Shortly thereafter, the studio hired Bird as director and recruited Tim McCanlies to co-write the films screenplay.
WhenThe Iron Giantfinally opened in August 1999, however, it was a box office dud.
Trampled by other new releases likeThe Sixth SenseandThe Thomas Crown Affair, The Iron Giantdebuted in ninth place.
But the audiences who did the see the film fell in love with it.
Critics universally hailedThe Iron Giantas a triumph, and it won a whopping nine Annie Awards.
BRAD BIRD:Strange, but also strangely satisfying!
And we always believed in the film ourselves, and its surviving very well and growing every year.
So I think that thats been very gratifying to know that its here to stay.
And actually, more people are seeing it and recommending it all the time.
I think around the time that we were coming out withThe Incredibles.
They mentionedThe Iron Giant, and people started seeing it on video.
And part of me is like, Oh, youve got to see it on the big screen!
[Laughs] But the bottom line is that people were seeing it.
They didnt just stumble across it.
It was something intimate and almost sort of slow food about it.
How do you feel reflecting on that?
Well, it brings it back to me.
I think that making films is in some ways like the way women describe childbirth.
This kind of helped me to remember how hard it was.
It really was hard!
[Laughs] But it also makes me very grateful for the opportunity.
When the film first came out, there was a lot of criticism about the way Warners handled it.
They made a kind of movie that really no one else was making.
And they allowed us to do it, and they supported it.
I mean, they kept funding it, week after week.
In some ways, it feels more relevant than ever.
Why do you think this is a story that resonates with people in 2016?
I think that its the core issues of it.
And we invent things that are extensions of ourselves.
We can invent ways to cultivate fields, and we can also invent ways to destroy the planet.
Well, it was a very unusual thing to have at the center of an animated film.
They leaned forward, and they wanted to know more.
And the guys that were running the production, they were makingThe MatrixandL.A.
Confidentialat the same time, and they were willing to talk about it on an idea level.
And I loved that because I oftentimes feel like theres a separate bag for animation.
You oftentimes get the feeling that people are backing films that they actually dont have any interest in seeing.
Ive always reacted against that.
And you could tackle some interesting notions.
So these are kind of hefty ideas, yet theyre wrapped in a very accessible sort of package.
I love it when films have some ambition.
And I think that that always comes across as disingenuous and false.
But if you live right, you might keep that part of yourself alive and well until you die.
Yeah, its important to mention that both versions will be available on the Blu-ray.
So if people want to see the original cut [they can], which I totally support.
Im not saying that one is better than the other.
So you dont have a preference?
Oh, it was nice.
There were a couple of scenes that I always thought were valid scenes, but they werent absolutely essential.
But they did add some bits of nuance to the story that we were telling.
There was another thing that I wanted to do to which was extend the battle sequence at the end.
And I cant go backwards and reengineer it now without wrecking a bunch of good things that we did.
Its not like Warner Bros. didnt support the other version.
So I was very happy to get an opportunity to get back in there.
Wed recorded the sound for them, and they had already been designed and everything.
That is fun, to get everybody back together.
So we were able to use our original people.
And the coolest thing is that people who have seen it dont know which parts are new.
Everybody thought that its seamless in the way that it blends into the original stuff.
So what are the scenes people should look out for on the new cut?
Well, ideally, I shouldnt even point them out because I think they fit in really well.
And Annie is voiced by Jennifer Aniston.
And the other scene is a more complex idea.
It actually appears on the television.
I thought that was so interesting, all the physical details you focused on.
When you think of a metal thing, part of what metal is, is its not really flexible.
And yet when you think of expressions, flexibility is all you think of.
But I felt really good about how we dealt with that.
But I know youve been a huge champion of hand-drawn, 2D animation.
Would you ever want to direct another hand-drawn film?
And I dont believe that.
I believe that there is a magic to hand-drawn animation that is exclusive to hand-drawn animation.
I would love the opportunity to do hand-drawn.
