Directorial Debut: Brad Bird's THE IRON GIANT

Welcome to a new installment of DIRECTORIAL DEBUT, where we look at some of the best, most interesting, and iconic directors and the films that started their careers. This week we look at the debut of Brad Bird...THE IRON GIANT.

The Iron Giant tells the story of a kid named Hogarth who finds a giant robot in the middle of the forest. He quickly becomes friends with it and helps it stay away from the government officer who is trying to capture it.

This film feels really inspired by Spielberg, so much so that if I didn’t know who directed it, he would be a guess of mine. Brad Bird really made such a human film, encapsulating what we all as children wanted to do. But even more than that the bond between the kid and the robot is something everyone really just connects with. There is a lot of parallel between their relationship to that of a kid and his younger brother.

There are a bunch of inspirations from Superman to Steven Spielberg. At the same time the film really does an incredible job at setting itself as something different. The themes in The Iron Giant really are told well using the kid and the relationships around him. The writing as a whole was really incredible, each relationship was realistic, the dialog, especially from the kid, felt like something a kid would say, the story was paced really well, and the third act felt refreshing and not predictable.

Now, even though each aspect of the film was superb, the element of the film that stands out the most is the directing. This film was masterfully directed, from the pacing to the visual storytelling and humor. No moment was wasted and, instead, was spent engaging me as a viewer to get more attached to each character and their story. Where the end had me getting really emotional, all of it was because of Brad Bird and how he told the story. The animation was absolutely incredible, each frame has colours so vibrant and beautiful that you really can just study them.

At the end of the day, Brad Bird really showed the world what is capable with his directorial debut The Iron Giant. A film that many recommended but I could never in my wildest imagination think would be this brilliant.

Khizer's Score: 10/10

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