[font size="4"]‘The Iron Giant: Signature Edition’ Review: Souls Don’t Die[/font] | TIFF 2015
by Matt Goldberg - September 12, 2015

I find it difficult to write about my all-time favorite films because I don’t know where to begin. I don’t know where to start with a movie that I love as much as Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant, a film that stirs my heart and moves me to tears every time I see it. Perhaps it’s that the movie goes for lighthearted fun just as easily as it goes for an anti-war sentiment and promoting self-determination. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Bird ingeniously wrapped his story in the mold of a “boy-and-his-dog” narrative, and it all comes together beautifully—the animation, the humor, and the affection for 1950s sci-fi. The new “Signature Edition” includes a new scene that doesn’t add or detract from the overall film, which continues to be as funny, heartwarming, and powerful as it was when it was released over fifteen years ago.

In 1957, an object from outer space crashes off the shore of Rockwell, Maine. The object turns out to be a 50-foot-tell metallic alien (Vin Diesel) who feasts on metal. When lonely local boy Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) discovers the alien creature, the giant accidentally falls into a power station and gets a bump on his head, forgetting why he landed on Earth. The two strike up a friendship, but Hogarth struggles to keep the Iron Giant a secret from aggressive, paranoid government agent Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald). Along the way, the Iron Giant learns about humanity and tries to rebel against what he was designed for. (more at link) (And, being re-released today, and next Sunday, but only those two days.)