The Iron Giant

Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant is a funny, moving family film that takes its objections to violence seriously. It gives us a boy and a robot to care about before asking us to consider what people do when they are frightened. That order matters, because a story about nuclear anxiety could easily become a lecture with drawings. Bird keeps the friendship interesting enough that the lesson rarely needs announcing. We recommend it warmly, with a reservation about how neatly some of the adults illustrate the problem.

Eli Marienthal voices Hogarth Hughes with an eagerness that makes the unlikely friendship easy to believe. Vin Diesel gives the Giant a voice with weight and uncertainty, letting a powerful creature sound as though he still needs help. We were moved by the trust between them. The size difference makes the boy’s willingness to befriend him particularly affecting, while Marienthal keeps Hogarth from sounding saintly. Their exchanges are funny enough that we enjoy their company before worrying about what might happen to them.

Mark Whiting’s production design borrows from 1950s comic art and science fiction, giving the fear of an outsider a setting that makes sense. The Giant is the computer-generated element among the hand-drawn characters, and his different construction helps him look foreign without making him seem to belong in another film. Steven Wilzbach’s cinematography makes the contrast in scale clear without letting size become the only interesting thing in the picture. The robot has enough personality to hold our attention without being put to destructive use.

At 86 minutes, there is little time spent waiting for the next useful scene. Darren T. Holmes’s editing gives the action pace and still leaves room for the boy and the Giant to become companions. The humour helps too, allowing the film to return to serious matters without a conspicuous change of tone. Michael Kamen’s music is less restrained than we would sometimes like. The central voices have already earned our affection, and the score need not work quite so hard to confirm it.

The weaker passages involve the adults, whose fear can seem too conveniently arranged for the film to correct it. Tim McCanlies’s screenplay gives us more reason to understand the Giant’s uncertainty than the suspicion he encounters. That makes the warnings about conformity easier to agree with, but it also makes some of the opposition feel thin. A little more curiosity about those frightened people would help, though pursuing it might cost the film some of its welcome speed.

Within the familiar story of a child and an unlikely friend, Bird finds a question worth asking: does being capable of harm oblige someone to cause it? The Giant’s reluctance to be a weapon gives the science fiction a purpose beyond providing something large to chase. We like the film’s refusal to treat pacifism as a nice idea that sensible people must eventually abandon. It lets that belief complicate the adventure. The question matters because the Giant has become someone we care about.

The U certificate is no promise that every small child will find this easy. Weapons and frightened adults can be disturbing subjects, and the humour does not make them harmless. We would leave time afterwards for whatever questions the film brings up, rather than treating it as a convenient way to fill 86 minutes. Choose it for a family evening when nobody has to rush off as soon as it finishes.