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But the voice casting of Marienthal is the movie's master stroke. About 12 at the time of recording, Marienthal has that quick-paced excited energy in his voice where he slings out words a mile a minute the way only a grade-schooler can. Plucky and brave, but also weak and vulnerable when needed, Marienthal truly does bring Hogarth to life. Sadly, his career was shortly put to rest with his biggest post-Iron Giant credit being Stifler’s brother in the American Pie franchise, which is nearly as un-killable as the Giant in this film.

McDonald plays the wacked-out G-man and is a highlight as the film’s villain trying to kill the lovable Giant.

“People just aren’t ready for you,” says Hogarth reasoning to the Giant on why he must stay hidden for the time being. But he might have also been talking about American audiences at the box office.

Released August 6, 1999, The Iron Giant wasn’t so giant at all with a miniscule $5.7 million (about $9 million adjusted) opening weekend good for ninth place. With extremely small dips, the film muscled its way to around $23.2 million overall ($36.24 million today). The summer produced very few kiddie hits besides the Disney produced Tarzan and Inspector Gadget. With a hefty $70 million price tag, an additional $80 million overseas helped the cause. The poor domestic performance was blamed on a gigantic marketing misfire (the trailer alone gave the movie about five different tones and showed the ending). Even Bird and McCaniles publicly called out the studio for the atrocious ads. So for the home video release, WB regrouped and had tie-ins with companies like Honey Nut Cheerios, General Motors, and AOL. The plan obviously worked, turning into a favorite for all ages. Cartoon Network showed the film for 24 hours in the early 2000s on Thanksgiving, helping it gain a cult following as well. A special edition DVD release was soon to follow. It holds all types of goodies ranging from deleted scenes to sequence analysis to a hilarious full-length version of the Duck-and-Cover movie briefly shown in the film.

The Iron Giant was one of the last traditional animation movies to have made a mark on audiences. As CG-animation became a cheaper and more exciting option for studios, the biggest nail in the coffin was when WB made Scooby-Doo in 2002. Taking a traditionally animated cartoon and making it a hybrid live-action/CG animated movie, Scooby was a giant hit and Fox’s Alvin & the Chipmunks films were even bigger. However, audiences still show a craving for these types of traditional films. The Simpsons Movie in 2007 was a giant worldwide hit and Disney’s new princess fable The Princess & the Frog broke the century mark at the box office last year. It seems as if the only place where 2D animation is still ubiquitous is on television.

The Iron Giant is with us today for a laundry list of reasons. With themes of Cold War-era Russian-brought terror making a comeback this year with the fun Jolie-hit Salt and the real-life Anna Chapman version of it, themes of the unknown being bad are always prevalent. Plus an anti-gun message sweetly but not bluntly told holds true. Yet, most importantly, The Iron Giant never dumbs itself down for the younger audience, giving them more credit than most films nowadays.

How did WB go from making this to Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore? Talk about a major step backwards.

As magical as anything Disney has touched with a great imagination and even bigger heart. I think that even though it is over 11-years-old, there won’t be any signs of rust on this Iron Giant for a long time.

Verdict: With Us

3 out of 4 stars

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