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| Directed by Brad Bird; Voices include Eli Marienthal, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, Christopher McDonald, James Gammon, Cloris Leachman, and John Mahoney |
Early note: Due to the fact that it is not really a family film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is not really considered in this write-up on animated films, though I will admit that it is better than anything from Disney in years.
For years Disney has had a quasi-monopoly on animated motion pictures. This monopoly has been artistically as well as financially. There have only been two production companies to regularly compete with Disney: 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (though in the eighties Universal did a few with Don Bluth like Land Before Time and An American Tail). Time and again the two would bring out hideous cartoons like Ferngully… the Last Rainforest, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Rock-a-Doodle, and The Pebble and the Penguin. At the same time Disney was showing off its animation division with Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid. The only animated feature by a non-Disney studio in the eighties and nineties that I thought successfully met and surpassed the Disney animated element was 1997’s Anastasia from 20th Century Fox and All Dogs Go to Heaven creator Don Bluth. It actually was better than the big Disney Summer movie that year, Hercules. But non-Disney animation did not suddenly get better, Warner Bros. joined the pack after the dismal Thumbelina and made Quest for Camelot while Fox made The King and I and MGM dropped out completely (MGM does so few films in a year anyway). All this while Disney made its best film since Toy Story with Mulan. But Disney has weakened as of late, especially since ex-Disney animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg co-founded DreamWorks to make The Prince of Egypt and Antz. The two last Disney cartoons, Tarzan and A Bug’s Life, have been minor features that did not really do anything that was of great interest. Meanwhile it has been allowing its more adult divisions to make crap like Armageddon and The Other Sister (yes, this is irrelevant, but I must take any chance I get to voice my disgust for those two films). Though it is Fox that one-upper Disney two years ago, this year it is Warner Bros. with The Iron Giant.
More classy and actually better looking than Tarzan, The Iron Giant successfully evokes the spirit of animated films that I thought had floundered. The great texture and colors that are made for this film make it a highly enjoyable sit in the theatre, both for children and adults. I liked its ever-so-predictable story, I enjoyed its starchy characters, and I had a fun time. I’ve not had this much fun in a family film since Antz, and that is not really that family oriented (I think that Antz is just a toned down South Park in its more adult approach in animation). The Iron Giant is the story of a boy, Hogarth Hughes (Marienthal), that wants terribly to have a pet. His mother (Aniston) is not the biggest fan of the idea because of prior dispositions caused by Hogarth’s pets. So Hogarth gets the next best thing to a small and cuddly creature: he gets a giant robot from outer space (grumbles and “argh”s thanks to Vin Diesel). When word gets around that there is something that has been eating everything metal in this small Maine town circa 1955, a government worker named Kent Mansley (McDonald) comes in to investigate and get rid of what he sees as a communist menace (that is why it is set in the fifties).
The film is pure enjoyment. Sure it probably gets too political towards the end, but it is a kid’s film, who cares? The chase through the small village is one of the best sequences this year and the climax is terrific. From one of the directors of animated television shows like The Critic and The Simpsons, the film has a great look and a nice feel. Now if only Titan AE (the latest Disney competitor from Don Bluth) would be half as good.
