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.