Top Film for Each Year of My Life – 1999

The Iron Giant

With the exception of the top film for 2000, the best things animation had going for it in the 90s were Pixar and Brad Bird. It’s only logical that the two eventually found each other in 2004 with The Incredibles. For those that don’t know, Bird help The Simpsons shift from a one minute animated segment on The Tracey Ullman Show to the cultural institution it is now. He worked as an “executive consultant” from the beginning to 1997. For those keeping score at home, that incorporates seasons 3 to 8, considered to be the peak years of The Simpsons and one of the high points of television history.

After dipping his toes in some other shows (King of the Hill, The Critic) he embarked on his first feature film, The Iron Giant. For some reason, there was little to no marketing push for the film, let alone any mention of Bird’s animation pedigree and the film flopped despite overwhelmingly positive reviews. Sadly, I didn’t catch The Iron Giant in theaters and I regret missing out on something so wonderful for so long.
The Iron Giant takes place in the 1950’s with Cold War paranoia driving the plot. But there have been oodles of movies that deal with that subject. Instead of focusing on politics, the film is really about a boy, Hogarth, and his hundred foot tall robot. The friendship developed between the two is real and touching. The stakes of their relationship are raised when it’s revealed that the robot is really a massive weapon that could destroy Hogarth’s town (I already feel it getting dusty in here thinking about how the film plays out). The film is in the pantheon of all-time great animated movies. It’s no surprise that Bird has become a force in animation.

Aside from an outstanding story, The Iron Giant features Vin Diesel in the role he was born to play: a robot. The film also feature vocal work from Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, members of Walt Disney’s team of elite animators, the Nine Old Men. And perhaps most curiously, Pete Townshend is an executive producer on the film. If you haven’t seen The Iron Giant, I implore you to put it at the top of your Netflix queue or go out and rent it. I defy anyone to make it through the end with out shedding a tear (but in a different way than the Futurama episode “Jurassic Bark”).