the iron giant

"the iron giant" is a 1999 animation set in the 1950s, directed by brad bird (who also brought us "the incredibles"). dash finally watched it - and thoroughly enjoys the animation : )

with the story's backdrop of the cold war, there was an atmosphere of fear and suspicion of all things alien on the newspapers and television - whether it was the sputnik rocketed into space to spy or monitor, the other foreign governments, the race to send statellites into space, the unknowns and monsters in laboratories. perhaps it is for this reason that there is, for most part of the film, an obvious lack of soothing background music filler.

the relationship between the boy hogarth and the iron giant gently grows on dash. the sheer power and physical strength of the iron giant in constrast with his reliance on hogarth to navigate in this alien world called earth; the humdrum of hogarth's daily routine spiced with the discovery of his metal man friend. and the hilarious highlight of the animation was their quest to look for metal to feed the iron giant while trying to remain inconspicuous - afterall, how does a 50 ft-high iron giant with an appetite for metal in the suburbs? the answer - with much ingenuity! (especially how the iron giant camouflaged with a billboard advertsing pizza! :D)

but it was the following 2 things in the animation that really moves dash (and at times, to tears too):
(a) the philosophical questions about whether sentient beings, or robots who seem to have a conscience and capable of independent thoughts and emotions, have a soul; what is art - afterall, are those metal contraptions made by dean the artist beatnik (who also happens to bear a strong resemblance to james dean) just metal scraps or are are they art?; whether guns kill, or people kill?; and even how everyone, whether the victims of school bullies or sentient robots, have a choice of who they are. yep, it is much food for thought within a short 82 minutes.
(b) the loyalty of hogarth and the iron giant to each other - hence when hogarth outwits the rakish government secret agent amidst the agent's slick lies and threats, dash cheers and leaps out of the chair for joy! :D

dash's verdict on "the iron giant" - excellent! A (arh) :D