12 Best 1990s Sci-Fi Movies
4. The Iron Giant
The steady decline of audience interest in hand-drawn animation may have been one of the reasons why The Iron Giant failed at the box office when it was first released in 1999, but even though most people missed out when it was playing in theaters, Brad Bird's feature debut is now widely acknowledged as a modern classic of the genre.
A retelling of the classic 'boy and his dog' story except this time the dog is actually a 100-foot tall alien robot, The Iron Giant marks Bird's ability to reinvent familiar story beats and family dynamics into complex and ambitious narratives, something that would go on to greatly inform both his live-action and animated output in the years since.
The Iron Giant is a triumph of both artistry and imagination, and is just as capable of leaving young viewers gripped to the edge of their seats as it is able to reduce the older demographic to tears when it really starts pulling on the heartstrings.