Week 3 Movie Review 'Iron Giant 1999'

The Iron Giant 1999

Director: Brad Bird

Basic Plot: 
This is the story of a nine-year-old boy named Hogarth Hughes who makes friends with an innocent alien giant robot that came from outer space. Meanwhile, a paranoid U.S. Government agent named Kent Mansley arrives in town, determined to destroy the giant at all costs. It's up to Hogarth to protect him by keeping him at Dean McCoppin's place in the junkyard. 

I remember seeing this movie a loooooong time ago and I have always enjoyed it. I even cried at the end! I can't see anything I'd change. It was in general a enjoyable light hearted story of a young boy trying to protect his new and misunderstood friend. I like the animation style. I believe it's done in a traditional method. It is drawn with clean lines and blocks of pastel/ slightly faded colours. The scene i have chosen begins at 42:36 and ends at 44:03.
This scene appealed to me the most because you can get a sense of Hogarth ad Dean's frustration trying to hide the Giant. Hogarth trying his best to avoid the annoying detective and Dean babysitting basically a giant metal child who keeps touching things they shouldn't. Mostly chose this scene because I found it funny how Dean was trying to explain that the junk was his art. As a student studying art myself I can relate to this and often see strange objects made of any material and is called art, whereas to others it might not seem so.

Link to where I watched the movie: http://freedisneycartoon.blogspot.ie/2013/07/watch-iron-giant-1999-online-for-free.html

Characters

In the scene I have chosen it contains nearly all the main characters. 

 Hogarth Hughes is the main character in this movie. A 9 year old boy who's obsessed/ determined to have a pet. He brings home wild animals that wouldn't usually be considered as a normal household pet, like raccoon and squirrels. He happens across the iron giant when his tv stopped working and his curiosity lead him to the power plant where he saved the Iron Giant who was tangled up and electrocuted by the wires. Their friendship blossoms from there. Hogarth has brown hair, blue eyes and crooked eye, which I like because in most animation you'll find flawless characters, I think his boys teeth give him character. He wears a yellow shirts, jeans and converse shoes in this scene.

 The Iron Giant appears at the beginning of my chosen scene peering in Dean's front door. The Giant came from space and landed on earth. We first meet the Giant tangled in electric wires and then saved by Hogarth. The Giant has a childlike personality and learns the way of the world from Hogarth. A child learning from a child explains the childlike behaviour. The Giant has a bump on his head making him forget his purpose / past.  We find out that the Giant eats only metal. If he is in an accident and falls apart, he has a way of fixing himself. An antenna pops out of his head releasing a signal which calls all his body parts and they take on a life of their own and crawl back to the head and rebuild the body till he is whole again. We later discover that the Giant is just one big weapon (or a combination of weapons, I counted about 7), but only acts defensively when fired upon. We don't discover the Giants original purpose for coming to earth or his past. We just accept him right away into the story and enjoy his awkward stumbling through the forests and towns trying to hide and be discrete.

 Dean McCoppin is the owner of a junk yard where Hogarth takes the Iron Giant to hide and feast on the abundance of metal. Dean is an artist who makes sculptures out of scrap metals. He has a laid back and almost lazy character who always seems to be drinking coffee. He was terrified of the Iron Giant at first and eventually gave into exhaustion and Hogarth's persistant nagging and allowed the Giant to stay the night. He is the first character to appear in my chosen scene. Opening his front door in the morning to be greeted with a pair of giant metal glowing eyes. Dean has black hair, brown eyes and stubbley beard with a goatee, which adds to the laid back and arty impression. Like a 'typical' artist, in this scene he is wearing a black polo neck top and jeans. All he needs now is a beret and he'll fit the stereotypical french artist image. In fact if you look closely the shape of his hair on the top of his head looks somewhat like a beret!
 Kent Mansley is a U.S Government officer investigating what came from the sky and is taking bites out of towns people metal farm buildings or cars etc. It is obvious immediately that he is overly paranoid and questions constantly like a detective would. He speaks incredibly fast, barely ever pausing for a breath. He gives the impression of an overwhelming and often intimidating character. He has orange hair, blue eyes and a long face and a very large/ tall build with broad shoulders. He's dressed in a long grey coat and grey suit and trousers under neath and has a grey hat to match. I immediately think of someone like Sherlock Holmes when I see this character. He has a typical detective look about him. This immediately tells the audience what his profession is before he even introduced himself.
Hogarth's mother only has a brief part in my scene, where she asks Hogarth to show Kent the sights. She is a single mother and works as a waitress. She is a attractive woman and the male lead characters seem to fall for her right away. She is a very caring and protective mother who always worries when Hogarth runs off on his adventures. We don't really get much of an insight into her character as she only appears briefly in various scenes.

Setting:

My scene firstly takes place in Deans home where he opens the front door in the morning. It begins at 42:36 on the timeline. His home is quite messy which again gives an insight into his laid back character. The scene moves onto Hogarth's house where Dean calls Hogarth giving out that the Giant is still at his house. Hogarth answers the phone in the kitchen, where the phone is sitting on the counter beside the bed bin. Most households have a phone in the kitchen so this makes sense. It flashes between Dean's home and Hogarth's kitchen as they converse on the phone. What we see of the window area in Dean's home has dull lighting and has junk hanging off the walls and ceiling, pieces he's collected for his art I imagine, along with normal household materials like bookcase and picture frames. After Hogarth hangs up the phone, Kent follows him around the house asking questions, at the of the stairs, sitting room, kitchen by the fridge, upstairs hallway, kitchen table, bathroom after brushing teeth, hallway, front porch, and other places throughout the house. This puts emphasis on the annoying badgering of Kent following Hogarth everywhere he goes and asking questions, till eventually he is forced to show Kent the sites. We are then back at Dean's junk yard and Dean is outside scolding the Giant for eating his art. Being in a junk yard there is obviously mountains of junk everywhere, separated and organised is scrap and art. The scene pictures the Giant and Dean surrounded by odd looking metal tree like sculptures. The setting of the junk yard is obviously important because this is the only place safe for the Giant to hide and to eat when he's hungry. A scrap metal junk yard seems like a fitting place for this Giant.

Mise en Scene:

In Dean's home I noticed his walls are made of metal/ tin. His home is only some sort of shack, nothing fancy. He has normal household items lying around as well as junk. The pieces of junk look as if the were collected for perhaps some sort of art project but the collection is slowly taking over his home and isn't been used. Picture frames are crooked and barely hanging on the wall. This another insight into his laid back or lazy personality. I noticed a guitar by the window as he storming around o the phone. Dean looks like a character who might play the guitar to relax. I doubt it's junk because its a scrap metal junk yard not a dump! I also noticed some model boats and a picture of a beach scene so perhaps he wishes was abroad somewhere rather than a dump?

Camera Work:
Shot List:

• Point of View Shot: looking at Dean's back as he opens the door and finds the Giant. Can see out the door.
• Focus on phone, pan upwards when Hogarth picks up phone.
• Focus on window shot as Dean is on the phone.
• Focus on Hogarth in the kitchen pacing back and forth on the phone.
• Focus on window shot at Dean's house, pans to the right as Dean walks to the right.
• Slow panning upwards slightly to the left in kitchen - emphasis on Kent's build.
• Focus on Dean's window shot, quickly pan to the right at the same pace as Dean running.
• Pan downwards to the left as Hogarth goes down the stairs.
• Low angle shot - Kent in the chair. Superiority.
• Low angle shot - Hogarth at the fridge, Kent towering above him.
• Quickly pan left in the hallway as Kent questions further.
• Pan upwards from the cereal bowl  to Kent. Same pace as Hogarth's head.
• Focus on bathroom mirror. See Kent invading Hogarth's space.
• Focus Kent peering out of doorway.
• Focus Kent on the porch.
• Focus, low angle Kent smoking pipe.
• Focus, over the shoulder Kent smoking pipe in front of tv.
• Focus, low angle Kent leaning over asking more questions.
• Focus, zoom in on Kent.
• Focus on Hogarth "I'm going OUT!!!!".
• Pan to right at the same as Hogarth read to leave.
• Pan to the right revealing Kent again.
• High angle looking down on Dean giving out. Dean is small in comparison to Giant.
• Low angle establishing shot of junk yard and Giant. Pans left and right as Dean points out scrap and art piles.
• High angle looking down on Dean giving out.
• Focus, zoom in on Giant.
• High angle looking down on Dean grumpy face.
• Focus, zoom in on Giant fixing the art.
• Low angle, focus on Dean and Giant's feet. 
• Over the Toe Shot? Would usually be over the shoulder but in this case over Giant's toe focusing on Dean.

Sounds and Music:

In general the scene I chose contains mostly dialogue and sound effects. Starting with Dean opening the door with a typical click sound followed by a spaced out "Oh!!....yeah". Next scene is where the phone rings in the kitchen. Music on the radio is playing in the background but it is too muffled to make out the song, sounds something like a Jazz song. It gives a homey, busy household feel to the scene. Then song continues as Hogarth and Dean talk on the phone. Hogarth lowering his voice on the phone so no one overhears his conversation. At the same time you can hear the slightly muffled voice of Dean through the phone on Hogarth's end. Hogarth makes up excuses to Kent while Dean stutters for a bit out of annoyance because he's stuck with Giant. The Jazz song continues playing back on Dean's end as he's shouting at Giant out the window because he's eating something he shouldn't. As Giant takes a bite you can hear very faint sounds of crunching metal. As Dean falls over there is the distinct clinking sound of metal, meaning he fell over some metal scraps. Back at Hogarth's house where Kent is continuously bugging him with questions, the Jazz song is still playing in the background, this time a bit louder. The quickened pace of Kent's questions gives the impression of getting more and more on Hogarth's nerves till eventually Hogarth shouts "I'm going OUT!!". Back at Dean's junk yard where he is explaining the difference between scraps and art, meanwhile Giant is casually munching away of a piece of metal which makes a subtle crunching metal sound. The crunching continues through Dean's dialogue until the moment he realises its art he's chewing on. The Giant himself makes subtle metal sounds as he moves. Giant tries to fix the art and it makes the sound of bending and tearing metal. Dean gives up trying to explain and with a big thud mixed with the sound of rattling metal, Giant forces the newly fixed piece of art into the ground. The scene then ends with Dean quite impressed "That's not bad".