THE IRON GIANT

1999, Warner Brothers

Animation

Rating: PG

Approx. 86 mins.

THE STORY:

It is 1957 Maine, and young Hogarth Hughes stumbles upon a huge metal robot who appears to have fallen from the sky in the woods. He has a dent in his head and no memory of where he comes from. Hogarth's instinct is to befriend the giant, and hide it from the paranoid townspeople who would no doubt fear and try to destroy it. Things become complicated, however, when government agencies and the military get involved.

Before Hogarth knows it, Agent Mansley, an obsessive and malicious individual who knows Hogarth can lead him to the giant, has installed himself in his house. Hogarth enlists the help of Dean (Harry Connick Jr.), the local artist/ junk dealer, to hide the giant. 

Although all goes well for a time, it proves impossible to hide a gigantic metal man for long. When the military gets involved, the danger escalates, and the giant demonstrates a defensive violent instinct. In the end, however, the friendship he has developed with Hogarth wins out, and he sacrifices himself to save those he cares about. 

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• What in the hell
• Oh my God
• Damn it
• Butt

VIOLENCE:

• There are scenes of shooting and such, but the entire message of the film is anti-violence

TEACHING POINTS:

• Violence solves nothing, and often leads to more violence
• It is dangerous to act out of fear rather than from knowledge

THE UPSHOT:

The movie stays very close to the book, and provides some good discussion material about violence begetting violence and the danger of acting out of paranoia. On the negative side, I found the language a bit mature and unnecessary, and the script a bit weak in general. The 5 year-old in the room also wanted some humour-- it's a pretty serious 80-odd minutes.

Ultimately, it was OK, but I would rather read the book than watch this movie.

2/5