Animated movies with “a boy and his X” at their heart can be overly sentimental, but the relationship between Hogarth and the Iron Giant is the true masterpiece at the center of this film. Bird avoids attaching too much schmaltz to the interactions between characters, but allows them to organically function in a way that refuses to talk down to even the smallest viewer. The love the boy develops for the gigantic machine is palpable, but it doesn’t make the Giant into more than it is; it is only through a very human sacrifice that the mechanical man can be redeemed. Even as it seems the robot’s programmed instincts will destroy any chance it has of shedding its identity as a firearm…it remembers its desire to be like Superman, and makes its choice.