`Iron Giant' Looms Large As A Surprise Summer Success

Movie review XXX 1/2 "The Iron Giant," feature-length cartoon with the voices of Eli Marienthal, Jennifer Aniston, Christopher McDonald, Harry Connick Jr. Directed by Brad Bird, from a script by Tim McCanlies, based on Ted Hughes' "The Iron Man." 84 minutes. Several theaters. "PG" - Parental guidance advised because of fantasy violence and mild language.

A smooth remake ("The Thomas Crown Affair"), a savvy political satire ("Dick"), a good Bruce Willis movie ("Sixth Sense") and now a terrific feature-length cartoon from Warner Bros . . . could this really be August?

Usually a dumping ground for major-studio dogs, the eighth month of the year has suddenly become prime time for several of Hollywood's finest summer movies. Perhaps the unlikeliest of the lot is "The Iron Giant," which comes from the same studio that gave us such animated mistakes as "Quest for Camelot" and a dumbed-down version of "The King and I."

The script is based on Ted Hughes' 1968 children's book, "The Iron Man," which also inspired a 1989 album and a 1993 London stage musical by The Who's Pete Townshend (who gets an executive-producer credit on the movie). Set in 1957, at the height of Sputnik's impact on Cold War fears, it explores the effect of small-town prejudices and military paranoia on a bright, lonely boy and his alien pal.

The story revolves around 9-year-old Hogarth Hughes (voice by Eli Marienthal), his single mother Annie (Jennifer Aniston), a budding beatnik named Dean (Harry Connick Jr.) and a giant, amnesiac robot who has a taste for metal. Hogarth discovers the creature in the woods outside Rockwell, Maine, after it's run off with his television antenna.

Hogarth saves the giant from electrocution and keeps him out of trouble and in hiding, while attempting to thwart a very nosy federal agent (Christopher McDonald) who stays near his bed all night, informing him, "I'll be watching you."

The story ends with military confrontation and the threat of nuclear annihilation, but it always comes back to the relationship between the child who needs a friend and the robot who has feelings that approach the heroic. Especially when Hogarth encourages him not to use his powers for destruction.

The narrative is often close to "E.T.," the iron giant resembles the Imperial Walkers in "The Empire Strikes Back," and the evocation of Sputnik recalls "October Sky." Yet the screenwriter, Tim McCanlies, who recently made his directing debut with "Dancer, Texas, Pop. 81," rarely makes the story feel derivative.

Hughes was writing well before the "Star Wars" era, and the movie deftly captures the absurdities of that period: the duck-and-cover approach to nuclear threat, the oppressive conformity that made rebels of harmless people like Dean, the surreal reflections of Cold War fears in popular entertainment (Hogarth is a big fan of alien-takeover movies).

The director, Brad Bird, whose "Family Dog" cartoon was one of the most popular entries on Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories," is fond of eccentric visual touches: the giant making a snack of railroad tracks, Hogarth's speedy motions when he gets hopped up on caffeine, Dean's benignly subversive restaurant behavior. The animation isn't as fancy as in, say, Disney's "Tarzan," but the storytelling is more satisfying.

The PG rating seems overly cautious. While such Disney cartoons as "Tarzan" and "The Lion King" have no problem landing G ratings despite their violent moments, "The Iron Giant," which has a clear pacifist message, is getting stuck with a parental-guidance warning.