Precious metal

Rating: Null/10 (18 October 2000)

7 of the comments after this one are mainly negative and the other 246 mainly positive (most of them ecstatically so). On Amazon.com, IRON GIANT has 2 negative comments and 222 positive ones (almost all ecstatic). On Epinions, 6 comments are negative and 171 positive (and mostly ecstatic).

So, if you see the film after all this you might be disappointed. I was, after reading the Rotten Tomatoes page (62 positive reviews out of 64, and most ecstatic - in a dignified professional-critic way of course). Seeing it at an empty theater with no one to share responses didn't help either. I wrote off its fans as mainly Disney-haters.
Well...that was dumb of me. IRON GIANT survived my hype-overload letdown, repairing my impression of it bit by bit till I realized all those gushing over it were on to something. There's no other animated film quite like it - it isn't as ambitious as, say, PRINCESS MONONOKE, but that's partly what makes it so interesting, how it turns a typical Hollywood boy-with-a-hidden-friend story into something magical. It isn't perfect, sure - I'm an animal-rights champion and even I didn't like the hunting scene - but it's still wonderful.
Seeing this movie garner such admiration after its humiliating theatrical death is like seeing a high school wallflower blossom into a gorgeous adult who has to beat off suitors with a stick. It deserves it. No wonder Ted Hughes loved its screenplay, different though it was from his book; he died right before its release, and they co-dedicated it to him onscreen. Imagine how embarrassing that would have been if it had stunk.