History Trivia / TheIronGiant

* AcclaimedFlop: Critics gave the film overwhelmingly positive reviews (96% "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, and 85 out of 100 "universal acclaim" on Metacritic), moviegoers loved the film as well (earning an "A" grade from Cinemascore), ''and'' it won '''nine''' [[UsefulNotes/AnnieAward Annie Awards]] out of '''15''' nominations (winning '''every''' category it was nominated in), including Best Animated Feature Film. Unfortunately, the movie flopped at the box office, making only $31.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $48 million ($80 million including prints and advertising), mostly due to the [[InvisibleAdvertising lack of marketing]] by Warner Bros. The studio later did a 180 and gave it a marketing blitz on home video instead, and the movie's [[VindicatedByHistory gathered a large cult following since then]]. Much of its following also comes from Creator/CartoonNetwork, which used to run the film in annual [[MarathonRunning all-day marathons]] on Thanksgiving (and occasionally airs the movie to this day).

** Animator Teddy Newton jokingly pitched a sequence of the film that would've had Mansley taking Hogarth to a seedy stripper's club. Years later, at the suggestion of animator Bert Klein, Newton retooled the idea into the short film ''Boys Night Out''.

** The film is also dedicated to Allison Sgroi a clean-up and in-between artist on the film who died in 1998.

* VindicatedByCable: Creator/CartoonNetwork adored this movie and even ran it on loop for holiday marathons (especially on Thanksgiving), which played a big role in the film being discovered after its dismal theatrical run (see below).

** [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Jodi Benson]], Creator/SarahMichelleGellar, Creator/JulianneMoore and Creator/MegRyan were all considered to voice Annie.

** Jodi Benson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Julianne Moore and Meg Ryan were all considered to voice Annie.
** Creator/JohnTravolta, Sylvester Stallone, Hugh Jackman, Matthew Broderick, Steve Martin, John Cusack, and Vince Vaughn were considered to voice Dean.

-->'''Dean:''' What you currently have '''[[SuddenlyShouting IN YOUR MOUTH]]''' '''''[[SuddenlyShouting IS ART]]!'''''

* VindicatedByHistory: The film was universally loved by critics and audiences, but that didn't save the film from [[AcclaimedFlop bombing at the box office]]; Warner Bros.' marketing blitz for the home video release led to the film being seen by a wider audience, and now it's considered one of the greatest animated films ever. Helping was Creator/CartoonNetwork's now-infamous holiday marathons. Even when played over and over, back to back, for '''three days''' in a row, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools it still didn't get old]].

* TheWikiRule: [[http://irongiant.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Giant_Wiki Here]] is the wiki site for the movie.

** The first choice to voice the giant was Creator/PeterCullen. That's right, [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Optimus Prime]] would have been the voice of the Iron Giant. Vin Diesel got the role instead due to Brad Bird's amazement with his soft-spoken, but still powerful, performance in the short ''Multi-Facial''.

* [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheIronGiant What Could Have Been]]

* [[ReferencedBy/TheIronGiant Referenced By]]

* AcclaimedFlop: Critics gave the film overwhelmingly positive reviews (96% "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, and 85 out of 100 "universal acclaim" on Metacritic), moviegoers loved the film as well (earning an "A" grade from Cinemascore), ''and'' it won '''nine''' [[UsefulNotes/AnnieAward Annie Awards]] out of '''15''' nominations (winning '''every''' category it was nominated in), including Best Animated Feature Film. Unfortunately, the movie flopped at the box office, making only $31.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $48 million ($80 million including prints and advertising), mostly due to the [[InvisibleAdvertising lack of marketing]] by Warner Bros. The studio later did a 180 and gave it a marketing blitz on home video instead, and the movie's [[VindicatedByHistory gathered a large cult following since then]]. Much of its following also comes from Creator/CartoonNetwork, which used to run the film in annual [[MarathonRunning all-day marathons]] on Thanksgiving.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheIronGiant Has it's own page]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: ''WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheIronGiant''

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** An animator at Sullivan Bluth Studios tried to pitch an animated version of Ted Hughes' story to Creator/DonBluth in the early-90s; he passed on it because he felt that there wasn't enough story in it to sustain a feature film.
** In early storyboards, the deer died while the Giant tried to pet it, [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength and actually squished it instead]]. The writers revised this to hunters shooting the deer, after deeming it implausible that Hogarth's mantra, "It's bad to kill, but it's not bad to die," could relieve the Giant of guilt caused by killing.
** The first choice to voice the giant was Creator/PeterCullen. That's right, [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Optimus Prime]] would have been the voice of the Iron Giant. Vin Diesel got the role instead due to Brad Bird's amazement with his soft-spoken, but still powerful, performance in the short ''Multi-Facial''.
** Other early casting choices included Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger as Kent Mansley, whom Brad Bird passed up in favor of less well-known actors.
** The movie was originally conceived as an AnimatedAdaptation of [[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend]]'s RockOpera based on the original book, but Brad Bird didn't want to put out yet another AnimatedMusical in a market already so saturated with them. Especially when [[WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot the last animated musical the studio made]] was a flop that caused the [[AcclaimedFlop underrated status of this film]] by the [[InvisibleAdvertising nearly non-existing marketing]].
** The film was going to have a more cartoony style as seen in the very early concept art for both [[http://www.ultimateirongiant.com/prodart/515.jpg The Giant]] and [[http://www.ultimateirongiant.com/prodart/521.jpg Hogarth]] (The Giant's design here is similar to the Adamson cover of first edition book).
** Animator Teddy Newton jokingly pitched a sequence of the film that would've had Mansley taking Hogarth to a seedy stripper's club. Years later, at the suggestion of animator Bert Klein, Newton retooled the idea into the short film ''Boys Night Out''.
** Jodi Benson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Julianne Moore and Meg Ryan were all considered to voice Annie.
** Creator/JohnTravolta, Sylvester Stallone, Hugh Jackman, Matthew Broderick, Steve Martin, John Cusack, and Vince Vaughn were considered to voice Dean.

** Director Creator/BradBird made Eli Marienthal (the voice of Hogarth) run laps around the studio in order to sound realistically out-of-breath for one scene (he did this again later with Spencer Fox, the voice of Dash, in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'').

* EnforcedMethodActing: Director Creator/BradBird made Eli Marienthal (the voice of Hogarth) run laps around the studio in order to sound realistically out-of-breath for one scene (he did this again later with Spencer Fox, the voice of Dash, in WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles).
** In the "rocket" car scene Brad held Eli and shook him in order to get the voice right.

** The film was going to have a more cartoony style as seen in the very early concept art for both [[http://www.ultimateirongiant.com/prodart/515.jpg The Giant]] and [[http://www.ultimateirongiant.com/prodart/521.jpg Hogarth]] (The Giants design here is similar to the Adamson cover of first edition book).

* CreatorBacklash: Warner Bros. is aware they screwed up big time with the film's theatrical release and that the film's AcclaimedFlop status is their fault. To their credit, they've given the film better treatment in the years since to make up for it, even paying to have a few scenes (Annie and Dean in the Diner, and the Giant's nightmare) that only existed as audio and some pencil sketches fully animated and re-inserted back into the film.

* DuelingMovies: With Disney's entry for its [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon canon]] that year, ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'', though [[DavidVersusGoliath it was hardly a duel]]: the Disney film had a year's worth of hype, not to mention notoriety out the wazoo, which this scrappy little film made by a tentative subsidiary of Warner Bros. and only saw a few weeks of advertisement couldn't compete with. Arguably ''The Iron Giant'' won out in the long run, though, ''Tarzan'' is widely regarded as a fantastic last hurrah of the Disney Renaissance, but ''Giant'' is often now called one of the greatest animated features ''ever''.[[note]]At the film's wrap party, Brad Bird bragged about how their film finished all its animation three months before the ''Tarzan'' animators and jokingly called them "pussies."[[/note]]

* OldShame: Not for the film itself, but Warner Bros. is aware they screwed up big time with the film's theatrical release and that the film's AcclaimedFlop status is their fault. To their credit, they've given the film better treatment in the years since to make up for it, even paying to have a few scenes (Annie and Dean in the Diner, and the Giant's nightmare) that only existed as audio and some pencil sketches fully animated and re-inserted back into the film.