kent is so hellbent on finding the "giant" and is constantly prying Hogarth's brain to get him to spill the beans is just hilarious at times. Hogarth absolutely does not like this guy, and has a very funny way of getting back at Kent, which I won't ruin for you. With Dean and Annie, you don't get any forced, "this is awkward, kind of like you but can't say it" scenes, in fact you don't see them together too much, but any moment you see them together, you can tell that they have a genuine attraction towards the other. Last but certainly not least is Hogarth and the Giant.
Hogarth runs into the giant out of sheer curiosity as to what took their satellite disk one night, and is obviously terrified and yet memorized at first. Eventually he has to save the giant from being shocked to death from being tangled in some power lines but shutting the power down at the station. He loses track of the robot after that night, but decides he wants to go out an try to capture evidence that there really is a gigantic alien robot in the woods. Sure enough he runs right into him, and so their friendship begins. And through simply trying to teach him to speak and trying to lead him to a safe hiding place, you see that the giant is actually something of a curious little kid, learning and adjusting to this new world. You know he came from some faraway advanced planet, but we really don't know why or what things he is capable of (until towards the end), but you're just so drawn into how through so few words and sentences, this Iron Giant is such a wonderful character.
Brad Bird and everyone who took part making this film truly put a genius effort into bringing the giant to life. Through his limited facial expressions (eyebrows, small-big bright eyes, adjustable mouth and iron teeth) and voice work by Vin Diesel, they truly make you feel for this curious, little kid "giant", and the personal turmoils he has when comprehended the death of a deer, or whether or not he has a soul of his own because he has a personality and feelings. My personal favorite scene is when the giant thinks Hogarth is dead, how he gasps in shock, how his hand trembles after touching his limp body, how he just starts to whimper and cover his face in sadness, it's just perfect. The Iron Giant himself is one of the best animated characters in history, with a team of amazing artists behind him to turn a what might have otherwise been a generic robot into a genuine, connectible, and memorable character.
Ultimately the moral in the end is "killing is bad, and take time to love what you have around you always." People bash this film so badly for the fact that it's a robot and should not have feelings, and all the political references and connections it has in this film, and I do not believe that's any reason to bash it whatsoever. I could go on scene by scene narrating the movie and explaining what I love about each scene, but I want to let you all watch it for yourself.
The Iron Giant is a solid 10/10 for me, with amazing animation, wonderful and lush characters with supreme voice actors, such as Jennifer Anniston as Annie or Harry Connick Jr. as Dean, and a simple easy to follow story that is pieced and scripted together so well, that it just comes out perfectly. As I said before, one of my favorite movies ever, and for many a good reason.
10/10