Iron Giant, The
OK, I admit it. I don’t have any excuses for owning this film. I don’t have any children, I don’t live with any younger brothers or sisters and I don’t have visiting Nephews or Nieces who want to watch it.
OK, I admit it. I don’t have any excuses for owning this film. I don’t have any children, I don’t live with any younger brothers or sisters and I don’t have visiting Nephews or Nieces who want to watch it. I only own this disk for me and the misses just like my Jungle Book, Tarzan, Bugs Life or my Toy Story box set that I’ll get when it’s released. So now that we’ve established that I’m just a big kid lets move onto the review
Maine USA 1958, a time when national paranoia is running at its highest. Sputnik the Russian spacecraft orbits overhead and nuclear war is an ever present threat. Not the best time for a giant metal man to fall out of the skies and crash land near the town. That however is exactly what happens.
Fortunately for the robot, it is befriended by a young boy named Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthall) who hides it in a local scrap yard (it eats metal) that’s run by Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.). All seems well until a government agent appears on the scene, in the form of Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald). He’s been called in to investigate strange sightings and metal machines with huge chunks missing that resemble bite marks.
While all this is going on Hogarth is teaching the Giant about good and evil, right and wrong and of course life and death. Eventually the whole issue of the robots purpose comes into question in an emotional final sequence that will touch even the coldest heart.
The disk comes in a double sided format with the widescreen anamorphic version on one side and the 4:3 Pan & Scan on the other. Picture quality is excellent, the animation in the film is superb and this really comes across well on the DVD, top notch.
The audio track is also excellent, with the deep booming voice of the robot and the ground shaking footsteps thumping along. There’s also some very good usage of the surround channels.
Extras on the disk include some Cast & Crew Bios, a fairly interesting making of featurette that’s hosted by Vin Diesel (The voice of the giant), a Trailer and the Music Video Cha-Hua-Hua by Eddie Platt. There are also some DVD-Rom extras if you have a PC. These include some ‘Making of’ info, some more cast & crew info, a shockwave game and some wallpapers, screensavers etc. Reasonable extras but not exactly the most feature packed disk available.
This is an excellent film that’s enjoyable for people of all ages. I actually think that an adult would enjoy some of the humour more than a child would. The story is engrossing and moving. The animation is superb and the soundtrack is effective, what more can I say.
If you have children then that’s a great excuse to buy this disk. If you don’t then what the hell get it anyway. I give this a 4 out of 5.
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