Great animation and storyline make for a wonderful film

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 1999)

Iron Giant - boy befriends giant robot from space - Part ET, part Ghandi, with a dash of Bambi.
Whenever I hear a lot of positive reviews about a movie I am instantly suspicious. I went expecting to see an all right Disney wannabe and was pleasantly surprised. The animation is excellent - a fusion of American Pop and Heavy Metal - and helps recreate the atmosphere of 50's (I especially enjoyed the "Duck and Cover" film they were watching at school).

The story is thoroughly engaging for both kids and adults (however I recommend you may want to miss the early screenings - I lost a good 5 minutes of dialogue to screaming children). Best of all, it's nice to see an animated film without distracting musical numbers (don't get me wrong, I like musicals as well as the next guy) because done wrong they will handicap a movie (Prince of Egypt comes to mind. Also, I think it considerable courage to take an anti-violence stance and say something as radical as "Guns kill people" (the NRA won't be endorsing this film any time soon). This movie did not fail to deliver on any level and I will be seeing it again.
Michael Eisner may want to cash in a few more of his options while they're still worth something, because if this is a preview of things to come from WB, there is a definite contender for the Disney crown.