UNDERRATED MOVIE: The Iron Giant
UNDERRATED MOVIE:
The Iron Giant
I think that the Iron Giant is the greatest movie ever done in the medium of animation.
I love it because it doesn’t use its medium to do things that turn people away from animation. It doesn’t do, stupid jokes or things that couldn’t possibly be done in a live-action environment. It uses the animation to bring home the emotional core of the movie.
Animated characters are infinitely more expressive than real actors. Combined with a good voice actor, a written character can just be better, animated than as a live actor. So when something big and emotional happens, you can see it so much better. You can feel it in the character. It’s really awesome.
The plot of the movie is occasionally funny, but not in a way that some funny animated movies are. By that I mean that the movie isn’t funny to be funny. It’s funny as a necessary element to the plot or to the character development. It’s all very in-character and very in the moment.
The greatest part of the movie though is it’s climax though, which really works as a great apotheosis for everything that had happened before. It’s one of those great scenes in movies that is just so perfect that you could not imagine any way to improve it.
I wish that the Iron Giant had come out more recently, in this time when people are saying that 2D animation is dead and they have an Oscar category for animated films. The movie would gain a lot of attention, praise, and would probably be much better remembered outside of the animation geeks’ niche.
Also, since I approached it, I’d like to bring up the thing with 2D animation being dead. I still really like 2D animation. I like 3D animation and that is the field I intend to pursue as a career. (It’s easier. More potential for an individual to have more control over the finished product.) I don’t think people should be seeing 2D animation as dead though. it has much left to offer to audiences. There are things that are nearly impossible to do in 3D animation. (Of course, nothing is impossible, just way too difficult to bother with.)
I’m happy to see movies like the Iron Giant which blend 2D and 3D animation in ways that work in good ways without uglifying the movie.
June 1st, 2006 at 8:09 pm
I disagree with youi on a major level. The Iron Giant in my opinion was movie that had too many messages that were disgustingly pronounced. For example, the message that guns are bad is just a horrible message to exhibit. Guns are necessary in a society were there are unsavory people. Unless we suddenly shift into a Utopian society, guns are necessary as a force. Back to The Iron Giant though. The end was not too my liking. It was predictable and easily created. The characters, generic and to be blunt, horrible. In reference to its humour, this consisted of poopy jokes and stupid situations. For people that want humour and well constructed stories, check out Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Weeds.
June 1st, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Yea. I agree with you that the humor wasn’t really much. But it makes you laugh, and is natural, fitting in with the plot and character development. It’s not funny to be funny (or maybe it is. I guess taht’s opinion.)
Also, I didn’t get the message that guns were bad. Gun seemed to me, to be used as a figurative thing and not meant to be taken literally. When Hogarth used it to describe the giant’s potential, he meant it as, you don’t have to be a violent and evil thing.
Hogarth enjoyed playing war also. He was pretending to shoot that gun at the Giant in the junkyard at one point. He was just having fun.
I don’t think the message was anti-gun, but rather anti-violence, and while that is a weak message, I don’t really mind, because not all movies should be taken at more than a face value. View it solely as a story about a boy and a Giant, and it’ll be fun. (I’m thinking I should revoke a little of my lofty praise of the movie, but I am hard-pressed to thing of an animated movie I liked better. If I figure one out, I’ll let you know.)
As for the end, I was a little bit disapointed with the regeneration. It felt like a copout put there so that little kids wouldn’t cry watching the movie. However, the whole self-sacrifice thing, and the confusion caused by Mansley made the climax pretty great.
I liked the characters. Most of the characterization was done in subtle ways that you don’t notice until the second or third time you watch it. Tiny mannerisms, background things aren’t just there for decoration, but actually contribute to the characters. As for being gneric or horrible, I think that’s also a matter of opinion.