'The Iron Giant'

I began drafting this review in my head even before I saw 'The Iron Giant'. I knew what I was going to say and how I was going to say it. I was wrong. I was wrong.

'The Iron Giant' is not the film you think it is. I'm sure you've seen the ads. If you've been to AICN, then you know the truth about them. You know how long people have worked on this project. You know how hard people have worked on this project. You know how all their long hard work was shattered by Warner Brothers. But, in the end, you don't know anything. You've read reviews. The reviews tell you that this is not a normal movie. They are true, but they can't even begin to tell you about this film.

The worst review of this film that I've seen calls it "the best non-Disney effort yet". I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This single film is greater than every Disney production combined. This film has more compassion, feeling, warmth, substance, and reality than ANYTHING Disney has EVER done. This is not some fluff movie. This is something to behold. This is something to cherish. This is something to share. This is something that will change you.

There were three previews. The first was of a movie by the title of 'A Dog of Flanders'. It's about a young artist in 18th century Europe. After been thrown away by society, a famous painter takes him under his wing. It could be good. It could be.

The second trailer was for 'Dudley Doright'. I do so love Disney. They put so much into all that they do. In this fine piece, Brendon Fraiser destroys any credibility that the animated mountie ever had. I was never a fan of 'Dudley Doright'. I never liked 'George of the Jungle' either. I really could care less. It's just that Disney has no right to do this. Rather than creating original pictures, they take ideas from others and package them in a flashy new box, hoping to earn a profit. They didn't earn anything. I liked the orginal animated 'Inspector Gadget', but was nausious over Disney's remake. But, we do have their 'Sailor Moon' motion picture to look forward too.

The final trailer was for one of the two upcoming 'Pokemon' movies. This trailer was made with no effort what-so-ever. They didn't even just dub the Japanese trailer in English. They aired two brief shots from the film inbetween half-assed narration. And the title was -- well -- 'Pokemon: The First Movie'. That's inspired. Then, a static little Pikachu made his obligatory appearance. I like 'Pokemon'. I should say that I liked 'Pokemon'. It has heart. Yet, now, that heart has been buried. It's become the one thing I have always pondered over. It's become an anime series popular with the general American public. It is a hideous thing. Now, every little Johny American has knowledge in what was once a sacred and secretive region. And, they don't even know what they are talking about. Those who held onto anime long before 'Pokemon' are still outcast. They still don't fit in. Why? Little Johny American doesn't like them. Little Johnny American wants to think he knows everthing. Little Johnny American doesn't want to be proved wrong. Mom and Pop American don't want Little Johnny proved wrong either. But, this is not the time or place for me to vent over what 'Pokemon' has become, but the time and place are fast approaching. Simply put, the trailer was needless. I'll see the film, yeah. I'll see it because it's anime. I'll see it because I respect what it is. The film that I see will be different from the film that Mom, Pop, and Johnny American see. I'll understand it. They won't. And, I'll still be outcast and chastised for watching half-naked school girls and giant robots. I'm sorry. It's not the time or the place. Anime still isn't accepted. Mecha still aren't welcome. It's still viewed as pornography, nothing more. 'Pokemon' may have been accepted, and lost all that it was when it gained popularity, but anime is still reserved for the shadows. That's the way I like it. I don't want some snot nosed eight-year-old telling me that he discovered anime. I don't want to hear filthy little Johnny American discrasing 'Macross' or 'Ronin Warriors'. And, in the end, we will win.

I'm sorry. I'm upset. I'm upset over a lot of things.

There are few things that can be appreciated.

'The Iron Giant' is one of those things.

Wait, look at this. 'The Iron Giant' is the outsider looking in. Yes, obviously, but I'm referring to the film, not the robot. Look at it. Look at what I wrote about 'Pokemon'. Look at it. 'The Iron Giant' is not 'Pokemon'. 'The Iron Giant' is anime. No, not really anime, but in the sense of the outsider looking in. It's not seen for what it is. Anime is seen as pornography. 'The Iron Giant' is seen as a stupid kiddy film. Neither are that. Stupid kiddy film? That's everything Disney has ever cranked out. 'The Iron Giant' is not a cookie cutter cartoon. It's not Disney. It's better. It's not the same story told over and over, with only songs and faces changing.

'The Iron Giant' is the best movie ever made.

I stand by that.

It surpasses anything that I have ever seen.

Yes, even 'Star Wars'.

I'm probably being too hasty, but just listen to me.

You know the emotion during the Qui-Gon - Kenobi - Maul fight? You know what was on their faces? You know what you felt inside of you when Qui-Gon was killed? You know how you felt as you saw Maul smile? You know how you felt when you saw Obi-Wan? You know how much you wanted Obi-Wan to kill Maul? You know that emotion?

That level is in 'The Iron Giant'.

The film begins over Earth.

A tiny satellite sweeps by the camera.

Sputnik.

Well, Little Johnny American doesn't know what Sputnik is. It flew right over his head. It probably flew right over the heads of Mom and Pop, too.

We see the Soviet satellite orbit our home.

The camera pans to deep space, a burning object heading toward Earth.

This meteor burns through our atmosphere, right into the heart of a thunderstorm off the coast of Maine.

It is there that we meet an old sea captain, lost in the storm. He shouts to the Coast Guard, over his radio, requesting aid. Then, he sees a light piercing the darkness and fog.

A lighthouse.

No.

It is the Iron Giant.

His tug boat slams into the Giant's bulk. The small wooden ship slinters. The sea captain goes under.

When he wakes, he is at the lighthouse.

Someone or something saved him.

He jump to Rockport, a sleepy coastal town. (The town may have been called Rockwell, I'm not sure)

We meet Hogarth Hughes, an adventurous all-American youth. He's not Little Johnny American. He's better. Hogarth rides his bike to a dinner in town. He sets his bike down and enters the dinner, a small parcel under his arm.

Hogarth approaches the counter, placing the box on a stood.

Hogarth's mother, Annie, walks to her son. Annie's a single mom. She has to work long hours to pay the bills. It shows. There is a ragged edge to her appearance, yet under it, lies a beautiful woman. She is more real than anything Disney has ever produced. She more beautiful than anything they've cranked out either.

She is simple and elegant. There is a dignity about her. She is beautiful. She is real. She is real.

She's beautiful, yet she does not realize it.

Hogarth broaches the subject of a pet with his mother, a small arm poking out of his box as he speaks.

Annie does not want a pet. She has enough bad memories from Hogath's past animals, most notably a racoon.

Hogarth pleads, and Annie agrees to have a look at it.

Hogarth reaches down for the box, only to find that it's empty. He smiles innocently at his mother and frantically departs, seaching for the critter.

He spots the animal, a squirrel, rushing under a table. Hogarth approches the table and addresses the patron seated there. After many tries, he learns that the customer is asleep, behind a large newspaper.

He soon wakes, partly from Hogarth and partly from the squirrel.

His name is Dean.

As Hogarth tries to explain that there's a squirrel under the table, several customers near them shout loudly.

The sea captain from the storm is trying to defend himself, telling about the creature he saw in the water. No one believes him.

Dean leans over and tells the rowdy crowd that he saw it too.

Hogarth immediatley begins to question Dean. Dean, however, informs Hogarth that he was just sticking up for the sea captain. Then, suddenly, Dean begins to shake.

The squirrel had crawled into his pants.

Annie approaches, apologizing to Dean, feeling that Hogarth has been pestering him.

Dean tells her that everything's fine.

As Annie returns to her post, Dean jumps up, appoligizing for what he is about it do. He undoes his fly, and the squirrel leaps out of his pants.

Customers scream as Hogarth zips home.

Flash ahead to later that day. Hogarth is home reading comic books and watching TV. Annie calls him. She tells him that she has to work late. There's chicken in the ice box and some carrots. He's to be in bed by eight.

So, Hogarth does exactly what his mom told him, make a fort out of chairs and blanets, say up late, watch monster movies, and eat twinkies injected with extra cream.

A low grown can be heard from upstairs. Hogarth goes in investigate when the TV goes to static. He climbs to roof to find the antennia missing. Well, this all-American boy isn't going to let his TV go without a fight.

He hurries to his room, pulls out an air rifle, tapes a flashlight to its barrel, downs a helmet and bomber jacket.

He's gonna go kick some Commie or Martian ass.

So, Hogarth wanders through the dense Maine woods. Well, it's dense except for a path carved out by something like a 50 ft. giant robot.

Hogarth follows this path to a power plant.

It is there that he sees the Giant. It stands there, eating the construct piece by piece. The Giant eats metal. It's his fuel. It's his food.

Hogarth watches the Giant munch and chomp on the complex. His eyes open wide as the Giant reaches out to grab one of the electric generators, shooting the Giant back into the power lines.

The Giant screams a mechanical scream of agony as electricity surges through it's iron veins.

Hogarth runs from the convulsing robot, but after he is out of breath, looks back. The Giant still twisting and crying out in pain.

Hogarth takes a deep breath and rushes back to the generator station.

As he does, the town's power is knocked out, all the electricity now coursing through the Iron Giant.

Hogarth runs to the Giant's side. He hurries around the complex, finding the master controls. He forces the generator offline. He saves the Giant.

This single act has more compassion and feeling in it than anything Disney has ever scribbled out. Hogarth's selfless act was more real than anything ever offered up by Disney.

The Giant falls backward, against a large rock ledge. It is now that we first notice a large dent on the Giant's head. This dent is important. Everything is important.

Hogarth climbs over the smoking robot, exploring.

Meanwhile, Annie has returned home. She finds Hogarth nowhere to be found. She frantically gets in her car and speeds down the road, in search of her son.

The Giant wakes and sends Hogarth running, his air rifle left behind, crushed under the Giant's foot.

Annie and Hogarth meet along the road to town. Annie, rather than being upset over her son's late night excapades, hugs him, just happy that he's ok. Why can't all moms be like that? Why can't they just be pleased that you're ok? Why do they have to...

I'm sorry.

Annie and Hogarth go home. Hogarth rambles on about the Iron Giant, Annie not listening to her son's fantasies.

The following morning, a government agent appears in town to investiage the sea captain's claims.

At first, Kent Mansley, the government agent, dismisses the story completely, looking down upon the town's folk.

Kent is shown the power station, but there is no proof of what happened to it. The only thing up there besides the shredded steel building is a flattened air rifle with the name of its owner too damaged to read.

Kent goes to put the gun in his car, still mocking the people of Rockwell; however, as he gets there he finds a large bite taken out of it. He races back to the power station, shouting about his car. When he returns to where his car sat, it is gone, the air rifle against the ground.

Kent now believes the town's people. He believes more than they do. He starts a zelous crusade to find this thing for the good of the country.

Hogarth, meanwhile, has returned to the woods to find the Giant. He brings with him a camera and piece of metal.

Hogarth sets the metal sheet up in a clearing, waiting for the Giant. Time passes. Nothing. More time passes. Nothing. More time passes. Nothing. Hogarth drifts off to sleep. When he wakes, the metal is gone. He turns around, finding 50 ft. of metal staring at him. Hogarth fiddles with the camera and runs.

The Giant follows.

Hogarth eventually tires out and drops to the ground. The Giant stops and drops with him. And so the learning process begins. With each trusting the other, the two begin to form a connection.

The day continues on, the two learning more and more.

When night falls, the Giant begins to follow Hogarth home. This is bad. Very bad.

Hogarth insists that the Giant stay, but he continues to follow Hogarth home. When they get to the railroad tracks near his home, the Giant stops. Hogarth thinks that he's done it, but the Giant only stopped for a snack.

Hogarth shouts at the Giant. He can't eat the railroad track. A train can be heard in the distance. Hogarth frantically motions to the Giant to fix the track. The Giant does the best that he can do. The Giant takes an extra minute to set the tracks perfectly together, but during that time, the train plows into him.

Hogarth shouts at the battered Giant to follow him. He didn't want to bring him home, but he'd need a place to hide now. The Giant enters into an old barn next to his home.

Hogarth watches in amazment at the Giant reassembles his form. It is a detailed process and resembles the repair process of a VF-1 Valkyrie. Hogarth watches at the final screw is replaced.

He hears his mother calling him. He tells the Giant to stay.

Hogarth runs to his house, noticing that the Giant is missing his right hand...

Wait. I am not here to tell you the story of the Iron Giant. I am here to tell you to see the story of the Iron Giant.

I have told you some. I have told you enough. You must no GO. You must GO SEE THE IRON GIANT NOW.

The Iron Giant is unlike any US animated film ever before (and I fear unlike any to follow). The Iron Giant is not some Disney tripe. The Iron Giant is not some light-hearted kiddy feature. It is not some popcorn and soda fluff piece.

Go see the Iron Giant now. For, if you do, you will see a moving picture that will no doubt rival any and all that you have ever seen.

You will care.

You will cry.

You will cry.

The ending. The glorious ending. The glorious ending that changes the tears of loss and sorrow in triumphant joy. Go see the Iron Giant now. Go see the Iron Giant now.

There is so much that I wanted to say, but I won't. I will save that for the video.

Just go.

Just see it.

You are not a tool.

You are not a weapon.

You are not a gun.

Manufactured in a distant star, this 50 ft. robot was sent to Earth as a soldier. It was to eliminate human kind; however, fate changed its programming. With its code damaged, the robot sought to be more than what it was.

The Iron Giant was a soldier.

The Iron Giant was a tool.

The Iron Giant was a weapon.

The Iron Giant was a gun.

The Giant rejected its nature, hating what it was and what it was designed to do. The Giant would not kill. The Giant would not be a gun.

The Giant would fight its programming.

The Giant would create rather than destroy.

They Giant would give rather than take.

The Giant would learn and grow.

The Giant would love and sacrifice.

The Giant would become a hero.

The Giant would teach us that we are what we make of ourselves, and that we are the ones who decide who we are and what we do.

The Giant would become a hero.

You are not a gun.