YMMV / The Iron Giant

---

• Adaptation Displacement: This movie was inspired by a book called The Iron Man by acclaimed writer and Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, which still remains as a pretty obscure work in comparison with the Cult Classic status of its animated adaptation. However, in its native England, the book and its sequel The Iron Woman, has received a stage adaptation or two.
• Adorkable: Hogarth Hughes is an enthusiastic, brainy, curious kid who loves comic books. Best proven when he gushes over "having his own giant".
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Word of God has said that the movie wasn't actually intended to have an individualist Nurture-Over-Nature Aesop, but it still does a pretty good job of delivering that message, arguably as well as its intended "Guns are bad" message.
  • Alternatively, the message could be "guns aren't a problem, but how you use them." General Rogard defies the bellicose Cold War general stereotype by being a Reasonable Authority Figure who only uses force in the direst of situations. The Giant's sheer size it what allows him to save the town from being destroyed. Mansley nearly causes nuclear damage because he's a paranoid and self-aggrandizing nutcase who can't correctly assess a threat. The film argues that if you own a weapon, you must have the wisdom to know when to use it.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: That educational film shown in Hogarth's class, telling people that they can survive a blast by ducking and covering their heads, is based on a real thing.
• Ass Pull: Dean's realization about the Giant's reaction to Hogarth's toy gun can come off like this. Dean looks up just as the Giant finishes his first eye-blast at Hogarth and as he tackles him to avoid the second blast he saw that Hogarth was pointing his gun at the Giant. However, it requires a considerable deductive leap for Dean to conclude that the Giant was only reacting defensively to the gun.
• Awesome Art: The traditional animation is some of the best to come out of a non-Disney animated film, but special mention goes to the giant, who, apart from being masterfully animated, had a special software developed for him to give him natural imperfections, helping him blend flawlessly into the 2D art.
• Awesome Music: The "Duck and Cover" song is very catchy. If you hear the full version on the DVD, it will get stuck in your head.
• Catharsis Factor: Rogard blowing up at Mansley for wasting his time is hilarious and enjoyable. As is the Giant stopping Mansley's cowardly escape.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Mansley unintentionally getting the town destroyed with a nuclear strike on the Giant? Horrifying. Rogard rubbing into Mansley how screwed everyone is by yelling, "WHERE'S THE GIANT, MANSLEY?" with the Giant right behind him? Hilarious.
• Cult Classic: Initially doing poorly at the box office, the film is praised to this day as being an underrated masterpiece.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The movie's intended message of "guns kill" is muddled somewhat by the spectacular Curb-Stomp Battle the Giant has with the military. It's hard not to be impressed by the awesomeness of the Giant's weaponry.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: General Rogard, due to him being both a Four-Star Badass and a Reasonable Authority Figure. Exemplified when he stands his ground against the Giant with just a handgun.
• Fan Nickname: "Hog Hug", used by some fans to refer to Hogarth because of one scene.
• Fanon:
  • It's popular among fans to speculate that Mansley had been Reassigned to Antarctica before the events of the film, considering his high-and-mighty attitude in spite of clearly being in a dead-end government position that nobody takes seriously. And his many, many attitude problems.
  • There's also a popular headcanon that Mansley was punished after the events of the movie, but instead of being moved to another location, he was instead moved six feet under. Given he almost obliterated a bunch of American citizens with a nuke at the height of the Cold War, a charge of treason (which, in the US, is punishable by death) would not have been out of the question. This video outlines the many, many crimes Mansley committed over the course of the film, as well as the legal punishments for all of them, and concludes that he would've been lucky to spend the rest of his life in prison.
• Genius Bonus: When Hogarth and the Giant go out walking at night, pay attention to the moon in one scene. Just to the right of it, one of the stars can be seen moving. That's Sputnik.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While Giant was a box office flop in the US that gained a Cult Classic status over time, it is very popular and highly-acclaimed in Japan. One of the ex-presidents of Studio Gainax had this to say about it:
  "Full of nostalgia to modern Americans. It is like My Neighbor Totoro to the Japanese."
• Harsher in Hindsight: As more and more declassified Cold War documents reveal how close mankind was to unleashing World War 3 upon itself by accident, it may sit uncomfortably with some as Kent gives the order for the bomb to be dropped, quite accidentally and irrationally, in his own relative vicinity.
• He Really Can Act: Vin Diesel as the Giant. He doesn't get much dialogue, but whenever the Giant speaks with his grunting and groaning, the mood is absolutely spot-on. The DVD features also reveal that less work was needed to create the mechanical sound from Diesel's vocals than you might think.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: When the Giant reads Hogarth's Superman comics, he grows to idolize him because of his heroics such that his last words before he stops the nuke is "Superman". Come 2022, and the trailer for Multi Versus shows the Iron Giant actually meeting his idol, Superman.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Kent Mansley saying "Screw our country! I wanna live!" as his final lines in the movie after he unwittingly sends a nuke directly into the town becomes extremely ironic when the President in Shadow the Hedgehog (who's strongly implied to be the same president from Sonic Adventure 2) is redesigned to resemble Mansley.
  • For publicity, Eli Marienthal (Hogarth) did an interview with Scouting magazine Boys' Life. The magazine itself gets a mention in the film as Hogarth is showing his comics to the Giant... although not quite the one they would want.
    Hogarth: The Spirit, very cool... Boys' Life, meh...
  • All-Star Superman ends almost exactly like The Iron Giant, right down to the honorary statue of the hero and the strong hints of the hero being resurrected — which makes the Iron Giant's reverent whisper [I choose to be] Superman! that much more heartwarming.
• Inferred Holocaust: During the Giant's battle with the Army, some of the tank crews are shown escaping from their tanks prior to being hit by the Giant's weapons, but others are not. As some of these tanks are flipped upside down by the impact, the odds of survival is quite low.
• It Was His Sled: Good luck finding someone who doesn't know about the Iron Giant's eventual fate.
• Love to Hate: Kent Mansley is a total Slimeball who makes things worse for everyone. However, his over the top antics and recurring misfortunes combined with Christopher McDonald's performance results in a hilarious Jerkass and antagonist.
• Memetic Molester: Some of Kent Mansley's behavior can be seen as creepier than it was meant to be. Special mention goes to the scene where he's watching Hogarth go to bed, which isn't helped by the fact that he crosses his legs in a way that looks suggestive. A scene from an early draft makes his behavior a thousand times worse.
  Mansley: Come on, Hogarth. Let's do the happy monkey. You know the one I mean.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Dean's facial expressions are remarkably well-animated, such that he's become a source for reaction images on certain parts of 4chan.
    • For example, him holding his coffee mug◊.
    • Dean is done with your ridiculousness.◊
    • "ART!" has become a pretty popular reaction image on Tumblr.
  • After the release of Man of Steel and the debates it started about the best portrayal of Superman on film, it became quite popular to claim that the real answer to that question is The Iron Giant.
  • Hogarth saying "Welcome to downtown Coolsville" has become a popular caption for describing things that are not particularly cool.
  • "WHERE'S THE GIANT, MANSLEY?!"
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Like a lot of Brad Bird's works, the film has been co-opted by some libertarians as being an anti-government/Objectivist piece of work, all the while ignoring the "guns kill" message that Bird was really trying to convey.
  • When the Giant is driven to his Rage Breaking Point, he unleashes his advanced weaponry onto the army in a Curb-Stomp Battle. It was meant to be an homage to the invincible alien weapons of 1950s sci-fi films especially The War of the Worlds (1953). Unfortunately, some fans focused too much on the awesome display of firepower and neglected to take in the aftermath of the rampage which included a lot of collateral damage, some inevitable soldier casualties as tanks were tossed into the air without showing soldiers escaping, and the near destruction of an entire battleship and her crew. The battle was intended to be impressive, but the underlying message was still "guns kill".
• Misaimed Merchandising: Even the sparse toyline that was released at the time didn't convey the movie's themes very well, as the action figures of the Giant emphasized its weapon functions and the packaging has Hogarth brandishing his toy gun. People who watched the movie only after being exposed to the toys first were in for a surprise and some serious dissonance.
• Moral Event Horizon: Mansley crosses the line when he drugs Hogarth after confronting him in the barn to interrogate him. During this time he deliberately threatens to have Hogarth taken away from his mother, knowing full well the emotional trauma he hopes to induce in Hogarth to get him to disclose where the Giant is. If that didn't convince you he a horrible sleaze, he then lies to the General that the Giant killed Hogarth and orders an assault on the giant—not caring that it also endangers Hogarth. To top it off, Mansley then dooms the town of Rockwell to nuclear destruction in his attempt to destroy the Giant, and then tries to flee with a "screw our country", proving how much of a destructive phony he really is.
• Narm Charm:
  • Hogarth's sincere "I love you" to the Giant just before his Heroic Sacrifice. Even people who have poked fun at it won't deny that it still made them weep.
  • General Rogard gives another one with this legendary line in the middle of impending doom. Taken on its face it's a silly question, since the Giant is right next to them. But given Rogard's blistering anger that Mansley has called down a nuke on said giant, it perfectly encapsulates how badly Mansley has messed up.
    Rogard: WHERE'S THE GIANT, MANSLEY?
  • Speaking of Mansley, his Large Ham tendencies lead to a lot of hilariously over-the-top lines.
    Mansley: HOG HUG!? HOGARTH HUGHES!
  • Vin Diesel should not make you start crying by whispering "Superman..." and yet it works.
• One-Scene Wonder: Legendary Disney animators and Brad Bird's mentors Frank Thomas and Olie Johnston cameoing as the two rail men.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Did Vin Diesel just make viewers cry Manly Tears?
  • One of Hogarth's animators was Lauren Faust.
  • Most of the animation crew from this film followed Brad Bird over to Pixar to create The Incredibles.
• Sacred Cow: Considering how this well-crafted movie still pulls on the heart-strings to this day, criticizing this film online is a very bad idea. Do not call this movie bad, do not make fun of the tragic scene with the deer dying, and absolutely do not, repeat, do not, make fun of the Giant's Heroic Sacrifice. Just doing all the above will in the fans tearing you apart.
• Signature Line: Delivered as the Giant approaches the missile.
  Hogath: [in voice-over]: You are who you choose to be.
  Iron Giant: Superman...
• Spiritual Successor:
  • It's often considered one to Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-go (aka Gigantor), which is also about a boy controlling a giant robot.
  • Similarly, it could be seen similar to Yokoyama's other mecha Giant Robo, given how eerily similar the Heroic Sacrifice the Giant makes is to Giant Robo's sacrifice in its 1960's tokusatsu adaptation.
  • It could also be considered one to Go Nagai's Mazinger Z (aka Tranzor Z), given the theme of the titular robot being a force for good or a force for evil.
  • It is also considered the best Superman movie in years, to the point that people have compared this movie favorably to Man of Steel, an actual Superman movie which was released over a decade after this movie.
  • Videogame-wise, this could be compared to Huitzil and Cecil of Darkstalkers, in which the former is a robot sent to destroy life on Earth but somehow becomes a protector of a young boy instead.
• Squick: Hogarth's Laxative Prank on Mansley.
• Strangled by the Red String: Some feel this way about Dean and Annie hooking up at the end, because other than the connection through Hogarth, there's never really anything romantic between the two throughout the movie. This in particular plays a huge part as to why an unfinished coffee house scene with Dean and Annie was worked into the 2015 Signature Edition as it better establishes why the two would eventually become a couple.
• Strawman Has a Point: When Mansley has his rant in the ice cream shop that the Giant isn't American-built so it should be feared and destroyed, he is arguing from a position of nationalistic paranoia and fear of the unknown. Given that we have seen Hogarth and the Giant interact and seen Mansley to be a Jerkass, we know that he's overreacting. However, he raises some good points in that we don't know who built the Giant, what it is or what it can do. Also, he does not know it is even a sentient being worthy of moral consideration or capable of making free choices at the time (and there is no technological precedent for such a sentient robot existing), and the giant has already caused a train crash that may have killed people by this point. When we learn that the Giant was designed to be a super-weapon meant to be part of an army of planet-killers, Mansley's desire to "destroy it before it destroys us" carries a bit more weight.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The restored Dream Sequence in the 2015 Signature Edition gets this reaction from a few people who feel that the movie was better not knowing much about the Iron Giant's past, and that the brief moment that the weaponized Giant is seen in a water reflection pretty much gives away the later reveal when it goes on a rampage.
• Trailer Joke Decay: The scene of Hogarth and the Giant making their respective cannonballs into the lake. It was in all of the commercials and has since been quoted and re-enacted by pretty much every kid who saw it to the point of being a Bottom of the Barrel Joke. Fortunately, the joke's actual punchline manages to keep it as one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
• Vindicated by History: The film was universally loved by critics and audiences, but that didn't save the film from bombing at the box office; Warner Bros.' marketing blitz for the home video release led to the film being seen by a wider audience, and now it's considered one of the greatest animated films ever. Helping was Cartoon Network's now-infamous holiday marathons. Even when played over and over, back to back, for three days in a row, it still didn't get old.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The movie can be interpreted as having either a leftist or libertarian political message. Leftists like the movie for its explicit anti-gun message and critiquing the idyllic 50s as popularized by many conservatives, while the Giant decides to be a force for protecting people. Conversely, libertarians like the film for having an individualist message, with the titular Iron Giant carving out his own identity outside of being a weapon. Despite the divide, both sides enjoy the film for portraying government forces and bureaucrats as antagonists seeking to destroy something they don't understand. Brad Bird denies that the film is libertarian (which his other films have been interpreted as), nor is it a defense of Communism (which some conservatives actually argued when it was first released).
• Woolseyism:
  • At the climax, Mansley says after launching the nuke "Screw our country! I wanna live!" before failing at escaping and getting arrested. In the European Spanish dub, he instead says "¡A la mierda el país, yo quiero vivir!" which translates to "Fuck this country, I wanna live!", making it even more hilarious.
  • In the Norwegian dub, Hogarth saying "Oh my God!" at the dinner table is even funnier as said phrase in Norwegian ("Herregud") is a rude word when said a certain way, making Annie's startled expression even more understandable. And then Hogarth says "Satan", which in Norwegian is almost as bad as saying "Fuck". That they were even allowed to keep it is hilarious.
  • The Swedish dub includes a bit of dark wordplay mixed with Tranquil Fury in the climatic scene where General Rogard chews out Mansley in order to emphasize just how much he screwed up.
  "Den missilen är inställd på jättens nuvarande position! Och var är jätten nu Mansley?"

---