Disney, eat your heart out..

The Iron Giant. Now this is what cartoons are supposed to be. When I first saw the box art and advertising for this movie, I thought it was simply another cheap Disney rip-off, or at the very least, a substandard, yet original, animated movie (I'm a huge skeptic when it comes to animation, hyped or otherwise). Bless the Giant's iron heart, I was wrong. Try as I might, there is not one thing I consider to be substandard about The Iron Giant.

Plot: Hogarth Hughes is just an average kid in 50's era America. He likes concepts of space travel, ray guns, science fiction movies and riding his bike around town. Young Hogarth gets more than he ever bargained for when he mistakenly discovers the Iron Giant, trapped in electrical wire at a local power facility, and consequently saves the machine-man by switching off the massive power switch. After this, the robot follows the boy home, much to the anxiety of the boy himself, and is it now up to small town kid to hide a 50 foot plus giant robot that has taken a rather strong liking to him.

The trouble only triples when nosy FBI agent Kent Mansley pushes his way into Hogarth's life, suspecting that he knows something more than he's telling, and hanging around him every spare second to make 100% certain he discovers what that something is. Hogarth eventually (and hysterically) gets away from Mansley long enough to unintentionally befriend the local crackpot artist/beatnik, Dean McCoppin. McCoppin is now the only other person that knows about the Giant. With Mansley hot on the trail, McCoppin agrees to keep the Giant at his place (a veritable junkyard, and to the Giant, one huge buffet).

Eventually Mansley loses his cool and becomes dangerous, calling in the army and gravelly-voiced General Rogard (John Mahoney), who has almost as little patience as Mansley himself. The Iron Giant now becomes a target of the big guns (including an off-shore missle-launching submarine), but believe me when I say the robot has a few tricks up his sleeve.. or whatever. You will, almost without a shadow of a doubt, want to stand up and cheer in several of the film's closing scenes, they are that good.

Animation: Obviously, The Iron Giant excels in it's artstyle or I would have mentioned otherwise by now, particularly in the Cons window. The characters all have a unique look, jagged yet pleasing, and never mimic the style made popular by Disney (round features, excessively large eyes). They may not look as "perfect" as animated characters in other movies, but most anyone will appreciate the style and obvious hard work the animators did on the film. The Giant himself looks awesome in each frame, some much moreso than others (you'll see what I mean), but never because of quality lacking in one set of cels, but instead, exceeding quality in the rest! To tell you the truth, I actually think Disney took a note from this and other outside companies in their most recent animated movies.

Acting: Again, an area where The Iron Giant never fails to please is in it's voice acting. Most notable are the excellent vocal portrayals of main characters Hogarth (Eli Marienthal), McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.), Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald), and of course John Mahoney's General Rogard, each simply pouring with talent and personality. Jennifer Aniston co-stars as Hogarth's mother, Jennifer. Other cast members include Cloris Leachman, M. Emmet Walsh, and James Gammon, not to mention Vin Diesel as the sparse lines spoken by the Giant. One additional plus for this type of serious storyline is the complete absence of singing and/or dancing, etc. It may have worked in the Prince of Egypt, but not here.

The mere fact that it was not hype that got me hooked on the Giant in the first place is a good sign for those of you that have not yet seen this cinematic jewel. All in all, this is a great film for ANYone who enjoys giant robots, action, adventure, humor and a generally good time, and in such a short amount of time too (approx. 86 minutes). If you're like me, you'll almost want to beg for a sequel. Two thumbs way up. Enjoy.