“The Iron Giant”

Steel Behemoth

‘The Iron Giant’ shakes the ground for a new generation, uses new technology

by Devan Pittman

The film “The Iron Giant” is adapted from Ted Hughes' Cold War fable of the same name. A giant alien robot 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 must do what they can to save the misunderstood machine.

“The Iron Giant” is a very unique movie, regarding its animation specifically, even with it being made in 1968. Most of the characters & backgrounds are hand drawn and animated. However, the main character in the movies, the Iron Giant itself, is animated using traditional animation, with computer-generated imagery. The understaffed crew of the film completed it with half of the time and budget of other animated features.

Its 3D model was created in Maya, rendered in Renderman, and then imported in Cambridge Animation Systems` Animo. The Giant was designed by filmmaker Joe Johnston, which was refined by production designer Mark Whiting and Steve Markowski, head animator for the Giant.

This story has a simple premise, but the characters really make it out to be emotional for the audience and most people tend to agree.