The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is a 1999 American animated science fiction film. It marked Brad Bird’s first time directing a feature film, with a screenplay by Tim McCanlies. The story is loosely adapted from Ted Hughes’s 1968 novel *The Iron Man*. The action takes place in 1957, during the Cold War. The main character is a nine-year-old boy named Hogarth Hughes, who finds and becomes friends with a huge robot from outer space. Along with a beatnik artist named Dean McCoppin, Hogarth tries to keep the U.S. military from locating and destroying the Giant.

The project began in 1994 as a musical, with Pete Townshend of the Who involved. Bird became director in 1996, and McCanlies was brought on to write the script. The animation was mostly traditional, with computer-generated imagery used for the Giant and certain effects. The crew was small and completed the film with only half the time and budget typical for animated features. Michael Kamen composed the score, performed by the Czech Philharmonic.

The Iron Giant premiered at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on July 31, 1999, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. on August 6. Critics praised the film, but it failed at the box office, earning $31.7 million against a $50 million budget. This poor performance was blamed on weak marketing and Warner Bros.’ lack of confidence in animated films after *Quest for Camelot* flopped the year before. The film received several award nominations and won nine Annie Awards out of 15 nominations. Through home video and TV reruns, it built a cult following and is now widely considered a modern animated classic and one of the best animated films ever made. An extended, remastered version was re-released in theaters in 2015.

**Plot**

In 1957, during the Cold War, a giant alien robot crashes into the ocean near Rockwell, Maine. The next night, nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes investigates reports of power outages and finds the Giant eating electricity at a substation. Hogarth is scared at first, but later returns to save the Giant from electrocution. They become friends, and Hogarth learns the Giant is gentle, curious, and childlike. The Giant eats railroad tracks and is hit by a train, but his scattered pieces automatically return and repair him.