Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant was released by Warner Brothers in 1999, at the tail end of the so-called Disney animation renaissance. It failed to earn back even half its budget at the box office, but today it enters many critics’ lists as one of the best animated films ever made. Maybe the absence of musical numbers or talking animal side-kicks hurt its performance, but more importantly, Warner Brothers didn’t seem to know what kind of film they had or how to market it. The Iron Giant tackled issues that even today remain touchy subjects, and did so with a kind of nuance that was pretty much unheard of for an American children’s film in the 90’s. Though it initially suffered for it financially, it remains a testament that children’s entertainment can challenge kids to consider topics that even adults struggle with, including gun control and even war itself.
Brad Bird, along with fellow CalArts graduate, John Lasseter, were early American fans of Hayao Miyazaki’s work. When they went on to collaborate at Pixar, both acknowledged they had been inspired by films like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and My Neighbor Totoro, and wanted to take a similar approach to addressing conflict and issues in kid’s films. Like Miyazaki, they weren’t satisfied with black and white representations, of purely virtuous heroes, and villains that were evil incarnate. Bird’s sensibilities are clear in The Iron Giant as in those later films.
The Iron Giant is set in 1957, when Cold War paranoia was at its hight and the world was one bad decision away from nuclear holocaust. As an homage to Sci-Fi B-moves of the 50’s, it smartly uses nostalgia and pop culture to address anti-war and anti-gun themes, along with empowering themes of overcoming prejudice and the dark sides of one’s own nature. It’s also empowering for kids because nine-year-old Hogarth actually takes on the role of teacher. He teaches the Iron Giant, who is essentially a child figure himself, about the beauty of life, choices, and the difference between good and evil.
It’s impressive that even in developing its anti-war theme, the film avoids demonizing the military, as often happens. The closest thing the film has to a villain is actually Mansley, who is simply greedy for power. The giant himself, pitched by Brad Bird as “a gun with a soul,” is a sympathetic figure. Due to programming, he only becomes dangerous when he sees another weapon. The message is clear: violence begets violence, fear begets fear.
For all its nods to E.T., The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Superman comics, and though beneath a colorful mix of traditional animation and CG, it tells a deceptively simple story, there is a complexity in theme as well as a sense of charity for its characters that set The Iron Giant apart from kids films in its era. There was very likely a reluctance or uncertainty in portraying “adult” themes in kid’s media that led the film to be overlooked at its initial release. But today it can be seen really as one of the first in a trend toward children’s entertainment that can be entertaining as well as substantive, encouraging young viewers to ponder on issues that they can one day be influential in addressing.
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