Really good retro-style animated film.

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2001)

The reviewer from my college paper (whose favorite movie is supposedly Natural Born Killers) considers this the best animated movie ever, over anything by Disney or Hayao Miyazaki and apparently over anything by Ralph Bakshi--the same sort of superlatives that have been lavished on Shrek by young and false animation buffs simply because the movie is "hip" and irreverent. The heart of animation is not cheekiness--it is a stylized reality, something we are in danger of losing with the current trend of photo-realistic computer animation and digital "film" (though the Final Fantasy trailers show that there are some in the CGI field that still believe in creating fantastic shots, even if the early dialogue screams Titan A.E.).
This is not a problem in The Iron Giant, because the filmmakers only draw the giant (and other rotoscoped objects) on computers, then literally paint them (a la "The Great Mouse Detective"'s Big Ben scene). The effect is that the computer animation blends well with the traditional cel animation, leaving us in peace to enjoy the beautiful retro-style animation. Even more important, the story (even with its obvious reference to the X-Files in the form of Kent) stays true to the time they are in, unlike most Disney pictures these days. This does seemingly make the movie drag, but we are compensated with an atmosphere almost completely devoid of cynicism and mean-spirited irony. This is as close to the feelings of wonder and innocence evoked in E.T. that we are likely to get in animation--save for My Neighbor Totoro, which might be a little too innocent.
The only real problems I have with this movie are some glaring and unforgivable continuity errors, exemplified by the filmmakers indecision as to what season the movie should take place in (the movie takes place in less than a week, but we see Hogarth diving into a(n admittedly cold) pond in one scene, then later there is a snowstorm).