Monday, November 27, 2017

Underrated Films - The Iron Giant Review


Image result for the iron giant poster


The Iron Giant is a 1999 animated science-fiction comedy drama film using both traditional 2D animation and 3D animation. The movie is based on Ted Hughes' 1968 novel The Iron Man. The Iron Giant was produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. The movie was written by Brad Bird and Tim McCanlies and directed by Brad Bird.


The story is a young boy named Hogarth discovers a giant alien robot and has befriended it. But Hogarth soon finds out that a government agent named Kent Mansley is looking for his new friend and he does everything he can to hide this secret of his.




Why It's Underrated


While The Iron Giant has major critical acclaim what makes it so underrated is despite how great it is it unfortunately underperformed at the box office. The film was made with a budget of $70-80 million but only received $31.3 million worldwide. This can be easily blamed on Warner Bros. for it's poor marketing.




Why It's Worth Watching


The one thing I loved about this movie was the friendship between Hogarth and The Iron Giant. It was just so touching to see them bond over the course of the movie. One my favorite scenes is when Hogarth and The Iron Giant are talking and Hogarth tells The Iron Giant you are who you choose to be so choose. It was a great and memberable moment.



Now since this is an animated movie how is the animation. Well it's honestly one of the best 2D animated movies I've ever seen Warner Bros. make. Heck the animation looks like something that Disney would have made back when they were still doing 2D animation. There are two times where the animation is really great one is all of the facial expressions. Yes they look silly but not in accidental way more of the animators are professionals and that facial expression came naturally. But the best animation is The Iron Giant himself. Now the giant is done in a 3D style of animation and surprisingly it doesn't clash at all with the more hand-drawn style. It blends perfectly.



Another reason to watch this movie is while we learn more and more about the giant's abilities we don't know much or really nothing about his past. Which I feel like is a great thing. The reason being is that adds a lot of mystery to him. Now if any of you watched the "Signature Edition" like I did you know he has a dream sequence that my or my not have given us a clue about where he came from but like I said that was a dream and it could have been true or not. Either way I loved the mystery behind him.



The other reason of why you should watch this movie is how it handles 1950's propaganda. It handles all the fear of the Cold War, how everybody was scared of everything that wasn't American made, and the terror of the unknown very maturely. There was not a single scene that made me think that all of the characters fears seem over the top.



Speaking of characters their all great. Hogarth is our young hero who is keeping a secret and while he does have some tropes/clichés from that type of character he's still the one you root for. Then we have Dean the very artistic type and besides Hogarth I liked him. Mainly because he got a lot of funny moments. Then we have Kent Mansley and man did I hate this guy. Not only does he want to find The Iron Giant and do god knows what to him but he's just an all around bad guy. But there was one thing I did like about his character and that was he's the one who buys into all of the propaganda which brings out one of the highlights I mentioned earlier.




I once saw The Iron Giant way back in 2002. I was five when I discovered this movie and feel in love with it. I was such a fan of this movie that I would carry around some cheap Iron Giant toy that would only be found in a McDonald's happy meal. And to rewatch this movie again for this review made me fall in love with the movie again. The Iron Giant gives us a great friendship between Hogarth and the title character himself, the animation still holds up to this day, while we learn about the giant's weaponry he's still left a big mystery, the film tells a great story about 1950's propaganda, and you'll love all of the characters.





My final rating is A Must Watch





Accomplishments


Now to my surprise The Iron Giant has won quite a lot of awards. The list goes



Annie Awards

Won the Award for Best Animated Feature Film


Won the Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Character Animation


Won the Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production


Won the Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production


Won the Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production


Won the Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production


Won the Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production




BAFTA Children's Awards

Won an Award for Best Feature Film




Florida Film Critics Circle

Won the Award for Best Animated Feature




Genesis Awards

Won the Award for Best Feature Film - Animated




Las Vegas Film Critics Society

Won the Award for Best Animated Film




Los Angeles Film Critic Association

Won the Award for Best Animated Film




Motion Pictures Sound Editors Awards

Won the Award for Best Sound Editing - Animated Feature




Santa Fe Film Critics Circle Awards

Won the Award for Best Animated Film




Young Artist Awards

Won the Award for Best Performance in a Voice-Over - Young Actor




But in my opinion I think the film's best accomplishment is it has a strong cult following since it's release date and it's now regards as a modern animated classic. And if you love The Iron Giant I have great news he'll make his return to theaters on March 30, 2018 in the Steven Spielberg film Ready Player One.





State of The Project (Nov 13th - Nov 30th)


Nov 13th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Bully - Jimmy Hopkins' Death


Nov 16th - The Top 11 Dumbest Justice League News Stories


Nov 17th - Justice League Review


Nov 20th - Justice League Easter Eggs


Nov 23rd - Coco Review


Nov 27th - Underrated Films - The Iron Giant Review


Nov 30th - Raiders of The Lost Media - Champions



NOTE: IF ANYTHING CHANGES I WILL TELL YOU.

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