# I Am Not A Gun
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 10, 2001, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433 "2001-03-10T08:15:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/1 "2001-03-10T08:15:10Z")
Am I a big wuss?
I’m 27 years old, have watched “The Iron Giant” five times, and I find myself crying every time towards the end. I don’t know how to describe it; it’s a good cry, but I feel so…purged. Am I a real wuss, or do I eall apeciate this movie, the underappreciated of 1999?
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/2 "2001-03-10T09:08:43Z")
If your a wuss, then so am I.
“I’m Supermaaaan!”
::_sniff_::
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/3 "2001-03-10T09:22:03Z")
It is one of my top five movies. I wish my DVD player was working so I could watch it again soon!
Apparently a special edition is coming out this year sometime. Look out for it!
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/4 "2001-03-10T10:00:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I Am Not A Gun
I am. Bang!
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### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/5 "2001-03-10T14:28:04Z")
as does our whole family.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/6 "2001-03-10T15:11:16Z")
Yeah, it’s a really good movie. (And I cried when I saw it in the theater, although I’ve been able to contain my emotions while re-watching it on video.)
Except for the villain. The FBI guy, whose name I can’t remember at the moment. I found him really irritating and unlikeable.
The one really good thing about the post-LITTLE MERMAID Disney features is the parade of marvelously diabolical villains; their screentime is usually the best thing in the film.
While I hate to make comparisons…I consider THE IRON GIANT much better than the recent Disney stuff (better protagonist, better Protagonist’s Friend [the beatnik artist guy], no damn cute animals, refusal to make the Military out-and-out monsters)…I was disappointed that they dropped the ball with the Heavy.
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### Author:  [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/7 "2001-03-10T15:17:43Z")
Yeah, but they redeemed themselves with the General (voiced incomparably by John Mahoney). Bit of a transendence of the cliche in that he _listened_ to Dean about the Giant being defensive.
Of course, you could look at Kent as being in the same vein as Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast”: a parody, or a darker side, of previous roles. I remember Gene Siskel remarking when “Beauty” came out that in any previous Disney film Gaston would have been the hero. Kent could be seen as a wonderful re-molding of bad 50’s science fiction roles, like Cesar Romero in “Lost Continent” or the doctor type in “Colossal Man.”
Oh, and our criticism of the role in no way shoudl detract from Michael McDonald’s wonderful voice work as Kent. I love his clipped faux-friendly delivery.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/8 "2001-03-10T16:58:18Z")
Interesting point…but IRON GIANT, being a more realistic type of movie (if you, um, ignore the enormous iron robot from space, that is), asks you to take Kent at face value. BEAUTY had dancing candlesticks and singing teapots, and even the bad guys were always winking at you and nudging you in the ribs.
I always got a major kick out of Gaston and how over-the-top he was: “I use antlers in all of my decorating!” That sort of thing made it more easy to accept his nasty stuff, like organizing a lynch mob, and stabbing the Beast in the back.
But I agree that Michael McDonald did a fine job as Kent’s voice.
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### Author:  [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2001, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/9 "2001-03-10T22:44:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \*
> \*\*Interesting point…but IRON GIANT, being a more realistic type of movie (if you, um, ignore the enormous iron robot from space, that is), asks you to take Kent at face value. BEAUTY had dancing candlesticks and singing teapots, and even the bad guys were always winking at you and nudging you in the ribs.
>
> I always got a major kick out of Gaston and how over-the-top he was: “I use antlers in all of my decorating!” That sort of thing made it more easy to accept his nasty stuff, like organizing a lynch mob, and stabbing the Beast in the back.
>
> But I agree that Michael McDonald did a fine job as Kent’s voice. \*\*
Okay, now I’m going to start splitting a hair:
Iron Giant is set up more realistically, but I submit that it is still a fantastic (in the original sense) view of 1957 USA. It continously plays with the cliches and realities of that time period, using and poking at little fun at such things as “Beatniks” and “duck and cover” (God, I love the filmstrip they watch in class). In that sense, Kent makes a bit more sense. He’s perhaps more broadly drawn then the other characters in the movie, but he in his own way is a product of the time period.
Of course, I always feel a bit sorry for him in the scene in the Hughes’ kitchen where he can’t hang up the phone. By the way, note that the handmit he gives an evil eye to and turns against the wall is the spitting image of the “Family Dog,” which was Brad Bird’s segment for “Amazing Stories” back in the 1980’s.
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### Author:  [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2001, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/10 "2001-03-11T08:37:05Z")
There are reports that I may have shed a little tear at the end of _Iron Giant_ in the movie theater, but I could not be reached for comment.
As a side note, I went to see it on a weekday, by myself. I love going to matinees alone, but the sort of people who asked me which little kid dragged me to go see it apparently don’t understand that sort of thing.
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### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2001, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/11 "2001-03-11T23:45:22Z")
I cry every time.
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2001, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/12 "2001-03-12T16:56:45Z")
My absolute favourite animated film. I’ve watched it countless times with my kids and I never get tired of it. I wish there were more animated films of this quality and feel.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2001, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/13 "2001-03-12T20:16:35Z")
Count me among the wusses, then – I almost teared up in the theater the first time I saw the movie, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. _The Iron Giant_ is simply one of **the** best animated movies, ever, and I still can’t believe how bad Warner Bros. blotched the marketing. They could’ve _easily_ blown Disney out of the water with that…
And yes, I’ve got the DVD. If there’s gonna be a special edition with even more goodies, I’ll snag that up, too.
Best line in the entire movie: “Superman…”
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2001, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-not-a-gun/57433/14 "2001-03-13T01:25:44Z")
Count me as one more huge fan of The Iron Giant, which I have been evangelizing pretty much nonstop since I first saw it. (And yes it made me cry the first time I saw it, and at least several of the times since…)
(I occasionally read the message boards at [aint-it-cool.com](http://aint-it-cool.com), a movie gossip site, and there is one poster there who, whenever he reviews a movie, points out how the movie could have been so much better if THE IRON GIANT had played one of the parts in it, with lengthy and hilarious arguments supporting his position… it’s pretty cool)