The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is a 1999 American animated science fiction film directed by Brad Bird and written by Tim McCanlies^[a] from a story treatment by Bird. Loosely based on Ted Hughes's novel, The Iron Man (which was published in the United States under the film's title), it features an ensemble voice cast consisting of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, James Gammon, Cloris Leachman, John Mahoney, Eli Marienthal, Christopher McDonald and M. Emmet Walsh. Set during the Cold War in 1957, the film centers on a young boy named Hogarth Hughes, who discovers and befriends the titular giant robot of extraterrestrial origin. With the help of beatnik artist Dean McCoppin, Hogarth attempts to prevent the United States' military, who have been alerted by paranoid federal agent Kent Mansley, from finding and vanquishing the Giant.

The film's development began in 1994 as a musical with the involvement of the Who's Pete Townshend, though the project took root once Bird signed on as director and hired McCanlies to write the screenplay in 1996. The film was animated using traditional animation, with computer-generated imagery used to animate the titular character and other effects. The crew of the film was understaffed and completed it with half of the time and budget of other animated features. Michael Kamen composed the film's score, which was performed by the Czech Philharmonic. It was the final film by Warner Bros. Feature Animation to be fully animated and not a live-action/animation hybrid.

The Iron Giant premiered at Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on July 31, 1999, and was released in the United States on August 6. The film significantly underperformed at the box office, grossing $31.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million, which was attributed to Warner Bros.' lack of marketing and skepticism towards animated film production following the box office failure of Quest for Camelot in the preceding year. Despite this, the film was praised for its story, animation, musical score, characters, the portrayal of the titular character and the lead voice actors’ performances. The film was nominated for several awards, winning nine Annie Awards out of 15 nominations. Through home video releases and television syndication, the film gathered a cult following^[7] and is widely regarded as a modern animated classic and one of the greatest animated films ever made.^[8][9][10] In 2015, an extended and remastered version of the film was re-released theatrically^[8][11] and on home video the following year.^[12][13]

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