The giant from space

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Movie
German title The giant from space
Original title The Iron Giant
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1999
length 86 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Brad Bird
script Tim McCanlies
Brad Bird ( anonymous )
production Allison Abbate , Des McAnuff
music Michael Kamen
camera Steven Wilzbach
cut Darren T. Holmes
synchronization

The Iron Giant (Original title: The Iron Giant ) is a science fiction - animated film from 1999, directed by Brad Bird , who along with Tim McCanlies also wrote the screenplay. The film opened in German cinemas on December 16, 1999.

The film is based on the book Der Eisenmann ( The Iron Man , 1968) by the writer Ted Hughes .

action

The nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes lives with his mother Annie, who works in the local diner , in the tranquil coastal town of Rockwell in the state of Maine in the USA in 1957, at the time of the paranoia of a possible Soviet first strike , triggered by the start of Sputnik 1 in October 1957.

When one day one of the local fishermen reports in the restaurant about a giant metal man who is said to have fallen into the sea, nobody wants to believe him at first. Only Hogarth, who is about to ask his mother for a pet, is enthusiastic about the story. When the television broadcast suddenly stops in the Hughes house that evening, Hogarth tries to get to the bottom of the problem and discovers that the antenna has disappeared. After following a trail into the forest, he actually finds a gigantic, around 15-meter-tall metal creature that is busy at the local power station . When the giant gets tangled up in the cables and is energized, Hogarth manages to rescue it by switching off the energy. He was astonished to find that the giant can repair itself and, despite its imposing appearance, is harmless. A deep friendship immediately develops between the two. In addition to his size, the giant's irrepressible hunger for metal is a problem, so Hogarth takes him to Dean McCoppin's junkyard, whom he previously met in his mother's restaurant.

He can initially keep the giant hidden in the junkyard. But not only do they have to hide the giant from the residents of Rockwell, the government is now also interested in the incidents in Rockwell and sends agent Kent Mansley to investigate the case. The agent investigates the events at the power station, and a little later a train accident, which was also triggered by the giant. However, he only takes the matter seriously after his car first shows a gigantic bite, and then disappears. Mansley identifies the initials of Hogarth Hughes on an air rifle previously found at the first crime scene and therefore suspects a connection between Hogarth and the events; to the boy's displeasure, he lodges himself in the house of the Hughes, who offer room rentals. The stubborn federal agent eventually finds Hogarth's camera with a photo of him and the metal being, after which he alerts the military to destroy the creature. Dean, the scrap yard owner, and Hogarth manage to disguise the giant with other metal parts as a work of art. General Rogard's troops have to withdraw again. When Hogarth is fiddling with a toy gun and pointing it at the giant for fun, the giant suddenly shoots back. Dean notes that this is a defense mechanism that only activates when the creature is threatened.

The paranoid Mansley, who leaves the city disappointed with the army, now notices the supposed attacker in the city. The troops turn around and now attack the giant with jet planes, tanks and battleships, who can repel the military with its enormous firepower. The angry agent then, to the horror of Rogard and Dean, arbitrarily orders the use of a nuclear missile against the giant. This would wipe out Rockwell and contaminate a considerable part of the east coast as the atomic charge is fired at the giant's current position. After Hogarth was able to appease the giant, he decides to sacrifice himself for the people. He flies towards the missile and collides with it, destroying both in an explosion. A monument to the metal giant is then erected in the city, which Dean built, who is now with Hogarth's mother. Hogarth leads a normal life and has friends. In the last scene of the film, the individual parts of the giant pull itself to Langjökull - glacier in Iceland to sit down there again.

Voice actor

role English speaker German speaker
Hogarth Hughes Eli Marienthal Till Völger
giant Vin Diesel Jürgen Kluckert
Dean McCoppin Harry Connick Jr. Johannes Berenz
Annie Hughes Jennifer Aniston Nadja Reichardt
Kent Mansley Christopher McDonald Bodo Wolf
General Rogard John Mahoney Hans-Werner Bussinger
Earl Stutz M. Emmet Walsh Klaus Jepsen
Stefan Staudinger
(new scenes of the Signature Edition)
Foreman Marv Loach James Gammon Andreas Rudiger

background

  • The film combines classic cartoons with computer animation that was used to portray the giant.
  • The film satirizes the social and political mood shaped by the Cold War in the USA of the late 1950s, in particular the "Sputnik shock" and the growing fear of a nuclear Third World War with the Soviet Union. The design of the robot is also based on science fiction films from the 50s. The toponym Rockwell is likely a reference to Roswell, New Mexico , where a UFO allegedly crashed in 1947 .
  • Pete Townshend , musician of the rock band The Who , adapted the book in his concept album The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend , published in 1989 . Together with Des McAnuff he also developed a stage musical based on the book , which (similar to the musical Tommy ) used the songs from his album. Townshend is also listed as executive producer in the film .
  • The drawn characters of the two train drivers in the film were designed after the Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston , who also gave their characters their voice in the original tone.
  • Before the publication of the English book with the original title The Iron Man in North America, the title was renamed The Iron Giant , which then also became the original title for the film. Background was the avoidance of confusion and potential legal disputes with respect to the same Marvel Comics -Figur Iron Man .
  • Despite good reviews, the film was not a box office success, grossing just $ 23,159,305 in the US and $ 8,174,612 in the rest of the world for a total of $ 31,333,917 worldwide on a budget of $ 70,000,000. One reason for this is that the film was inadequately marketed by the production company Warner Bros.

Reviews

The film received mostly positive reviews from the critics.

Roger Ebert described the film as "enchanting" and especially praised the departure from familiar Disney patterns with their "cute little animals" and song numbers. Rather, he compared the film with the works of Hayao Miyazaki , especially with My Neighbor Totoro , which tell their story more directly and simply. Ebert sees a "political parable" in the film , set in the Cold War of the 1950s. In addition, the film draws its charm from the story, which is very similar to that from ET - The Extra-Terrestrial .

The lexicon of international films describes The Giant from Outer Space as an “extraordinary cartoon” . The economical use of 3D animations and the "careful" design of the characters and the surroundings are praised . In terms of content, the film breaks with the usual genre conventions, "by accentuating friendship and peacefulness instead of violence as a means of conflict resolution and caricaturing the 1950s hysteria against everything un-American in a very amusing way."

Awards

literature

  • Ted Hughes : Der Eisenmann (Original title: The Iron Man ). German by Uwe-Michael Gutzschhahn. With pictures by Jindra Čapek . New edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1997, 92 pages, ISBN 3-596-80154-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The giant from space. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on July 7, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - Studio Briefing. October 25, 2004, accessed August 7, 2019 .
  3. ^ The Iron Giant (1999) - Financial Information. Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
  4. ↑ It's Here; Why Aren't You Watching? August 27, 1999. Retrieved August 7, 2019 (American English).
  5. ↑ see collected reviews at http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/irongiant/ and http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/iron_giant/ (accessed on January 16, 2016).
  6. ↑ See review by Roger Ebert on rogerebert.suntimes.com (accessed June 14, 2008).
  7. ↑ The Giant from Space in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on June 14, 2008