THE IRON GIANT is a Sci-Fi Adventure Animated Masterpiece

In Episode 40 of Secret Level, we discuss one of our all-time favorite animated movies, Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant. This is such an incredible movie that has found its audience over time, but when it was first released, it bowed at the box office, which is a shame for a film that tells such an amazingly beautiful and emotional story. We talk about the making of the film, the inspiration behind the story, what went wrong with the film’s marketing, and more! There’s a lot of fun and interesting information that we came across in our research and as always we have fun sharing our own commentary on the movie! Enjoy the show!

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Transcript

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and I couldn't believe that he left the knife sticking out of my thigh after he jammed it in and just let, and then walked away like nothing happened. And so I'm sitting there with the knife in my thigh, and I, and I grab it, and I pluck it out, and I'm just bleeding all over the place. It's all running down my leg. I hate the side of blood. And, and that's, that's how that all went down. I'm just upset that he didn't have the decency to help you pull the knife out. Right. Right. Or at least stick around to give me the stitches that I needed to sew up the leg. I, I needed like seven stitches. Hmm. It was a, it was a big blade. Yeah. I mean, it's just showing how society is going these days. No one's willing to help out anymore, man. Going to the pediatrician is rough these days. Huh. Well, that was a twist man. So, yeah. Um, Joseph, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing good. I'm doing all right. It's been, it's been some, it's been a great week. It's been a great week. We're back. We're podcasting again. We're getting another episode out. We are very excited. I was really excited about this one. I say that every time, so just, just get used to it. But I love watching this movie and this just gave me another reason to watch this movie, uh, a couple of times this last week, man. Okay, so before we go on, before we go on, uh, yes. Hello everybody. I'm Joey Par, host of Secret Level, a Geek Tyrant podcast. And joining me is Billy. It's Billy. It's Billy Fisher. Hi Billy. Hey. Hi buddy. I am Joey Parr, host of Secret Level. Yeah. What? Yeah, I just decided that's what I'm gonna be today. What just happened? That's it. I'm so confused. Absolutely. So, okay. All right. What's going on? Well, today we are going to talk about, man, we are going to talk about the classic 1999 Brad Bird directed animated film, the Iron Giant, which is widely considered to be one of the best animated films of all time. I can agree with that. This movie has won critical acclaim. It's captured the hearts of audiences for over two decades. It's just such a great movie and rewatching it this time, and I, mm-hmm. This is a movie I revisit often. Yes. And when you just get to that end, it just, oh my punches you in the gut. The emotions come and it, the emotions just come flooding. I can't stop the emotions from flooding. No. I am a, I am a complete mess. As, as the iron giant flies up into the sky to sacrifice himself, to save his friend Hogarth and the town. Ugh. So I'm sitting here right before I get on this podcast. I, I literally just finished the movie about 30 minutes ago. Nice. And I am just on a high right now, and I'm just sitting there and I'm like getting all emotional. I'm like, and now you gotta go to this podcast and talk about this beautiful film. And that's the thing. And like there's. Everybody says certain movies transcend time and can be watched by generations, but this is a truly generational movie. My kids love this movie probably more than I do, and that's hard. I love this movie. It's my, it's my all time favorite number one animated movie. I recently did a poll on, uh, geek Tyrant's Twitter. Mm-hmm. Because I was curious to see what people think. So the Iron Giants beloved movie. Right. But there's also a lot of hype for Spider-Man into the Spider Verse. Right. Great movie. And there I'm not taking anything away from movie. No, no. Great movie. And it's a rough choice. And I'm like, if you could only choose one, what would it be? And like for me, 100%, it's gonna be the Iron Giant, but Right. But it was pretty split on people. It was pretty split. You had people choosing the Iron Giant, you had people choosing Spider-Man into the Spider Verse. But after watching the Iron Giant, it just, once again, reaffirms to me why this is the best an one of the best animated movies I ever made. Because it just captures, it's, it's me like that movie, Hogarth. If you wanna know what my personality is like, or what I was like as a kid. Mm-hmm. That was it. Hogarth was me. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think that's why I'm able to connect with it so well, and plus there's just this heart and soul to the story that is, it's, that's so hard to capture in any kind of movie. Right. Well, and that's. That's the thing too that's really getting me with this movie is that, um, we're gonna go through it and we're gonna talk about vo voice actors that they wanted to play in this, but it needed to be those certain individuals voicing these things. Cuz it made it real. It made you fall in love with these characters, the way these people portrayed them. Even the bad guys in the movie. You saw where they were coming from. Yeah. Even though it's probably not the best point of view, but I mean, at the time when, everybody's thinking we're gonna be attacked at any moment you can see the paranoia that was coming through it. It just en EnCap encapsulates, you know, that slice of life. Yeah. In a very intense way. Exactly. But yeah, but there's like an emotional resonance to this movie. So, you know, you've got a story about friendships, self-discovery, sacrifice, it, there's tackles complex themes of fear of the unknown and the power of compassion and militar. Um, but yeah. Uh, so I, I can see everybody's point of view on this, but I think how Brad Bird thought of this concept and it really, it came from a, a place of, uh, vulnerability and a place of sadness from him and try to find something good out of sadness. Yeah. So before we get into that though, I'm gonna, I'm gonna read the synopsis here for you. Yes. Here we go. Let's do it. In this animated adaptation of Ted Hughes Cold War Fable, a giant alien robot crash lands near the small town of Rockwell, Maine. In 1957, exploring the area, a nine year old boy Hogarth discovers the robot and soon forms an unlikely friendship with him. When a paranoid government agent, Kent Manley becomes determined to destroy the robot Hogarth and the, and beat Nick. Dean McIn. Must do what they can to save the misunderstood machine. And the book that the movie is based on is called The Iron Man. But they obviously changed it for obvious reasons. Yes. Iron Man comic books came out first before that book was written, so, and the author of that book, uh, wrote the novel as a way of comforting his children after the suicide of their mother. Yeah. Which is super, I this beautiful story is born out of tragedy. Yeah. It's truly sad. Ted Hughes, the author of the book, his wife was Sylvia Plath, and this was his way of helping his kids pick up the pieces after such a tragic. Ending to his and their mother's life. And on the filmmaking side of things, Brad Bird was, inspired to make this film as a memorial to his sister Susan, who was killed, uh, by her estranged husband. Um, He shot her. And so there was this obviously deep connection on both ends, uh, the author of the book and the filmmaker, had these horrible tragedies that dealt with guns. And so this movie was kind of their answer to that. And, when Byrd attached himself to the project and wanted to turn it into a film, his, his mind went to, what if a gun had a soul? And that was based on his personal connection because of his sister, uh, Susan, which is interesting to think about. What if a gun had a soul and the gun in the movie being. The iron giant, the irons giant. Yep. And what if that gun didn't want to be a gun? Exactly. Exactly. Yep. So it's pretty powerful. Like, I mean, just right there, the inspiration behind the film kind of, it's already pulling at your heartstrings. Yeah, it's, and like when I first saw this movie, I didn't know any of, of this information about it. Right. Like I had no idea that this is what inspired it, but it did. And it kind of brings a whole new depth to the story. Like now rewatching it, knowing these things is a much more powerful experience. Right. And while kids can enjoy it just for what it is, that's great. And there's, there's things to be learned from this film, without knowing those things, but, When you do come to know him, it just adds another layer to the movie. Right. And, and it makes me like, appreciate it that much more. Yeah. I, and that's the thing too, is we're gonna get into a lot of the emotional scenes that come up with this, uh, come with this. But going into it, looking at it like that, kinda helps see his journey. The, the giant has a better journey that this way, knowing that he actually has these emotions and he has these feelings that originally he wasn't supposed to have. Yeah, exactly. Bird said in an interview in regards to this, he goes, I wasn't thinking consciously about it when I proposed the idea, but my feelings about gun violence are in the film and. Dedicated, to her, his sister at the end. That was in many ways, the hardest part I had to deal with. But the first film came late. I had been trying to direct for a long time and wasn't sure I would ever get the chance to direct again, so I threw everything into it. I knew that the film happened through a fluke confluence of events. It's like mushrooms only grow if they had the exact right circumstance. And this was Brad Bird's first film, and he's gone on to do all kinds of other cool things. He went and worked at Pixar after this and did, uh, the Incredibles Tui, directed a mission, mission impossible movie. He's, he's, he's great story to great storyteller, great filmmaker, and he's doing great things. But, but yeah, this is what launched his career. What a great start to a career. What a great story. Yeah. And if you ever get the chance to watch the documentary, A Giant's Dream, they talk about how he was fired from Disney and how, when he got this, when he pitched this to Warner Brothers, they gave him a third of the, the, uh, budget that they said they were gonna do it, and they were given half the time to do it. So in a rushed. State of mind. They made something that's perfect. Not only rushed, but like I said, like they, they were working with a much lower budget than what normal animated films had to work with. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And the fact that they pumped this out, it just shows that story is king. And while the animation is beautiful and every, everything about this movie is just fantastic, the story, it doesn't matter what the budget is, the story is there. The story is solid. Yes. And the idea for that story began as a 12 page outline. Bird had written. Mm-hmm. No one was attached to the project in, at, at that point, he had nine months before he had to begin turning in storyboards and designs to the animators to complete. Uh, it's so crazy. Like the timeframe on this thing was insane. It was bonkers. So in regards to casting the film, cuz Billy brought that up earlier, uh, Jennifer Aniston, this is the first time that she lent her voice to a film project. And that's the thing too, is the animators and the voice actors, like the animation of the voice actors, you could intertwine those cuz the her character in the movie, I could see Jennifer Aniston doing that same thing. Oh yeah, for sure. And I can, I could see Harry Koch Jr. Doing Dean, like in a live action. Iron Giant. I know that's never gonna happen, but I mean, it's, they just, it, they were instantly likable characters. They're instantly, you, you felt comfortable with those characters. Yeah. And as you know, VIN Diesel provided the voice of the Iron Giant, but he wasn't the only actor that they went out to. Other actors considered for the role were Peter Cohen, the Voice of Optimist Prime, Sean Connery, Frank Weer, and James Earl Jones, all of which are great voice actors. In the end, the giant robot really didn't speak that much. Not at all. And the voice that Vin Diesel provided and what they did with it was exactly what it needed to be. It really could have been anybody. It didn't have to be like a big actor in that role, but I guess it helps in marketing a little bit. Right. But that was the first thing Vin Diesel ever did. So I think they did go with the, the unknown guy, but turned out, um, he just launched. It's not the first thing he's ever, he was in, uh, he did a lot of things before this movie. We're talking about like boiler room things of that. So Boiler Room Saving Private Ryan. Was that before this 19? This was 1999, saving Private riv. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So he did not get off cheap for that one. He had a decent, he, he wasn't on a roll. He was on a roll. I don't know why I thought this was before that, but I mean, maybe just this, this movie's infinite. So yeah, it's always existed. Uh, as for the voice of Dean Warner Brothers originally wanted John Travolta. I mean, yeah. He, he would do the job. It's like he would do, would've done the job of Forrest Gump, but he was no Tom Hanks, and I think they needed the edge of Harry Koch Jr. To be dean in this, to make it a little bit more unbelievable. Give that beatnik edge. Yeah. The weird casting choice was Arnold Schwartzenegger as Kent Manley. Uh, um, Joey and Arnold are close friends. we got to sit next to him during a movie called Collateral Damage. Yep. Where, where he laughed at his own jokes. It was amazing. That was such a good boy. Fun. Fun movie going experience. It was, I think it's one of my f one of my favorite. It's not like he snuck in, he snuck in the back, sat down with a big tub of popcorn and just munched away. And if you wanna know what it sounds like to listen to Arnold Schwartzenegger, eat popcorn, eat popcorn, he breaths heavy as he eats it. So, and he takes handfuls of it. It's so he straight up handfuls, straight up hand. And he is like, my favorite part in that movie is that one point he says, KPAA dude. And he busted up laughing so hard. Everybody in the audience was laughing and he's laughing just as hard. But I think we were laughing at different things. It was, but yeah, it was, that was a fun experience. All right, we gotta get back on the road. But that was, I just, everybody needs to know that Joey and Arnold sat next to each other. And we had to listen to Arnold Eat Popcorn, the whole movie. I also, I also briefly met Arnold years before, when I auditioned for LA, the the Last Action Hero. Ooh, yes. So who's that? Anyway, we had, we had such high hopes for that movie. I didn't, we were very excited for that movie to come out. I'm so glad I didn't get cast in that. Alright. All right. Continuing on back to the Iron Giant. Uh, okay. So the voice of Annie Hughes, Hogarth's mother, before they got Aniston, it was Jodi Benson, Sarah Michelle Geller, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meg Ryan were all considered. I mean, and all of them would've done well. Oh, oh, other, other people that were considered for Kent Manley. Sorry, Uhhuh. No, I'm excited. I forgot. I forgot. Schwartzer wasn't the only one. Tommy Lee Jones, Alec Baldwin, Burt Reynolds, Kevin Spacey. James Woods. Dennis Hopper. Patrick McEwen and Patrick Stewart. Ah, nice. Yeah. Okay. I mean, once again, all solid choices. And when talking about, uh, the dean character mm-hmm. Byrd, explained that he's like the most unlocal local there in the town of Maine, where the film is set. Nice. And I thought that was just kind of a fun little, it's like he's the most unlocal local. Right. And, but I mean, he, he'd have to be, cuz anybody else in that town wouldn't have listened to a kid saying, Hey, there's a giant robot out here. Yeah. Well, and the reason, and the reason why he calls him like the Unlocal local is because he's considered of the beat generation. And back then that was cons. Like, you had, you had these guys in these small towns, I guess the small towns felt threatened by these kind of mm-hmm. People, right? Yeah. So, I mean, that works. The film is set in 1957, which is the same year that Brad Bird was born. It takes place in October, which is the same month and year that Sputnik was launched. And the movie starts off with this, right? Mm-hmm. it, well, not only does it, the films begin with Sputnik, cuz it starts with the beeping, you know? Yep. It also ends with the beeps. So the beeps at the beginning are Sputnik beeps. Mm-hmm. Which fade into the beeps at the end of the movie. And and this is representative of the tone of the film and characters in it, as well as the idea of going from paranoia to understanding and acceptance. Right. And kind of going into that a little bit further. Mm-hmm. The opening shot of the film was meant to convey the different aspects, important to the film story and the image of Sputnik representing that paranoia. The movie was actually originally meant to be a musical. Oh. Seems a little odd of a choice. Tu tell. Yeah. Pete Townsend and Des mc developed it as a stage musical using songs from Townsend's concept album The Ironman, McGough decided that it would work much better as an animated feature and then pitched that to Warner Brothers. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, the, who helped get this movie made. That's crazy. And there's actually a reference to the who in the. The dartboard in Dean's home has the same colors and pattern as their Mod Target logo. Well, that's cool. I need, I didn't notice that. I need to watch it again knowing that. Yeah, so that's kind of fun. The Iron Giant is actually the second film to be released in 1999. That involved Sput Dick. Okay. The other one was, Joe Johnston's, October Sky. That's a good movie too. Which is another one of my favorite movies, which we'll eventually talk about one day. Right. We should talk about that. That was a good one. It's another one of my favorites. Yeah. Jake Gillen Hall is fantastic. In that movie. Everyone in that movie was great. That's true. Everyone, I gotta give everyone, she was fantastic. Another great story. Okay. But sticking with the Iron Giant right now. Back to the Iron Giant. Back to the Iron Giant. The look of the film is absolutely beautiful. It's was an innovative approach to animation at the time. That was both a mixture of hand drawn animation and CGI animation. The character designs are fantastic. The action scenes are really well done, just very fluid. And the film's visual style is still impressive to, like, still impressive, like it's just This last time I'm watching, I'm like, man, I wish they would make movies like this again, like these two, these classic traditional animated films. There's just something to it, something to the character designs, uh, that just, well, CG animation is great these days and it's amazing what they're doing. There's something about the traditional stuff that, that just has more of a soul to it. I don't know what it is, but there's just something more there than what CG is doing. And see, that's what gets me too, because a lot of people don't know the giant is CG in it on a traditional background. Oh yeah. You can't, you can't tell cuz it's done so well. Yeah. It's just, it's, it's, it's something we don't get anymore. Like we don't get that kind of innovation anymore except for into the Spider verse, which was completely mind blowing. Yeah. But the art, the style, the tone of the film, it was inspired by artists such as Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, and NC Wife. Mm-hmm. And the animation aspect of it was inspired by Chuck Jones. Hank Keem Al Hirschfield. And Disney's 101 Dalmatians was, was a big influence on it, which I thought was interesting cuz I'd never, that never clicked on, never clicked with me before. But then you look at Manley Yeah. And, and it is. Yeah. Totally. Absolutely. When talking about the theatrical experience of watching the film, uh, just brought to life the way it. Bird said that it provided a wonderful, resilient feeling of camaraderie on the film. It was a hard film to make, and we worked our asses off. We did get to make the film the way we wanted it, the main setting. Look, norman Rockwell idyllic on the outside, but inside everything is just about to boil over. Everyone was scared of the bomb, the Russians, Sputnik, even rock and roll, and it was like going through a war. It showed what people can do when they unify. It's beautiful. Yeah. As the film was set in the fifties, Brad Bird wanted to do the movie in wide screen. Mm-hmm. And this was something that Warner Brothers was not happy about apparently. Which I don't understand what is wrong with making an animated film and wide screen. I don't know why they would be upset with that. Maybe cuz it Yeah, it doesn't make sense. I think it, I think it's a budget issue. I think it would cost it. I think the, it would cost more to do it like that, but it just makes sense to do it like that. So whatever, he did it right, he got to make it the way he wanted to make it. And as a joke, he wanted to incorporate the Cinemascope logo. Mm-hmm. Before the film site. You know that classic Cinemascope logo. Yeah, absolutely. Which would've been so cool. Like a, like a cool little element, a cool little Easter egg. Right, right. It it would've brought you to that time. Yeah. And the problem is, is 20th Century Fox owned that, not Warner Brothers. And so they had the copyright and they refused to allow him to use it. We just, such a bummer like, come on, just have a little fun. I dunno. That's insane. It is insane. I don't get it. But what can you do in the sequence where the giant is carrying Hogarth in his hand at night, Brad Bird points out a star moving to the left of the moon in the top left corner of the frame that is supposed to be Sputnik. They didn't expect anyone to notice it, but they wanted to have it in there. At the time, people on Earth could actually see Sputnik orbiting the planet. One of the things that caused much paranoia in people in the United States, something burden and esteem wanted to represent in the Iron Giant. Yeah, I, I mean, I think it's cool. It's a cool little, little Easter egg in there if you're, if you catch it. And one of the things that they were wanted to do with the making of the film is when introducing the actual Iron Giant, there were a lot of conversations about how the reveal would be like, how would they, what was the proper way to reveal the giant? They wanted to keep the giant interesting and grab the audience's attention without giving away too much, too early. But what they ended up doing just worked perfectly. Like there are no issues at all. Right? It was. It all just worked. So, you know how you were talking about how, like you couldn't notice between the iron giant being, uh, CG generated and the backgrounds and all that stuff. Right. Well, in order to accomplish that vibe, that look mm-hmm. The technicians came up with a program that gave the Giants lines a slight wobble in order to match the natural line imperfections found in the hand drawn animation. And that's, that's cool. That's why it worked so well. It wasn't like perfect. Right. They made sure there was that slight offness to it, which is what made it work. And speaking of Iron Giant, he only had 53 words in the movie. Well, that's way more than I thought, but yeah. That's cool. I mean, there were lots of yells and groans, but, well, of course. Yeah. But, but whenever you He heard him talk though, it was like he kind of just melted your heart. It did, because it was all, it was always the important moments when he spoke, you know? Right. Well, I, I don't know about you, but I always thought of it as the big brother, little brother thing, where Hogarth was the big brother in this situation, teaching his little brother about the world. Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally. I mean, that's the way I looked at it. No, you're absolutely right. The biggest thing, this is, this is the thing. As much as we talk about how this movie's such get such critical acclaim, and everyone who was watched it loves it. The movie was a box office bomb. It only made like 23 million after it came out, like with a 70 million budget. Mm-hmm. Like, so it, ugh. So the film did not do well. And there are factors to this. There are reasons, but in the end, the marketing of this film was just, it just was nonexistent. It was such, it was so poorly marketed. Some people also say that, one of the reasons why it didn't do so well is because, The sixth sense also came out around that time, of course. And that's, I was, I knew there was something that came out around the same time. Really was, and that's where Yeah. And that's where everyone was going. In that documentary you were talking about. Yeah. Bird brought up the fact that Warner Brothers failed to promote the film until four months before the release. Yeah. With Disney's Tarzan, which came out that same year as well. That was, they started marketing that a whole year in advance. And for the Iron Giant, they only had four months. Now there's a reason for that. And Byrd takes on some of the blame himself. And this is, I, for the longest time I was, I was like, Warner Brothers screwed the pooch on the market on this. They're complete idiots and didn't know how to handle the, I don't know how you don't market a movie properly like this cuz it's so marketable. It is. It's an easy movie to market, especially to kids and families. Dude. And es well I heard it. Test screenings were fantastic for it. So, I mean, I can't believe word of mouth didn't get everybody in the theater. But I mean, then you had six senses. So this is where this, so this is where it comes in and this is where bird kind of takes the blame for himself. Uh, in that interview, uh, with Indie Wire, he said it became a success in spite of serious obstacles. It has survived by great word of mouth. That's incredibly gratifying because it's not tied to hype or products, it's just about people discovering the story and being moved by it. It's a testament to the efforts of an underdog team that made the film. And you mentioned the test screenings every they test screen, it took everyone by surprise. The studio was surprised that audience were, were loving it. Bird was surprised that audience were loving it so much, but it ultimately put out kind of the wrong message. Mm-hmm. So Byrd explains the terrible thing was when it came time to promote the film, they weren't paying attention to us. Warners was intending to put the film on the shelf and wait for a slow spot at some future date, and they would slip it out there. And when the film got a huge response at a test screening, they had not laid the groundwork for it. So, I'm gonna pause right here. Mm-hmm. So, Warner Brothers was gonna hold onto the film and then release it at a time where they thought, It would hit okay. But then the test screenings happened, and when they saw the positive reactions, everyone started getting excited. Oh, what do we do with the film now? Do we wanna keep it on the shelf? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. So, he goes, uh, bird goes on to say to their credit, they knew they had to delay the release and lay the correct track for it. And I stupidly said, no. I was feeling cocky because the scores were so good. And I said to just put it out there. So they did and no one knew what the hell it was. I'll take part ownership in pushing it out into the world too soon as well. They offered to do what was necessary and I bulldozed them. All the calculations were that if we had 8 million on opening weekend, word of mouth would carry it. The rest of the way it made 5 million and we were dead on arrival. Yep. So, wow. Like I had no idea that bird was the one that stupidly told one. Don't wanna put it out so soon. Yeah. You and I have said for years we blamed Warner Brothers for that one, but I guess, um, yeah, that's not where the blame goes. Filmmakers can be good filmmakers, but filmmakers are, you know, not all filmmakers are good marketers. Right. You know how to market a movie. Yeah. This is, this is proof of that. This is the same thing that happened with, John Carter, with Andrew Stanton, another Pixar director, Uhhuh. This is exa kind of the, they let him, they let the film filmmaker, be in charge of the marketing and then end up biting the film in the ass in the end. I never saw it. Oh, I liked it. I thought, I thought John Carter was a, was a, was a solid film. I really enjoyed it and I, but it was marketed it terribly and so it didn't make any money, man, that's too bad. Yeah, it, it's a bummer for sure. Like the movie. Had the movie been a success? It would've been, we would've seen, and you know, this might not be a good thing. I don't know. Had the movie been a success? Warner Brothers probably would've had. Made a bunch of sequels, at least one or two. And, but ah, I kind of love the movie for what it is, and I kind of love the fact that there's not a sequel to it. I'm, I like that it exists and that it stands on its own. Because these days when a movie is so good, they always do a sequel. They don't let it stand on its own. But movies are, movies can stand on their own. Single movie can just be and exist. I mean, that, that goes back to what I said when they first started this, uh, episode. It's just a slice of life. There doesn't need to be a continuance. We got a story from beginning to end. It doesn't need to continue. Yeah. So it's a shame that the movie got butchered at marketing and no one went and saw, but over the years, it has become the beloved movie that everybody knows and loves. So, Rock on. Yeah. One of the things that Byrd is very proud of in the film is how real his characters feel. He mentions the audience reacting audibly when Hogarth gets hit in the face with a branch, and how that's a very difficult thing to pull off from the audience when you're dealing with animated characters. Audiences are so used to Wiley Coyote falling off cliffs. They become accustomed to animated characters being more, uh, malleable than real people. He said, if you defy gravity and later on need to feel danger in the film, you have a really hard time convincing the audience how to do that. But this movie perfectly just balanced that stuff and, right. Yeah. And. That's what I was saying before, like I, I, I feel like you can interplay the actual actors with the animated characters. It felt that real, they felt like real people. It didn't feel over acted or cheesy. Yeah. You know, and strangely, it seems like the, the, the comic relief comes from Ansley of all people. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yep. Everybody else is so serious. He's the comic relief. He's the, he's the, he's the over the top. Right? Yeah. And I, I thought that was, I noticed that this time, this time when I watched it, I noticed that and I was like, that's so weird. The bad guy is the comic relief. It, it is funny though. I enjoyed those scenes with bands like, he's such a dick, but I also, he's an endearing dick. Right. Because like I said, he's, he's coming from a place of paranoia. Yeah. And, and he wants to make sure everyone's safe. But at the same time, like at the end too though, he is like, you know, oh, he, when he, when he lo fire the muscle, and then like, he's like, Ugh. You know, finds out that, you know, like, where's, where's the robot? Masley Manley. Yep. He tries to run away. He is like, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna get outta here. I'm not gonna die from my country. Oh man. Screw that. Okay. So you know how you and I have talked about me do recreating the foods that are in certain movies? Yeah. I thought about doing the milkshake. Oh, oh, well, the milkshake. The milkshake, but also the twinki. I'm doing the twinki with the whipped cream. We're doing the Twinkie. So yeah, I decided I don't want to do, um, a milkshake with x slacks on top. That just sounds. Horrible. No, that's the worst. We're doing the Twinkie. I'm getting an aerosol can of whipped cream. I'm getting a Twinkie. We're gonna do it. It's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be something, um, I I'm down, but, um, yeah, it's definitely gonna take, uh, it's gonna take a little piece of me away from what I, I, I think I read this somewhere. That, that, that's something that Brad Bird used to do anyway. And so the, the Turbo Twinki. The turbo twinki, and then to kind of get that look right, the animators like did it in, you know, to. To make it look right in the animation. They were doing it in real life to make sure that they captured the essence of the turbo Twinkie. Nice. Okay. Well I'm be looking for later this week. Joey and I will be hanging out and I'll let him record me do the turbo Twinki Excellent. For the site. Let's just, let's just do it while we're in Vegas this weekend. I, or next week, go down next week. I don't know. So, oh man. Really got myself into one this time. Brad Bird personally animated the scene where Hogarth is ranting to Dean about his problems, you know, and his little shack, and he's out, he's just like going a hundred miles a minute. Mm-hmm. Cuz he's drinking the espresso. So it is a super fast-paced. Scene. And the character is talking fast. He's moving rapidly, and Bird had to animate that himself. He actually actually had to draw, parts of every in between and make sure the frames were all perfect. The frames and the anime film be between the key frames and stuff like that. So he, he was the guy that actually animated that, which I thought was really interesting because he, he wanted to make sure it was done right. Yeah, that's kind of cool. Yeah. So that was fun. The storyboard artists for the film, Mark Andrews came up with all the designs for the weaponry that pops up, uh, out of the giant, the Iron Giant at the end of the film. Right. He mentions that one of the challenges, uh, above and beyond coming up with the designs for the weapons was finding a way for them to come out of the giant. As well as if they had always been there, but not revealed until now. Okay. An early idea had the weapons just popping out of the giant, but it didn't work until they decided to have him literally open up his chest revealing that as, Markowski says at his heart, he's basically a big weapon. So when he opens and it's just, again, here's one of those things that kind of like makes you think about the movie a little bit more. When he opens his chest, his heart is a weapon. It's not a heart. It right. It is made to kill, which is sad. Yeah. When the iron giant realizes that I know, and it again, it's just one of those things where it's like this thing was built to kill, but he finds his soul through Hogarth everything obviously had to have a very fifties vibe to it, and the tentacles that came out of his back were a homage, obviously, to the 1953 version of the War of the Worlds. Right. Which, see, that's one of those little pieces of the movie that I'm like, ah, I wish they could expound on that idea, the, where they came from, these war robots that are immense and destructive. But I kind of like that. We don't know. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yep. When I, they did, man, those things were absolute killing machines. Those things were crazy. Yes. While this is a Warner Brothers film, There are Disney Easter eggs in it, which I thought was kind of cool. Frank and Ollie, the two train men that Kent interviews after the train derails are caricatures mm-hmm. Of Disney Classic animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, and they also voiced the characters. Fantastic. That's cool. So that was, that was cool. I thought that was awesome. That's really cool. An animation writer, Earl Crass, said that Frank and Ollie are also lifelong train enthusiasts who have extensive scale model railroads in their backyards like Walt Disney used to have. There you go. Everybody needs a hobby. Everybody needs a hobby. And now a word from our sponsor. Manmade Meat. Are you tired of eating meat that was made by Mother Nature herself? Do you long for a protein source that's a little more manly? Well have no fear because manmade meat is here. That's right. Manmade meat is made by real men. For real men, our beef is handcrafted from the finest leather boots, tool handles, and car parts. Our pork is slow. Roasted over a burning pile of lumber end seasoned with the sweat of a hard day's work. And if you're feeling extra manly, try a special lumberjack blend. 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A 113, sometimes referred to as a dash one 13 or a one dash 13 is an inside joke, an Easter egg, an animated films created by the alumni of the California State Institute of the Arts, referring to the classroom used by graphic design and character animation students. So you'll see if you never knew that. Always keep a lookout for a 113 on, animated films. A lot of Disney films have it too. A lot of Pixar movies. So when Hogarth first shows the Giant, his Superman comics, the theme music from Max Fletcher's, 1941 Superman Plays, which I thought was cool. The Max Fletcher Superman cartoons of the 1940s. Those are great. Those are on YouTube. If you haven't watched those, those are great. I love those. Super Max's a lot of fun. Yeah. Brad Bird mentions the tonal shifts Michael Cayman had to work with in dealing with the music for the film, how it goes from somber to bittersweet and almost cheerful. In the next scene, Bert brings up problems he had with Bambi, uh, the 1942 animated film from Disney, as an example, as a child, how the scene after Bambi's mom is shot. It goes into bird singing and being happy. In regards to that, he said I was always mad at the birds because I was still feeling bad about the mother dying. So, With the Iron Giant, he wanted to make sure that they eased out of the sad moment rather than shift too much, too qu into too much, too quickly. So I get it the first time Hogarth runs into the Iron Giant is the most robotic, the giant is in the entire film. They've wanted to gradually show the giant picking up hogarth's mannerisms and acting more and more, human as the story progressed, as mentioned later on in the scene, when Hogarth confronts and talks to the giant for the first time, the giant learns, these humanistic skills very quickly, going from pet to friend to hero. Just hearing that kind of gets me worked up cause I know it's coming. You always know it's coming at the end of it. Always know. I know. Ugh. Yeah. The interrogation scene between Kent and Hogarth was, as Brad Bird points out, a big bone of contention. It went through many different variations. One even involving Kent tying Hogarth up while he asks him about the giant. Another idea that was scrapped was Kent, uh, chloroform. Hogarth in order to get him in the barn. Naturally these ideas were shot down to keep Kent from being too creepy. Yeah. That, that, yeah. It's, it's still kind of, it's still, there's still that scene though, where it's like he doesn't, he does knock him out. That that's the on this is the only thing that pisses me off about the Iron Giant. Is that a Yeah, he goes a little too far with Hogarth, but B uh, Hogarth's. Mom says, why don't you take this man around town? Huh? Go hang out with this guy, dude. That's the thing. That's alone, dude. And this is kind of where I wanted to get into this aspect of the story, because it's such a weird, it's such a weird thing that it's so, is that, Kent is like just on this kid, like relentless, like being such a jackass to him, you know? And to have his mom be like, yeah, go hang out with this guy that's just being a complete jackass to you. Show him around town. Yeah. Look, he's a nice guy. No, he's a jerk. I think she was just happy that she found someone to pawn Hogarth off while she was at work. A babysitter. Yep. Found a babysitter. But it's, you get, yeah. But it's still just like, it's still so weird that Kent. I mean, I get what it serves the story, but it's still just creepy and feels wrong. Right? But, but absolutely. But in the fifties, maybe this was normal. Maybe strangers wandered in the town from the government and, and uh, you know, mothers just let their kids hang out with them all day. Nope. Because there was that kind of trust in the fifties. There was that kind of trust in people, right? Um, yeah. Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. And there you have it, folks. That's my opinion on it. From the mouth of Billy. Yes. Never let your children hang out with strange men. Among the comics that Hogarth shows the Iron Giant is an issue of the spirit. Uh, in the 1990s, Brad Bird attempted to get backing for a spirit animated film, but was never able to do that. I would've loved to see Brad Bird direct a animated spirit movie, though. Well, they show little, uh, animatics of it in the, the documentary. And it, there's a lot of similarities to his, the, the main character of the spirit to like, the main characters in gargoyles. Like they're barrel chested, he's barrel chested, smaller head, big muscles kind of thing. Yeah. Uh, that's kind of what the feel he was going for. Hmm. And, and it looked cool. Um, Yeah, I remember seeing those back in the day. But I still would like to see, who even knows if we'll ever see anything in regards to the spirit ever again, but Right. Any kind of new adaptation killed it. But it would've been interesting to see Brad Bird do it, especially in the, late nineties, early two thousands. Well, considering that all of the most important people in Hollywood listen to our podcast, we could probably influence him to do that for us. Ah, maybe you never know. The town of Rockwell, Maine. Some people think it's similar to Roswell, Rockwell, Roswell, mm-hmm. Where aliens allegedly crashed, landed in 1947. Hmm. I think so, but, but it also might just be a tribute to Norman Rockwell who inspired the look of the film, the visual aesthetic of the film. I see. So it could be one of the two, right? Could be neither. Could be anything. Could be anything. The scene in the scrapyard, in Dean's scrapyard after the deer has been shot, according to Brad Bird, uh, was designed to show Kid Logic. Mm-hmm. Chia Logic. The idea of Hogarth explaining something to the giant as Hogarth is trying to understand it himself. It's another scene depicting the giant's reflection on himself and his place in the universe. Jeffrey Lynch, who is head of the story department on the film, talked about this scene saying it's a beautiful scene. It's the first time you see the giant really actively embracing humanity, which is Yeah. It's a good scene. It is, it is. the kid who played Hogarth. Eli Maral had a tough time making his voice shaking for the scene where he is riding in the iron giant makeshift ride, right. With the scrap metal and all that stuff when he's like spinning around and stuff. So with his permission, Brad Bird obviously asked him first. He basically got behind the young actor and physically shook him to make sure he got that, the, the sound. Got that, that sound exactly the way he wanted it. That's awesome. When Kent is using the Hughes phone, the humorous oven, MIT hanging over the wall beside him appears to be a stylized version of The Family Dog, which was directed by Brad Bird, in the 1987 Stephen Spielberg series. Amazing stories. Such a good series. Dude. That's when we gotta dive into, yeah, we go over that. There's each episode though. Oh my gosh. There's, there's so many good episodes on that. Okay. So many, well, if I keep talking, I'm gonna get on a side tangent here. Okay. Right, right. Here we go. So the first sign. Mm-hmm. Where we learn that the, we learn something a little off with the giant where we learn, it's like kind of the first hint that he's a weapon, right. Was that dead deer scene we talked about earlier. And he notices the gun, he briefly gains red eyes mm-hmm. During this scene while his iris is narrow before snapping out of it. And that right there was the first sign that we know something was a little off about, about our, our friend. Yeah. They really just kind of like threw in little bits and pieces of that throughout the movie until all of a sudden at the end he is just a flow blown, weaponized machine ready to wreck havoc on the world. Right. Wow. That's scene where he is like, you know, where he is full on. Weapon mode and he lets out that ball of energy that blows up over the ocean. Yep. Ugh. Wow. Just imagine what that would've done to anything manmade. That guy could've destroyed everything. Oh, the world would've been over for sure. Mm-hmm. And in this movie, he's very non-violent, he doesn't want to be a gun. He doesn't want to be violent, he wants to be good. He wants to like be loving and like be a representative of peace. But, and Ready Player one, they kind of, you use them as a weapon? They do. Oh my gosh. And well, it's cool that they included the Iron Giant in the movie mm-hmm. Because it obviously big fans, right? Yeah. But at the same time, it was kinda like they use him as a weapon in it straight up. Right. To battle in, in the, in that final battle sequence. But you gotta, you know, you need the iron giant to, to sometimes win a battle, I guess. Yep. Well, so Mike Kid, he's considerably violent in that movie, by the way. Oh, he is. He is. And, but my kids have a strong feeling that he went out too easy. They're like, there's no way he could have destroyed the whole army, the whole, um, Sixers Army. But yeah, th that's because they have that strong emotional connection with the Iron Giant. They think he's the biggest hero out there. The the thing about that movie and the use of the Iron Giant, and I get the criticisms cuz there are criticisms about it, but at the same time it's, that's not the Iron Giant that is No, no. That is a playable character in a game that someone else is controlling. And so it's not necessarily the Iron Giant doing the fighting, it's the person who is controlling the Iron Giant. So the person is using the Iron Giant as a weapon and he's not choosing to be a weapon. Right. That's not how he really is. Yes. So anyway, just wanted to get that off my chest. Absolutely. So there are, there's a considerable change in tone in the last 20 minutes of the movie, and the director mentions it was the most difficult and fun work he did on a film. He had to find a unbelievable and clear way to depict all the humor, action, emotion, and suspense going on near the end of the film, and according to Lynch, there's a video of a pitch where he and the animation department were up all night working out the details. On the end of the film, Byrd mentions that he wishes they. They had had it in their budget to add a few minutes in the end section to include all the ideas that Lynch and his team had come up with. Yeah. They were kind of playing behind the eight ball the whole time, though. They really weren't given the budget to do what they really could have done. Yeah. But what they did do was great. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. When the giant jumps into the river and causes a tidal wave mm-hmm. There's a raccoon that can be seen swimming against the tidal current. Yes. This could possibly be the same. Raccoon Annie was lecturing Hogarth about at the beginning of the film that he brought home. Funny problem. That's funny. Which I kind of like. Yeah, that's cool. And it, I know it's just kind of like speculation, but it's gotta be 100%. Oh, absolutely. So there, what version of the film did you watch Billy? I watched the, I have the original D V D. Okay. And I watched that. Okay. So I got mine off of Apple. Okay. Off of the, you know, I just bought the movie, but it had. The movie that one of the, they have two versions of the film when you buy it. Okay. They've got the theatrical version, then they have a version with all the cut scenes that are included in the movie. Oh, that's cool. So, so there's, uh, opening scene included in this special edition, that is much more elaborate, than what the theatrical version was. And it included more ships at sea, including a large tanker, over 100 men on board. And according to Bird, each one of these men had a backstory as well as a dog named Sparky. Dang it. So he really did some, he, they went in a, they went into a deep, deep dive with these, with these, these characters you never get to know, in that initial sequence was also another shot of the giant, a silhouette of him walking away. Okay. Yeah. Another early scene that didn't make the final cut of the film involved Hogarth talking about comic books with his mother. It was scrap because Bird and his team didn't think it was all that important. However, the idea came up again when they were trying to think of a scene, showing Hogarth and the giant bonding in a stationary location. Okay. It was supervising animators Dean Wellens idea to carry the comic book conversation over to the scene. This moment also served to show the giant remembering. Getting a feeling of who he is and continue his path towards becoming a hero in the film. It's also a foreshadowing to the superman moment at the end. That beautiful Superman moment, right? That's the scene where you, just like, when you blink, all the tears that have been willing up in your eyes go streaming down your face. Right? But it makes sense to move. There has to be a conversation about comic books somewhere in the movie. Right? And I think moving it from, from the mom to, between Hogarth and, and Nija makes all the sense in the world. 100%. Okay. There was another debate on whether the giant should just use his weaponry to destroy the missile rather than fly up and run into it and crash into it and blow it up face to face. Right. This is an interesting concept cause I always wondered like, why didn't he just use his internal weapons to, because weapons cause his weapons to come about. Right? Right. And this missile is a weapon. So why didn't it just, he used his weapons to destroy it and survive? Right. So this was a debate that was had between the filmmakers and according to Jeff Lynch, it was important for the giant to not allow himself to become a weapon again for any reason. Wow. And so instead of pulling out the guns to stop it, he's just was just willing to sacrifice himself in that moment. Okay. Which again, is super powerful. And it's something that as a kid you just don't think about or understand, you know? Right. But it, that was something that I always did wonder about. Why didn't he just use his weapons? Well, because it was his personal opinion not to, like, he wanted to stay pure. Yeah. He would never do it again. Yes. So that was, that, that was kind of a cool little explanation that I found, which was great. Yeah. I think that's cool, man. I mean, he's sticking to his, to his plan. Yeah. One of the scenes, Also not included in the original theatrical cut of the movie, involves a dream sequence depicting images of the iron giant's race in their conflict that drove him from his home world leading to his crash landing on earth. This scene is added in the, signature edition, which is the edition I watched, and honestly, I'd never seen it before until I watched the Signature Edition. Mm-hmm. And it was a, it was a cool little scene. It showed some parts during his battle with other robots that looked like him. Mm-hmm. So it was like an army of iron giants, you know? Mm-hmm. But that be cool, see? Yeah. But as the camera pans out, you can almost, see that the Giant's reflection is almost himself blowing up the planet. Oht. No. So there's like a lot of digital, like the scene has deep meaning to it, you know, but it's Right. I'm glad they added it back in because it does add a little context to some things in the film. And so I thought that was to his character. I thought that was great. We are, we talked about the turbo Twinky earlier, but here's kind of a little rundown, little bit more detailed rundown of the turbo Twinki. So this was something again that Brad Bird actually did when he was a kid. Uh, the animators were sort of skeptical about this when they, he initially brought it up to them. So a demonstration was in order. One of the head animators took it upon himself to continue the research in order to get the finished looked perfect. He said it was not very delicious. Yes. So this is for you Billy Uhhuh. It wasn't very delicious. That's funny. I'm, I'm ready, dude. Let's, we'll get it, we'll get it recorded and share it with the masses. And, and Bert also mentions that the, kid who played Hogarth eight Twinkies while recording the dialogue. Okay. And you gotta get her absolutely perfect. On the commentary, Brad Bird brings up the color scheme of the different sections of the Iron Giant. And up until the third act, everything is brushed with colors of autumn, blue skies and brown leaves. Once the military rolls in, and I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but Oh yeah. It's once the military rolls in, that color scheme goes, Darker and grayer and color was intentionally pulled out of these moments in the film and gives, the movie an e uh, even colder feel and vibe when the giant realizes that he was designed to be a weapon and the snow begins to fall. So like, there's a lot going on here. Uh, the cold color changes really a, it was made to like add to the story and the style and to like kind of change the mood of things after the giant destroys the missile. Mm-hmm. The old town is cheering and they're clapping and everyone is happy. Except, except mm-hmm for general rogar. Okay. Who performs a salute to their hero. Absolutely. Which I love. It's, I always noticed that, I always thought that was so funny that like, while everyone is cheering, he's like, just has this respect for this giant that they were ready to kill, like attempt to kill Right. Before he saved everybody, you know? Right. And now he's saluting him. And I just, I love that. I love that he's like, showing his respect, like that, I just thought that was really fun. And it just kind of completes the circle of him being the hero Yeah. That he always wanted to be. Yeah. It's, it comes down to, my quote is about that, uh, it's the, it's the quote that hits me every time, but we'll get to that in a minute. All right. We're almost done. We're at, we're near the end. Yep. The showdown between Hogarth and Kent when they are quietly watching each other in their respective bedrooms, was called contest of wills. During production, this was another scene. Bird mentions was considered dull when it was being pitched and only comes into its own when you actually see the finished product. It's also during the scene where you see a brief glimpse of a picture of hogarth's, father and bird points out. No one misses that piece of information that was originally brought up in the, in a moment of dialogue. I, I just think that scene is hilarious and it's done so well. Yeah, and it's, it's funny because. Well, it's being pitched. Everyone was like, oh, this is gonna be a boring scene. But no, it's not. It, it is very, it is actually quite entertaining. it, it, like their facial features in it are so natural. It's like something that we would do. And then as he's falling asleep, it, it's hilarious. I just love that scene. Yeah. When the iron giant jumps in the water and does the tidal wave. Mm-hmm. And dean's out there reading his newspaper and he is about to get, destroyed by the tidal wave. Yes. The newspaper he's reading says disaster seen as catastrophe looms. And so Perfect. It's a perfect. Blink and miss it joke right in that moment. I just wanna point it out because I thought that was funny. Right. The cover of Hogarth's, a Tomo comic shows a giant metal robot on a rampage firing energy beams that destroy a building, which foreshadows the giant's roaring rampage of revenge later on in the film, which isn't really roaring rampage of revenge cuz he's not really kind of set off by the military. Yeah. He's not out for any revenge. He's just kinda programmed to do that when a weapon is pointed at him. I guess There was some debate on whether or not to show that the giant could. At the end, after he blows up the missile and saves the city. Even though, as Brad Bird points out, it was in the original treatment and the final scene of the movie initially took place in India. So all those pieces of the robot had fallen in Indiana and we're coming together. I love that ending. Yes. I love the smile of the iron giant's face when we see him. Right. And it, again, it's one of those things where it's like, oh, it sets up a sequel, but it doesn't need to set up a sequel. Just let it be. Just let it be. Well, no, and that, that's the thing too, is uh, it just, it ends with hope. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. And who doesn't love hope? A feeling of hope in their lives. Everyone loves hope, everybody. The sequence of shots where the giant is revealed took nearly a year to complete from concept to full execution. The sequence incorporates many different elements and perspective changes it was Steve Marco Whiskey's idea to have the giant revealed in the background while standing in the darkness and having the lights of his eyes turn towards our view. That's cool. That seems like the perfect way to introduce the. To the audience. Mm-hmm. The animators were concerned with the giant believably saying the word superman. Mm-hmm. With its inflexible machine. Mouth, so according to Lynch, there was actual applause during the dailies when they perfected how to achieve this. So there was like concern that a robot couldn't say Superman with a robot mouth. That must have been a really big concern for them to cheer. When it happened, you you'd think. And at the same time, because it's a robot and it's not human, technically it doesn't even need to move the mouth. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. It doesn't need to move a mouth. To talk. It's like, see, it's the C3 PO thing. Exactly. Exactly. And so I think it's kind of funny that they were like concerned by that. It's kind of like, but it's a robot. Right. Anyway, that was a big concern with you. It was a big concern. Big concern. Hogarth Hughes is said to be nine years old in this movie. Mm-hmm. So this means that Hogarth was born in 1948, and as of this year he would be 75 years old. Crazy. Right? Yeah. They wanna make a modern day sequel. It took 75 years for the Iron Giant to get back together. The scene of Hogarth preparing to investigate the noises he's heard was the first work animated on the film. Brad Bird's son, Michael provides the voice for one of the kids who spot the giant through binoculars, and Michael also did the voice of hog Garth over all of the temp animat before the production officially began, and they hired someone else to take over the voice. Perfect. According to the trailer, the movie was originally going to use the Warner Brothers Family Entertainment logo, but Brad Bird was against the idea and elected to make a custom variant leading it to being branded as the Warner Brother feature animation logo, which is a smart move. Yeah, that's great. Towards the end of the film, after, iron Giant saves day, blah, blah, blah, the screw in Hogarth's room is going to make its way toward the giant so he can put itself back together. Right, right. So that screw taps the glass to leave, to join the rest of himself, and it taps a Morris Code message. Two letters go. That's cool. Well g go. Well, I mean, that's, he's gotta go, he's gotta gotta get back together. Mm-hmm. The Iron Giant story takes place over a five day period of time. Wednesday through Sunday. On Wednesday night, the giant crash lands on earth after school. On Thursday, Hogarth visits his mom at the diner and the night he encounters the giant, it is now Friday. And Hogarth goes to school and afterwards goes and, and finds the giant that night he meets Kent and then Hogarth and the giant find themselves at Dean's junkyard where the giant has food and a place to rest. Saturday is when Kent questions hogarth. All morning Hogarth visits Dean and the giant. That afternoon they go to the lake and witness the death of the deer At night. Kent Interrogates Hogarth and informs the army of the Giant's existence. The army arrives on Sunday morning. Fights the giant and the giant saves everyone. So that's your timeline right there, folks. Yeah. A lot happens in those five days. Dude, it's a very eventful five days. It is. I don't remember the last five days. They're that eventful for me. That's insane though, dude. Like, yeah, it all just happened so fast. Yep. When Hogarth and the Giant are playing in the junkyard, the giant grouches at being forced to be a tomo and instead wants to play Superman, which is literally the Giant's final choice as he impacts. When talking about the state of animation 20 years after the movie was released, Byrd says he is craving more daring originality and less sequels and remakes. He says, I would love to see studios have a more adventurous attitude. We shouldn't take this valuable time to repeat the same stories or with the same characters over and over again. That's fine. And it has its place. Certainly great films continue to be made with familiar characters. I've done two sequels, mission Impossible, ghost Protocol and Incredibles two, but they should not be the preponderance of what makes up our Diet Spider Verse introduced a lot of really cool mix and match, graphical styles in a really interesting way. The more we do one kind of style, the less interesting it is for the audience. It needs to grow aesthetically, and people will support it, and he's got a point, but like everyone in my family agrees. Incredibles one was good. Incredibles two was fantastic. Sure. Like, like it was, it was made, it was a, it was. We feel like it was supposed to be one big movie. It was just cut into two different parts. So it's not really a sequel, it's just a continuation of the same story. Yeah. But so yeah. I mean, I agree with him. In the end, the Iron Giant is more than just an animated movie. It's a cultural touchstone that has resonated with audiences around the world. It has inspired countless fan theories, art merchandise. The films anti-war message and humanist themes have also made it a favorite among peace activists and progressive thinkers. What can we learn from the Iron Giant? First, it shows us the power of storytelling to convey important messages and emotions. The film demonstrates that animation is not just for kids, but can also tackle mature themes and appeal to audiences for all ages. It also teaches us about the importance of friendship, empathy, and standing up for what is right even in the face of overwhelming opposition. Finally, the Iron Giant shows us that great art can endure and inspire, continuing to captivate and move us long after its release. That was beautiful, so good job buddy. That's it everybody. That man, that is, that is our episode for The Iron Giant. I hope everybody loves this movie as much as we do, man, cuz it's such a good movie. Everyone loves it, Billy. Every, everyone. Okay, so gimme your quote Billy, you have one? I know I do. So it's when the Iron Giant decides to be Superman. Okay. And it's like the first real conversation that he and Hogarth have, like, cuz they've, uh, the Iron Giant likes to repeat things that Hogarth says to him and blah, blah, blah, blah. But this is the first one where, um, he sees the missile coming and he's more talking to himself and he, he says, I fix. And Hogarth is like, giant and giant leans down and goes, Hogarth, you stay. I go and then, then it gets me. He just says, no following, and then I love you. And that as he's saying, I love you. The giant takes off. I'm like, Ah, it's so beautiful. It is kind of like, it's kinda like an e moment. It is, but the, the best part is, is that he believes Hogarth is so powerful that he could follow him. Yeah. At that point. Yeah. He believes in Hogarth so much. He's like, this one's mine, man. You gotta stay and protect everybody else just, ugh. Yep. It's gut wrenching. It really is. Yeah. What about you bud? Do you have one? Yeah. I like Dean's quote where he is talking to Hogarth and he says, who cares what these creeps think of you? They don't make you what you are. You do, you are who you choose to be. I just love that line of dialogue. It just kind of just hits hard. It does. It's, it's, it's so good. And it's, it's one of those things that's like so meaningful today. You know, it's like, right. It's any a, any age and any time it's like something that you could pull inspiration from. Um, but one scene that just always makes me laugh, Uhhuh is when Hogarth is sitting at dinner with his mom and he had just found the giant in the hands, wandering around in the kitchen, Uhhuh, and his mom asked him to say, grace. And he looks over. He is just like, oh my God. Uh, oh my God. We, uh, thank you for the food that mom has put in front of us and stop. Uh, the devil from doing bad things and, uh, get outta fear, uh, Satan. Go, go. So that we may live in peace. Amen. And I just thought that just makes me laugh every time. So, ah, yeah. Those are my quotes. So, what was it? Uh, it's, we've come to Destination Colesville. Yeah. Population us. Population us. Yep. Love it. That's fantastic. Oh, man. All right. Thank you everyone for joining us on this. Latest episode of Secret Level where we talk about the Iron Giant. We had a blast talking about it. Don't forget to like and subscribe to this podcast. don't forget to like and subscribe. Leave us a review, send us suggestions. You can hit us up on Facebook, Twitter, our call sign is at GT secret level and we post stuff there. Sometimes photos behind the scenes, videos, stuff like that. Don't forget to visit geek tyrant.com for all of your video game, movie, TV, news, whatever. Whatever you're into, you find yourself geeking out over. Check us out. We're posting daily, and with that, we bid you. Good journey. Good journey friends. Manmade meat. Yeah, I love manmade meat.