The Iron Giant [DVD] [1999]

It's good, ok?

Some animated features will bring out the best in all of us, be we grumpy old sour prouts or innocent young toddlers. They show you things that fuel your dreams and teach you things it can take years to learn from daily experience, and you won't even notice it because of the great entertainment value behind them...Of course, i wouldn't waste your time by writing that piece of info if Brad Bird's ( the director of the simpsons a.o.) ' The Iron Giant' wasn't one of these features:Every kid wants a pet at one time or another in their life, and unfortunately for Hogart Hughes' mother, some seem to prefer the more unorhtodox kind to the traditionals. Hogart for example has already ( unintentionally) wrecked his house with a raccoon and his mother's diner with a squirrel, you can imagine that if these small creatures can cause such havoc, what could happen if he got his hands on something bigger, such as let's say, a fifty foot, metal-eating, iron robot... This, coincedently, is exactly what happens. The boy tries his best to hide it, but unfortunately people tend to notice huge bites of steel been taken out of their cars. As if that wouldn't be freaky in normal times, this was in the middle of the cold war, where paranoia was at it's highest. Soon a federal officer, full of himself and dying to get some credit to his name, is sent in from Washington and well... destroying an enemy giant machine that is 'sent to tae over America' is one way of obtaining that credit.As for the robot, he lost his memory as he crashed down to earth, and has to start again from scratch. With help from Hogarth he slowly learns that being human is not being made of flesh and blood, but something deeper, and throughout the entire film he strives to come one step closer. That is where the treasure of this film lies: in showing that anyone or thing, even one of the most brutish creatures imaginable can be as wonderful a person as any if he chooses to be.It is a thrilling adventure, with humour for all audiences, supported by a touching, warm story and perfectly developped characters. The scenery is beautiful and the music matches accompanies the mood and sights of the film perfectly... a true joy to watch... 5 stars !!!

Buying the "film of the book" is an action I usually avoid for very obvious reasons; not this time. Being a fan of Ted Hughes and having read the "Iron Man" to my children, I saw this and immediately thought of my well-travelled grandsons who, being children of their generation, have a sophisticated DVD player in the car bought by dotting grandparents.Judging a film as a book is also a mistake and unfair to the film-makers who did not set out to write a book, despite acknowledgements of its genesis in the Ted Hughes' corpus of works for children. The book is the work of an English poet from rugged Yorkshire living in a particular time; it seeps through the text in so many subtle ways - the characters, circumstances, setting, etc. The film is not a product of that place or time. Having read the title, I should have known. The film-makers obviously missed the essential link between the young boy and the iron-MAN; even if, in size, he is a giant, that is not the point nor the core of the relationship. Perhaps, like so many aspects of life, it was too difficult to convey in an animated film but simple for the page.As a film, it is a product of its time; the voices, animation, colour and so on are of a high quality but it is not for me who bought it under deluded false pretences hoping it was something else in spite of all my careful choices in the past. Many will enjoy it "as a film", even if they know the book. I didn't and have not passed it on to my grandchildren.

This is a very endearing film set in east coast America in 1957 during the Red Scare coinciding with the success of the Soviet Sputnik space flight. The boy hero rescues and befriends a giant robot who falls to earth from space and must protect this metal giant who has lost his memory from a rogue and paranoid government agent who sets out to find and destroy him.I found the animation a little clunky and dated, but my children (aged 3 and nearly 5) went nuts over this DVD. We have quite a library of Pixar and SKG Dreamworks DVDs, but I have never experienced a reaction like this one to a film. I put it on around 8 o'clock one rainy Saturday morning and had to tear them away from it at midday after they had watched it three times in a row. Then they insisted on watching it another two times that evening. And another two times on the Sunday morning! I'm having to ration their Iron Giant fix now.If you have young children, this is a must-buy. The Iron Giant is the cheapest baby-sitter you'll ever hire! And it is even quite enjoyable for adults too. Well, at least the first couple of times!

I rented this for Year 3 who were studying The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes. They watched it at the end of the unit which ch was perfect as obviously it doesn't stick closely to the book.

This is a very different film from the usual CGI cartoons like Toy Story or Shrek. It doesn't try for any 'realism', it just accepts it's a cartoon and gets on with the story. It's also set in the 50s, when Sputnik had just gone up and the world was a very different place, so this adds a nice touch.At first I thought the story was a bit simplistic, but, after two or three watches (my 4 year old was watching it on 'continuous'!) it grew on me and it's now a film I will watch even if my son isn't around. I particularly liked the 50s flavour of innocence, and the characters are well 'drawn' too - especially the super-cool scrap yard owner-cum-sculptor, and the evil FBI(?) agent.From the educational point of view, the film makes a strong point about violence begetting violence, but does it in a fairly subtle way that kids will absorb, without feeling they are being lectured. There's also (eventually) a happy ending.Buy this, you won't be disappointed. But give it a chance, don't just dismiss it because it doesn't have all the CGI special effects of the block-buster movies.

Loved the film up-to where we viewed but internet dropped off and missed the end as rent time ran out - very grumpy children