The Iron Giant is a mix of old school animation and CG directed by Brad Bird, who�s handling Pixar�s next, The Incredibles. If this is any indication of the quality, then things are looking bode well for that one.
It�s the 1950s. The young Marienthal voices Hogarth Hughes (yeah, I know), the only child of Jennifer Aniston�s single mother/waitress Annie. The character is sweet, but not sickeningly so, and not too angsty about his overworked mother, but not a big smart arse either- overall, refreshing for a cartoon child in a film aimed mainly at kids. Anyway, one night when Annie is working late, he wanders into the night and encounters and saves the life of a metal eating giant robot, voiced by Vin Diesel.
The next day he goes again in search of the Giant again. He finds him again, and after his initial fear, and the fact that the Giant can�t speak, realises he means no harm. Cuteness ensues.
Christopher McDonald is also on board, which is always a good thing, as the bad guy,-a Government official who finds out about the Giant and believes he should be destroyed. Also featuring is Harry Connick Jr for some reason as an artist/junkyard owner who befriends Hogarth and the Giant and serves as a kind of unnecessary love interest for Annie.
The Iron Giant is both sweet and often very funny, although they go a tiny bit overboard with toilet humour. On a few occasions we get glimpses of 1950s television- a poorly acted creature feature, an instructional cartoon-within-a-cartoon on how to survive atomic blasts- all of which are great. The animation is evidence that traditional stuff shouldn�t be thrown out the window- it�s futuristic and retro at the same time, and very very nice.
The voicework is mostly top notch, even from Marienthal, who I think most of us have wanted to kill on more than one occasion. As mentioned earlier, he doesn�t go to cutesy, or too bratty smart arse. Connick Jr also works well as a lousy beatnik. The weak link is probably Aniston. She�s not bad, she�s just got a little case of Fiona-from-Shrek. She really could have been voiced by anyone, why bother getting Jennifer Aniston in? She didn�t have an amazing role to work with, but she doesn�t bring heaps to it either. Christopher McDonald? Well, he�s always useful. And Vin Diesel�s freakishly deep voice works very well for the Giant, who doesn�t speak too much anyway.
The movie almost, -almost- ventures into too sickly sweet territory. You can see it getting very close, especially near the end, but it doesn�t quite get there. In lesser hands, we would have started with Hogarth staring out his bedroom window, looking into the stars and saying �If only I had a friend�� Thankfully, we�re spared.
There�s also a not-so-underlying anti racism riff running through the film. It�s not too subtle, but it works well enough, and at least it�s not a �believe in yourself and you can achieve ANYTHING!� theme.
Ultimately, The Iron Giant isn�t The Lion King or Aladdin, but it�s still very good and worth your time. The Incredibles is looking up. Even more.
