The Iron Giant (Signature Edition): Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
A giant alien robot (Vin Diesel) crash-lands near the small town of Rockwell, Maine, in 1957. Exploring the area, a local 9-year-old boy, Hogarth, discovers the robot, and soon forms an unlikely friendship with him. When a paranoid government agent, Kent Mansley, becomes determined to destroy the robot, Hogarth and beatnik Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.) must do what they can to save the misunderstood machine.
I can easily say that this is one of my favorite animated films of all time but I hadn’t seen it in about 7 years so watching it on Blu-ray felt like I was seeing it for the first time again. The animation looked amazing and so clean with this new remastered version of the film. The story is one that would catch anybody’s attention. It’s a fantastic mixture between comedy and absolute adventure the moment that it starts. It would definitely make every kid have their eyes glued to the screen and wish that they had a robot buddy of their own. This release contains the Theatrical version as well as the Signature version which adds two scenes that although they aren’t super substantial, they do add a slight bit more to the narrative so that was good to see. I don’t think that I have to go much into detail on how good the voice cast was. You have Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr, Christopher McDonald and a little know actor named Vin Diesel. They all performed excellently and since their voices are so distinct you could identify them almost immediately. The other thing that completely blows my mind is that this was the directorial debut of Brad Bird. This film has a certain feel to it that you can easily see got transferred over to his next feature The Incredibles. It was just crazy to me that right out of the gate Bird directed this phenomenal film. It may not have been the box office success that it was intended to be but over time it became something that people found and loved. I easily can say that I loved this film when I first came out and loved it all over again after not seeing it for so many years. For the younger audience out there that has yet to experience The Iron Giant I highly suggest watching it as soon as you can. 9/10
Special Features:
The Giant’s Dream – A fantastic brand new documentary just for this release. There’s A LOT of great info here on Brad Bird and it goes through the creation of The Iron Giant. There is so much to see here including rough sketches, various artwork and so much more. I wouldn’t give this documentary any justice by just talking about it. This is a must see.
Audio Commentary with Director Brad Bird, Head of Animation Tony Fucile, Story Department Head Jeff Lynch and Animation Supervisor Steven Markowski
Deleted Scenes with Introduction by Brad Bird (Older Feature) – 6 Scenes here that interesting to watch and are at least worth checking out.
Teddy Newton: The X Factor (Older Feature) – This feature takes a look at a specific crew member and what they brought to the production.
