Claim: Brad Bird pitched The Incredibles.

The Iron Giant is a 1999 American animated science-fiction comedy-drama action film using both traditional animation and computer animation , produced by Warner Bros. . Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird in his directorial debut . It is based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes -LRB- which was published in the United States as The Iron Giant -RRB- and is scripted by Tim McCanlies . The film stars the voices of Eli Marienthal , Christopher McDonald , Jennifer Aniston , Harry Connick , Jr. , John Mahoney , and Vin Diesel . Set during the Cold War in 1957 , the film is about a young boy named Hogarth Hughes who discovers a giant metallic robot who fell from space . With the help of a beatnik artist named Dean McCoppin , they have to stop the U.S. military and a paranoid federal agent named Kent Mansley from finding and destroying the Giant .   The film 's development phase began in 1994 as a musical with the involvement of The Who 's Pete Townshend , though the project took root once Bird signed on as director and hired McCanlies to write the screenplay in 1996 . The film was created traditionally , with computer-generated imagery used to animate the title character and other effects . The understaffed crew of the film completed it with half of the time and budget of other animated features . Michael Kamen produced the film 's score , recorded with the Czech Philharmonic .   Upon its release , the film saw widespread critical acclaim from critics and audiences . It was nominated for several awards , winning nine Annie Awards out of fifteen nominations . Despite this acclaim , the film significantly under-performed at the box office , making $ 31.3 million worldwide against a budget of $ 70 -- 80 million , which was blamed on an unusually poor marketing campaign . Through home video releases and television syndication , the film gathered a cult following and is now widely regarded as a modern animated classic . In 2015 , an extended , remastered version of the film was re-released theatrically .