THE IRON GIANT Screen Friday Night at Webster University

“So we can’t call Ripley’s Believe it or Not, because… they wouldn’t believe it.”

THE IRON GIANT screens Friday night, April 15th at 9:30pm in Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood Ave.). The screening is FREE

Without doubt one of the very best animated films of the past twenty years, Brad Bird’s THE IRON GIANT (1999) is a fabulous love letter to 1950s science fiction b-movies and b-fiction. The central figure is as grand and cool a physical design for a robot as ever put on film; perfectly balanced with the character of the robot.

The Iron Giant (voiced by Vin Diesel), befriended by a young boy named Hogarth (voiced by Eli Marienthal) who is himself a SF b-movie junkie during the reactionary 1950s time period, engages the boy and his beatnik confidant Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick) with his trust. The Iron Giant comes to understand his own nature, the possibility of becoming a deadly weapon and a “monster” from the boy’s comic books, and his understanding of heroism and love for his friends.

THE IRON GIANT has a wonderful nostalgic, small-town atmosphere that is brought to life by the stunning animation. The attention to period detail, from the cheesy educational videos that Hogarth’s class is forced to watch, to the way townspeople talk, is faithfully recreated and really goes a long way to drawing you in.

THE IRON GIANT is one of those rare animated films that appeals to both children and adults, that doesn’t contain one annoying musical number a la Disney, and that isn’t one long advertisement for a toy. In fact, this film is an entertaining, even touching, story about tolerance and compassion and now you’ll have the chance to see it again on the big screen when it plays Friday night at 9:30 Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. It’s part of Webster Us’ Kinematifest 9 – The International Animation and Interactive Media Festival. (for more about Kinematifest, go to their site HERE)

The screening is FREE!