The Iron Giant

Frankly I don't think that Brad Bird's first animated feature is all it's made out to be. It's a fantasy that seems heavily influenced by Spielberg's immensely superior, E.T., in which a young, fatherless boy befriends a giant robot from outer space. The film is set during the 1950's, during the middle of the Cold War, and in a time when science fiction was primarily concerned with the atomic age. On the one hand, it's a story about a boy, the robot, and a paranoid government official who'd rather nuke first and ask questions later, because if you don't know what it is, then it's probably from the Commie's. As a story, it mostly works well, however there's a second layer to it: a satire of the red scare and 1950's America. The satire fails miserably and quickly devolves into an unwanted preachiness. Fortunately for his next film, The Incredibles, Bird manages to blend his story with social satire seamlessly, but not here.