The Iron Giant (1999)

Warner Bros. made one of the best animated movies of its decade and then forgot to tell anybody. It made $23.3 million worldwide on a reported $48 to $50 million. That’s a crime, because The Iron Giant is about as close to perfect as a cartoon gets. Brad Bird keeps it simple: a lonely kid, a giant robot who snacks on cars, and a small town in 1957 that’s scared of the sky. Eli Marienthal makes Hogarth a motor-mouthed genius, and Vin Diesel does more with a handful of words than most actors do with a whole script. The weak spot is Kent Mansley. Christopher McDonald plays the government agent with gusto, but he’s such a sweaty, shrieking cartoon that he never feels like a real threat, just a guy who needs a nap. Harry Connick Jr.’s beatnik junk artist is the perfect cool uncle. The conversation about souls still wrecks you. A 9.3 because it’s big-hearted, funny and not one minute too long. $668 says you pass a junkyard this year and wonder which car would taste best.

What works: The friendship between Hogarth and the Giant is beautifully drawn, and the movie trusts kids with big ideas about choice and fear.

What doesn’t: Kent Mansley is such a broad, shrieking cartoon villain that he never feels like a real threat.

Who it’s for: Every family, every kid who ever wanted a secret friend, and every grown-up who missed it in theaters.