I may write about movies and TV shows for a living, but there’s only so much time in the day to watch things, and inevitably I’ll miss out on certain big and small screen hits. For example, while I’d heard last year how amazing The Wild Robot was, it was only just a few days ago that I finally streamed the DreamWorks Animation flick with my Netflix subscription. Well, not only am I now joining in on singing The Wild Robot’s praises, I’m kicking myself for not watching it sooner because of how it reminded me of The Iron Giant.
The Brad Bird-helmed The Iron Giant is one of my favorite animated movies. I remember seeing it in the theater while I was visiting my grandparents in the summer of 1999, and apparently I was one of the few who did, considering that this movie bombed at the box office and only started getting popular when it was released on home video and syndicated on TV. There’s a lot to appreciate about The Iron Giant, but for me, one of its main appeals is watching Vin Diesel’s titular protagonist overcome his programming and become something more than what he was built to be. The same thing happens with Lupita Nyong’o’s Roz in The Wild Robot.
