The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant came out ten years ago and Scott Thill has a nice appreciation of the still-underrated film at Wired.

Warner Bros. didn’t know what to do with a movie about a killer robot who becomes a pacifist with the help of a patriotic kid in love with comics like Superman, the ultimate alien benevolent (and the Iron Giant’s eventual role model). “When we showed the executives the movie, they didn’t get it,” Iron Giant screenwriter Tim McCanlies said in 2003. One possible reason: The movie has no clearly defined protagonist or antagonist, a must for popcorn entertainment. “Let’s just have paranoia be the enemy,” McCanlies remembers Bird saying, “not the combined armies of the superpowers.” The Iron Giant’s domestic box office gross of $23 million didn’t come close to recouping the movie’s production budget, which reportedly hit $70 million.

As I’ve written before, 1999 was a great year for movies and The Iron Giant was one of my favorites. If you haven’t seen it, it’s only $6 on Amazon.

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A Slate slideshow (with video) showing work

A Slate slideshow (with video) showing work from Brad Bird’s career, from his early tests to The Iron Giant to Ratatouille.

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First trailer for Ratatouille, by Pixar and

First trailer for Ratatouille, by Pixar and Brad Bird (who did The Incredibles and The Iron Giant). ps. Cars opens today! Zoom!

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The top movie robots of all time,

The top movie robots of all time, including #5 and the Iron Giant.

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Terry Gross interviews The Incredibles director Brad Bird on NPR

Terry Gross interviews The Incredibles director Brad Bird on NPR. “So, what does the director of an animated film actually do?”

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