When an enormous metal giant appears in a small town in Maine, Hogarth Hughes befriends him, hiding him from federal agent megalomaniac Kent Mansley, who insists the giant was sent by the Russians. Set in the late 50s shortly after the launch of Sputnik and steeped in nuclear war paranoia, the film was the first directorial effort of long time Simpsons animator Brad Bird (THE INCREDIBLES) featuring a mix of hand drawn and computer animation.

Based on the book The Iron Man by English poet and children's writer Ted Hughes (which he wrote as an answer to the suicide of his wife Sylvia Plath), THE IRON GIANT maintains much of the material's original melancholy, but is ultimately very hopeful. Per Roger Ebert: "And here is a family movie with a message: a Cold War parable in which the Iron Giant learns from a little boy that he is not doomed to be a weapon."