Mechanized Animation

Rating: Null/10 (26 June 2001)

Spoilers herein.
I will admit that this is very skilled storytelling: I am really impressed with how singlemindedly every element of this film is coordinated to give a single feel which sustains -- it has to because there is no story development to speak of. So rather than focus on managing evolution of drama, `Iron' focuses on evocation of a single `feel.' And they do that well enough for me. I actually did participate in those duck and cover drills.
What I find more interesting is the approach they took to the production of the film, which I find highly self-referential, and which may be the cause of a subtle effect for the viewer. At least I like to think so.
The giant is drawn not by a human animator -- instead it is a three-dimensional model created in the computer. The computer then `renders' the 2-D image according to directions. The resulting figure is assembled in a scene that has hand-drawn human characters. In a very real sense, this character of a robot is acted by a robot, while the human characters are `acted' (drawn) by humans.
As with all cartoony films, the voices are what you really `see' so far as the drama. But in terms of the images -- which is what all film experiences are about -- what you really see is a conflict among the religions of animators very much like what you see on the screen. That it is set in a pre-computer, but post-nuclear age -- that the lines drawn are not ones of coexistence but of good and evil -- says a lot about Bird's take on all this.
A very intimate and effective film on filmmaking. Probably shouldn't be on IMDB's `science fiction' list though.