The Iron Giant was inspired by the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, which Hughes wrote to comfort his children after the suicide of his wife, Sylvia Plath. Additionally, director Brad Bird was personally motivated by the tragic death of his sister Susan from gun violence, leading to his pitch for the film: "What if a gun had a soul and didn't want to be a gun?". The film is dedicated to both Hughes and Susan.
To answer OOPs other question: The incorrectness is rarely as important as the confidence with which they errantly assert their correctness. Arguably, with the collected knowledge of humanity at all of our fingertips all the time, almost no one has a good excuse to be incorrect about anything, but all of us will be.
My understanding of this sub has always been, "You can be wrong, and you can be a dick, but if you're a dick while being wrong, you will get spanked by Reddit."
1968 The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, written partly in response to the suicide of his wife Sylvia Plath in order to cope and as a cautionary tale of the cold war and the fear and prejudice it wrought.
I'd argue it does since the person was confident enough to post in this subreddit without apparently having actually googling it themselves while simultaneously mocking someone for not googling it.
Okay. And was the idea to make a movie out of it pitched by the director or someone else?
We really got off topic with this book discussion.
Edit:
There appears to be conflicting information on this issue. Some places claim the initial pitch came from Richard Bazley (lead animator of the movie), while others claim the pitch came from Brad Bird (the director).
The issue (viz being confidently incorrect) is that even films based on books still need to be "pitched" to a studio, and The Iron Giant was definitely pitched, even though it was (loosely) based on The Iron Man novel.
However, it seems unlikely that the pitch could have come from Brad Bird, because he was apparently assigned to the film by the studio. There's also the story that Bazley first pitched it to Don Bluth and he passed.
Wikipedia also has a bunch of stuff about Pete Townshend doing a concept album based on the book that got turned into a stage musical that some guy saw and decided to develop a movie and Warner Bros ended up with it etc etc... the real stories about these projects are often way more complicated and much less interesting, in this way.
I think the whole confusion over "was it Brad Bird's idea" comes from the cool "what if a gun didn't want to be a gun" quote (from Bird, right?) which makes it seem like the whole thing is his idea if you, uh, don't know anything about the story.
I've never been confused about it: There was a big except of The Iron Man in a Book of Modern Folk and Fairy Tales I had when I was growing up in the 1980s. I have a distinct memory of an illustration of him eating a tractor.
Is it, though? 96% tomatometer, 90% popcorn meter on rotten tomatoes. 85% and 8.7 on Metacritic. I’ve personally never heard anyone say a bad word about the movie, and most people I know have seen it. So I don’t know what your definition of underrated is.
To be fair, it didn’t do well when it was initially released, because Warner Brothers barely promoted it. It found its audience on home video. And I could see younger people not being as aware of it today, but among Gen X and Millenials, I think it’s nearly universally known and loved.
Rated it is, though totally get what you mean. I suspect I’ve said the same elsewhere meant the same way
“Totally under discussed” maybe work? Or
“There’s a movie altogether too often, and undeservedly, far from the lips of those scurrying about, lost in their humdrum lives, debating whether to watch FF13 again, or to instead restart Love Island”
Doesn’t quite have a certain pithiness to it, but could also serve
Little known fact, the creators of the iron giant movie actually consulted a psychic for movie ideas. The psychic peered far into the future and glimpsed the egghead Island arc.
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The Iron Giant was inspired by the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, which Hughes wrote to comfort his children after the suicide of his wife, Sylvia Plath. Additionally, director Brad Bird was personally motivated by the tragic death of his sister Susan from gun violence, leading to his pitch for the film: "What if a gun had a soul and didn't want to be a gun?". The film is dedicated to both Hughes and Susan.
That's the one where the space dragon attempted to eat Earth, right?
Nope, it's the one where the puppy learned how to make a mean risotto.
It was a rat, not a puppy
r/woosh
Just playing along, should have put /s? Ah well
S'all bless! I thought it was a fun exchange!
I hope you had a good day :)
You too mate
No problem, just make sure you watch the movie about the disabled goat that becomes the existential representation of gravity....it's a good one ;)
Ah yes - Vvitch!
A nod to Ted Hughes - Hogarth in the animated film has the surname Hughes.
To answer OOPs other question: The incorrectness is rarely as important as the confidence with which they errantly assert their correctness. Arguably, with the collected knowledge of humanity at all of our fingertips all the time, almost no one has a good excuse to be incorrect about anything, but all of us will be.
My understanding of this sub has always been, "You can be wrong, and you can be a dick, but if you're a dick while being wrong, you will get spanked by Reddit."
I know people who have one account for being wrong and one account for being a dick, maybe they're smarter than me.
whip-crack!
1968 The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, written partly in response to the suicide of his wife Sylvia Plath in order to cope and as a cautionary tale of the cold war and the fear and prejudice it wrought.
I had zero clue there was any connection between them, let alone that she was his wife. Mind blown.
She killed herself in part because of his infidelities.
Then his mistress eventually did the same because he refused to acknowledge their children.
Charmant
TIL all of this
Ah. Like Dr Seuss's first wife.
Jesus Christ
He also wrote a sequel called The Iron Woman.
his wife's suicide wrought the cold war? damn she must have been something
She dreamed in Red.
Take my poor man's gold 🏅
“The person in the wrong can easily be corrected by just making a quick google search” oh the irony……..
Fucking delicious
I had a lovely dinner with Carol Orchard once.
I know it is not relevant, but this made me think of her, for obvious reasons, and I enjoyed the memory.
Also just a quick question, do posts that the person in the wrong can easily be corrected by just making a quick google search belong here?
I'd argue it does since the person was confident enough to post in this subreddit without apparently having actually googling it themselves while simultaneously mocking someone for not googling it.
Okay. And was the idea to make a movie out of it pitched by the director or someone else?
We really got off topic with this book discussion.
Edit:
There appears to be conflicting information on this issue. Some places claim the initial pitch came from Richard Bazley (lead animator of the movie), while others claim the pitch came from Brad Bird (the director).
The issue (viz being confidently incorrect) is that even films based on books still need to be "pitched" to a studio, and The Iron Giant was definitely pitched, even though it was (loosely) based on The Iron Man novel.
However, it seems unlikely that the pitch could have come from Brad Bird, because he was apparently assigned to the film by the studio. There's also the story that Bazley first pitched it to Don Bluth and he passed.
Wikipedia also has a bunch of stuff about Pete Townshend doing a concept album based on the book that got turned into a stage musical that some guy saw and decided to develop a movie and Warner Bros ended up with it etc etc... the real stories about these projects are often way more complicated and much less interesting, in this way.
I think the whole confusion over "was it Brad Bird's idea" comes from the cool "what if a gun didn't want to be a gun" quote (from Bird, right?) which makes it seem like the whole thing is his idea if you, uh, don't know anything about the story.
I've never been confused about it: There was a big except of The Iron Man in a Book of Modern Folk and Fairy Tales I had when I was growing up in the 1980s. I have a distinct memory of an illustration of him eating a tractor.
Completely aside, this is such a wildly underrated movie
Is it, though? 96% tomatometer, 90% popcorn meter on rotten tomatoes. 85% and 8.7 on Metacritic. I’ve personally never heard anyone say a bad word about the movie, and most people I know have seen it. So I don’t know what your definition of underrated is.
You didn't have to come at me that hard, damn.
Maybe underrated was a poor word, I've met A LOT of people that have never seen/heard of it.
To be fair, it didn’t do well when it was initially released, because Warner Brothers barely promoted it. It found its audience on home video. And I could see younger people not being as aware of it today, but among Gen X and Millenials, I think it’s nearly universally known and loved.
...and when they did advertise it, they used Rock You Like a Hurricane as the trailer music. Fits the mood of the movie like a glove.
Rated it is, though totally get what you mean. I suspect I’ve said the same elsewhere meant the same way
“Totally under discussed” maybe work? Or
“There’s a movie altogether too often, and undeservedly, far from the lips of those scurrying about, lost in their humdrum lives, debating whether to watch FF13 again, or to instead restart Love Island”
Doesn’t quite have a certain pithiness to it, but could also serve
A lot of people early to mid 30s?
I've not seen it. Your original comment stands. I need to have seen it 20 years ago or whenever
This is one of my problems with Reddit--a complete lack of nuance.
It's possible (many would probably even say "likely") for something to have more than one influence.
False, the iron giant was inspired by One Piece.
Little known fact, the creators of the iron giant movie actually consulted a psychic for movie ideas. The psychic peered far into the future and glimpsed the egghead Island arc.