If you only know ‘The Iron Giant’ from his cameo in ‘Ready Player One’, it’s time to give this animated gem directed by Brad Bird a try. Nevertheless, this beautiful film arose out of a terrible family loss.
the giant’s dream
‘The iron giant’ told us the unlikely and touching friendship between a boy and a giant robot in the middle of the Cold War. Released in 1999 and directed by Brad Bird, she also signed the script with Tim McCanlies, which adapted a story by Ted Hughes.
About the making of this film was ‘The Giant’s Dream: The making of The Iron Giant’. The 2016 documentary revealed the family tragedy that inspired Bird to make the film: the terrible death of his sister due to gun violence:
My sister Susan, who I loved very much and was very close to, died as a result of gun violence. Her husband murdered her. I was devastated. When you shoot someone, you don’t just kill that person. You are killing a part of all the people who love that person.
It was a blow for Bird, who tried to focus on his work as a consultant on “The Simpsons.” When animation boomed in the 1990s, director He came up with an idea that gave him back the illusion and he wanted to carry out.
An idea of a strong anti-war character and that reflected all his rejection of the weapons, which had been taken from his sister. This is how she explained it in the pitch that he exposed before Warner to sell the film: “What if a weapon had a soul and didn’t want to be a weapon?”.
Although ‘The Iron Giant’ was a box office flop, became a cult movie and earned a place in the hearts of many moviegoers. It was Bird’s film debut as a director, after which hits such as ‘The Incredibles’, ‘Ratatouille’ or ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’ would come.