Polina Zabrodska

HUMM 177B

Professor Lindahl

5/17/2020

The Iron Giant

1. I chose to watch The Iron Giant  over two other movies. The movie about Lola intrigued

me but it was too intense for me at that moment of the decision. The movie about the Italian

romantic would show me another set of unrealistically romantic scenes in Italy near the sea

which would be painful to watch under current epidemiological circumstances. Moreover, most

cartoons have the happy ending that brings hope in a better future and humanity.

2. Shifting to the artistically or aesthetically noteworthy aspects, I would like to focus on the

representation of the cartoon characters and how the camera is used to represent the scenes. First,

the characters are drawn mostly realistically even though some of their features are

overdramatized. The detective Kent Mansley is illustrated as a typical detective in a stereotypical

coat with a smoking pipe. Also, his nose and chin look triangular, and moves are rapid, and these

features should signal a viewer about his character as a troublemaker. In general, he seems

annoying, like when he moves in Hughes’s house and starts questioning Hogarth on his every

step. On top of that, the use of shadows adds to the character when he interrogates the boy at the

shed; they make him look like a villain. Over time, the representation of him evolves: he

becomes smaller, less significant, less important, yet more cowardly and more destructive.

Moving forward to the depiction of the army, it is quite typical: angry commander with a

mustache, and thin and tall soldiers. Also, the representation of Hogarth’s mother, Annie, evokes

a positive feeling since she shows so much love and cares for her son. She is a beautiful, hard-
working woman with kind eyes. Hogarth himself looks like a good, curious, and brave kid; his

messy hair and big eyes are clear signals of his big adventurous. There is another character,

Dean, who plays an important role. His representation seems to be made to match Annie’s

appearance since both are pretty. Yet, besides his appearance, Dean looks supportive and a bit

tired due to dark circles around his eyes at the beginning. And lastly, there is a giant. He is huge,

gray, loud, and a bit creepy because of his eyes in the dark. Nevertheless, a viewer does not feel

any negative emotion about it because the robot shows feelings, like at the dead dear scene and

unconscious Hogarth after the fall; his body movement changes rapidly from a strong steel-made

machine to a devastated robot that sits on the ground with its shoulders down and extremely sad

eyes. But this is a warrior robot and although it tries to be good, to be Superman, it reacts

dramatically to the army’s weapons by evoking the ‘dark side’ with guns and lasers. At this

scene, his color turns into dark gray and his silhouette seems even bigger. 

Shifting to camera movements, several scenes are noteworthy of mentioning. The ones

where the difference between the sizes of people and the robot are the most obvious are the most

curious ones to talk about. One of the techniques used to show the difference in perspective. For

example, during the storm, the sailor sees the giant, and the camera moves from front view up

stopping on the giant’s head with shining eyes and shoulders. Then, at the electricity station at

night, a viewer sees two shining eyes away in woods, then gigantic legs that almost step on

Hogarth, and after that the most of the robot when it is about it eat the station. Besides

perspective, some close-up scenes show the size difference. Continuing with the station scene,

Hogarth climbs near the robot and the camera moves alongside him. A viewer sees how small

the boy is in comparison to the robot. Also, a similar feeling brings the scene when the robot

picks up Hogarth on its palm to show the view at night when they walk to Dean’s metal scrap
landfill. There is one scene that shows the size and character of the robot a lot. During the army’s

attack, the giant tries to control his warrior nature and runs away from shooting with the boy in

his hands, but they fall from the cliff. Fortunately, it can fly, so Annie is standing on the edge of

the cliff shown from her back and looking at the raising in the sky robot. The specular thing

about this thing is the still position of the camera and Annie while the robot is flying up showing

its power and size. It looks breathtaking and huge, but then the army hits it, and it falls looking

so small and helpless in the sky. 

3. The first connection between the cartoon and this semester is “The Promise of

Technology”

and I would also add The Problem with Frankenstein Monster to this. The army is sure that they

can defeat the robot using technology, like weapons, which is the representation of idea “tech

can fix tech.” However, they do not think about the consequences of it, especially detective

Mansley, when he orders the rocket launch. He carelessly launches ‘the monster’ forgetting

about citizens and even tries to escape which is directly opposite from taking responsibility. 

           The second connection is Binary vs incrementalist views on good and evil. The detective,

army (for the most part), and Dean (two times: at the beginning and after the robot almost killed

the boy on the landfill with his eyes’ laser) see the giant only as a bad thing in the black and

white spectrum. Meanwhile, Hogarth and Dean (for the rest of the movie) see it in grayscale,

meaning, the robot has positive and destructive aspects, so they do not identify the robot as just

good or bad.

           There is one more, third, connection which is Aristotle’s phrase “We are what we do

repeatedly.” The boy tells the robot a phrase like this one when they talk about behaving in a

good way. The giant tries his best to be Superman and not to kill via protecting people and
controlling his nature. For example, when his eyes start turning red, he covers them in order not

to become a weapon. He chooses to be good repeatedly.

4. Although I predicted the plot of the film, I enjoyed it a lot. It is really fascinating because

it was drawn by hand; plus, the sound effects are so exact. It is kind, emotional, and qualitative,

so even a person in 2020 after seeing all Marvel movies will be touched and pleasantly surprised.

And I was so happy to know that the robot survived and started getting together at the end! This

is such an uplifting thing to see.