Like many little boys, my son had an instant fondness for robots. There was simply something magical about the metal and mechanics. Back in 2011, when I saw one of my favorite robot movies was going to air on a premium movie channel, I decided to let him watch it. At age two and a half, he would barely sit still for anything, he was always on the go! And yet, immediately, his attention was grabbed by The Iron Giant. He stood by the television mesmerized by the massive robot.
As soon as the movie was over he wanted to watch it again. And then the next day, and the next, and the next.
I can not tell you how many times my son, now six and a half, has seen The Iron Giant, but I know for certain it was his very first favorite film. It will forever hold a special place in his internal memory files. The art in his room is from drawings and posters of this cult classic.
An Unexpected Surprise
When I found out during the summer that The Iron Giant was going to be remastered and briefly released in theaters this fall I stopped everything and went to the Fandango website. I was not going to take any chances on missing this opportunity! Within minutes I had purchased tickets. The movie date fell within the window we would be celebrating my son’s half birthday -- this was PERFECT.
This weekend it was finally time for this special event, and we went to the IMAX theatre where the film was playing. Neither of us had ever seen The Iron Giant on the big screen before, and now we were about to see it on the HUGE screen! The people sitting around us were giddy shouting out answers to trivia about the film on the screen before the feature began. It made the atmosphere feel special, like an event.
My son and I munched on popcorn waiting for the film to begin and watched the auditorium fill with teens, families with young kids, and older adults. “This movie is for EVERYONE”, my son observed.
Words from Bird
Before the film began to roll, the creator of The Iron Giant, Brad Bird, appeared in a bit of a prologue video to the special feature. He let us know how meaningful it was for him to work on the film, that there were two brand new scenes (!!) in this remastered screening, and asked us to stay after the credits for a preview to behind-the-scenes footage that will be in the soon-to-be-released remastered signature edition DVD.
One of the powerful things shared by Bird was how much he valued the process of making art with his hands. He explained that so much of today’s art is wonderful, but something goes missing when you take away the process of art being hand-drawn.
Bird has expressed before how much he loves hand-drawn animation, so his recent comments have sparked speculation that his next project could be hand-drawn. In an interview with Collider, Bird shares his frustration with some aspects of the industry.
“The problem is that every time people have deviated from the Disney playbook in hand-drawn animation, they’ve done so with staff that are nowhere near Disney-level talent or Disney-level budgets.” Frustrations aside, Bird still wants to take up the pencil. “But for someone like me who wants to move back and forth between animation and live-action, that becomes its own challenge, but I absolutely think that hand-drawn animation is valid and I actually hope to do one in the future with a large budget and a longer schedule than we had on Iron Giant.”
The Remastered Masterpiece
The movie looked so amazing on the big screen with big sound that for a while I was convinced every scene was a new scene. Plot points I never connected came to life. I cried twice. We laughed a lot. We cheered. We gasped. When the credits began to roll the entire audience applauded.
It truly felt like a gift to see a film the way a filmmaker intended for it to be seen. And then being able to extend that bit of movie magic to my son, all for the price of a ticket, was an absolute parenting win.
Dresden Shumaker is a writer, advocate, and appreciator of (butterless) movie popcorn. She chronicles her adventures in single parenting on CreatingMotherhood.
