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11/12/99 - The Official Iron Giant website has been redesigned... and in my humble opinion not for the better.  The interface and navigating is clumsy, lots of areas require "passwords" now, and when I tried to play the new game it tied up my computer for 10 minutes and then dumped me back on the previous page, with an annoying "cursor" window bouncing up all the time.  <sigh>
There are lots of articles about the Annie Awards appearing in the press (but no thank you ads in the trades from WB) and links for them will be up soon in the Articles section.
This may be the last weekend for The Iron Giant for a lot of theaters, although it is still doing respectible business in many areas.  Hope you can check it out on the big screen once more.
DVD Update - it appears from recent DVD review that The Iron Giant does NOT have any "deleted scenes" or special director's commentary as early press from WB would indicate.  Surprise.  There are rumours from Mr. Bird that there might be a special edition release sometime later in 2000 with the deleted scenes and a few other surprises.  Here's hoping.

11/7/99 - The Iron Giant won in every category it was nominated for at the ASIFA's 27th Annual.Annie Awards Ceremony Saturday, November the 6th in Glendale California.  The film and the many of the creative individuals responsible were nominated for more awards than Tarzan and Prince of Egypt combined.  Some of the awards include Brad Bird for Directing, Brad Bird and Tim McCanlies for Writing, Steve Markowski for Character Animation of the Giant himself, Michael  Kamen for the Score, and Eli Marienthal for his voice work on Hogarth... and of course, The Iron Giant for Best Picture.
This is an amazing vote of confidence and admiration from a group of industry peers for the movie and especially for all the incredibly talented individuals responsible.  The competition this year was incredibly thick, but this demonstrates how The Iron Giant was such a unique and special acheivement and successful on so many levels.  My personal heartfelt congratulations to all.
Here is the latest from the press:
 

 Sunday November 7 10:06 PM ET

''Iron Giant'' stands tall at cartoon awards

By Jill Feiwell

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - ``The Iron Giant'' was the giant winner at the 27th Annie Awards Saturday, when the Intl. Animated Film Society honored achievement in TV, film, commercials, homevideo and interactive production.

The WB box office weakling ($23 million at the domestic box office) won nine awards out of 15 nominations, including excellence in character animation, effects animation, directing, music, storyboarding, writing, theatrics, individual voiceover and production design.

Other winners include ``The Simpsons,'' animated TV program and writing; ``The Lion King II, Simba's Pride,'' homevideo production; ``The Goddamn George Liquor Program,'' animated interactive production; ``Bunny,'' animated short; ''Condom-Sensitive,'' commercial; ``Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain,'' voice acting; ``The PJs,'' individual episode directing for ''Bougie Nights''; ``Histerja!'' music; ``The New Batman/Superman Adventures,'' individual episode production design for ''Legends of a Dark Knight''; ``Batman Beyond,'' individual episode storyboarding for ``Black Out''; and ``Tarzan,'' technical achievement.

Reuters/Variety

11/5/99 - Tomorrow evening the Annie Awards are being held.  Best of luck to all the nominees.  As an audience we certainly had an amazing year in animation, and The Iron Giant was the pinnacle acheivement.

11/4/99 - Believe it or not... there is some strange promotion going on (surprise) where every member of the US Congress has been shipped a copy of The Iron Giant in the hopes that they will promote it as family friendly fare.  I guess those marketing folks know something I don't. :-)  CLICK HERE to read the full story on Yahoo!
If you haven't ordered your copy of The Iron Giant on video, lots of online stores are offering coupons and $5-10 off your first DVD order.  If you use some savy and do a little digging you can find some great deals.  The WBStore Online has it for $19.98, most other places for $14.98.
There are some beautiful framed art cels making the rounds.  These are NOT original cels from the movie but collectibles in editions of 200 to 250.  I'm looking into the price.

11/2/99 - As the Iron Giant slips away from theaters, it's popularity is surprising growing.  The Internet Movie Database featured it for it's Movie of the Day on November 1st, and it has risen to #94 in their Top 250 movies.

10/31/99 - The comic strip "The Norm"  had a nice appropriate joke at us Iron Giant fan's expense.  You can check it out HERE.
The LA Times, a great supporter of The Iron Giant, featured the massive award nominations and comments from the creators.  CLICK HERE to read it.
Voiceroy pointed out that AWN's Annie Awards page http://www.awn.com/annieawards/is severely lacking in Iron Giant material (no pics, movies, etc.).  Another sign of Warner's dropping the ball?  According to the response from AWN:
                    The simple reason is that despite our best intentions to promote the movie,
                    which we have done in the past, and considerable time spent working with
                    helpful people in different groups at Warner Bros., corporate legal will
                    not grant us any rights to publish any materials from the movie. Without
                    those rights, which have been granted to us by all the other participants we do
                    have on the Annie site, we are not authorized to put up any materials. It
                    is unfortunate, but true. Without those rights, we can't publish a thing.

                    Dan Sarto [mailto:dan@awn.com]

Thanks to eddie_bowers for posting this on the The Iron Giant Messageboard, and for voting for IG!
Voiceroy also pointed out that The Iron Giant is #101 in the Internet Movie Databases' Top 250. Quite an acheivement for a movie that earned less than $30 million in theaters.
 

10/21/99 - Junkers HVM over at the message board pointed out this link that hopefully indicates the DVD ratio thing was a press release mistake.  CLICK HERE to visit the site. Here's some of what they said:
 
 

wrong. However, if you still have doubts (as we know incorrect aspect ratios do happen!) it might be
best to wait for our review or another site's review, which should be available pre-release!

                      Thanks again for the email! : )
                      Peter M. Bracke, Editor
 

10/20/99 - VFXPro has a great feature on The Iron Giant over at their site.  You can access by clicking HERE.  Neat new info (Brad Bird animated the coffee buzz scene).Thanks to Joseph Campbell (loved that book "The Collector"!) for pointing it out over at The Iron Giant Messageboard.

10/15/99 - Empty promise of doing the video release of Iron Giant right?  The jury is still out, but it seems that WB opted to go with a smaller format for the DVD widescreen, so a lot of the beautiful framing you saw in theaters (if you saw it) will be compromised, from 2.35:1 to 1.85:1.  This means that you will have a choice on the DVD between the sickening pan-and-scan and a less-than-wide wide screen.  <sigh>
On another note, if The Iron Giant is in a second run theater near you, I encourage you to go see it again and drag everyone who wouldn't go before to it.  Maybe we can have another 87% increase this weekend like last weekend! :-)
UPDATE:  Junkers HVN did some samples of the different formats on his site.  You can view them HERE.

10/11/99 - News of a limited laser disc with no extras of The Iron Giant being released on December 7th.  Since this format is  starting to fade, expect production on this item to be in short supply.
The Iron Giant earned $259,000 at the box office last weekend and jumped from #32 to #23.  Not exactly The Phantom Menace, but at this point we'll take what we can get! :-)

10/4/99 - I'm not the only one receiving busted merchandise from Warner Brothers Online Store, but I encourage you to try and get in contact with there service department.  After several exasperating email exchanges, they have finally attempted to do things right.  Let's hope...
The Iron Giant has fallen to # 32 on the charts, but is still playing in a few theaters around the country.  Anyone have any ideas how it did in Canada?
The infamous Iron Giant pencil sharpener given out to the crew of IG during a wrap party has turned up on Ebay.  Bidding is fierce and up to $130.  Eek.  Pics are coming.

9/24/99 - Congratulations to so many of The Iron Giant staff for their Annie Awards nominations!  Brad Bird got nominated for Directing, and several character and effects animators, sound music and cast also got nominated.  For a complete listing of the nominees, go to ASIFA's website by CLICKING HERE.
December 15th is the presumed golden day for release in England.  Hope all of our brothers and sisters across the pond go see and enjoy it.  I know this is a beloved story for many, and hopefully the American elements of the movie won't impede any of it's success, considering it's timeless and boundless story.
If anyone has had any trouble getting a poster from WB  Stores Online, please contact me.  I'm in the middle of returning my second damaged poster and have been unable to get any response from them.

9/22/99 - There are bootlegs of The Iron Giant making the rounds - several persons have recieved emails soliciting them.  They are missing scenes and are copied from a camera in the theater, so the quality is sub-par.  I implore anyone even considering purchasing one of this to please think twice; you are not just ripping off WB, but all the animators, producers, directors, writers, sound designers, etc... who worked very hard on this motion picture.  The VHS will be available all over around Thanksgiving  - please wait until then :-)
Speaking of home video, I've been unable to confirm this but two versions of the DVD may be released.  The initial one will contain a few extras (like the theatrical trailer) but another version to be released in Spring of 2000 will be packed with a lot more, including some missing scenes.  Anyone able to confirm/deny this?  Email me!

9/21/99 - Apparently The Iron Giant has been playing to a few colleges around the country to great reviews - unfortunately, this means little for the Box Office but a lot towards the general good talk about the movie.  Why wasn't this sort of audience capitalized by WB?
If you're looking for the infamous large plush Iron Giant toy, WB Studio Stores online has it for $30.  22 inches tall, talks when you squeeze him... like having your own robot Mini Me.  I don't know how Trendmasters managed to pull this off in plush, but it looks pretty cool.

9/16/99 - The Original Zooty (who is in the thick of Hurricane Floyd!) over at The Iron Giant Messageboard dug up a great report on the upcoming video & DVD release of The Iron Giant.  You can check it out by CLICKING HERE.  The new cover art looks great - Warner's seems to (finally) taking the smart approach and is marketing it two ways - the dynamic friendly kid version, and the more adult version based on Mark Whiting's original concept painting for the Giant.  Lots of promotional tie-ins and hopefully an appropriate push for this rare gem.
Also, in case you didn't know, Honey Nut Cheerios is having a mail-away promotional Iron Giant watch offer on specially marked boxes - you need an official entry from from the box itself and two UPCs.  There is also a coupon for the video & DVD release.  Check out the cereal isle for this limited item - maybe something new will come about when the video is released.

9/15/99 - The Ultimate Iron Giant figure is making appearances at Toys R Us (surprise) and WB Studio Stores.  Also, if you are waiting for one online, apparently they have begun shipping back orders and will take new ones soon.  It seems the hope for a theatrical rerelease of The Iron Giant has fallen on deaf ears, and the video is on it's way by late November.  Brad Bird and others have designed the box art.  The DVD may come out early next year and the crew responsible are trying to get it packed with all sorts of great stuff - including scenes of the Giant's dream in the junkyard and others.  And sadly, the movie has fallen out of the Top 20 now.   If you are lucky enough to still have it playing near you, you better scramble to see it one last time before it is gone from the silver screen forever.

9/11/99 - Due to computer problems a lot of my updates are not getting posted.  I apologize for the inconvience.  As a quick update for this weeks news, KB Toyworks is getting about 4 Ultimate Iron Giant figures each, so check 'em out!  29 points of articulation - awesome!  I have some great prizes lined up for the Fan Art Contest, so scan in that artwork and mail it to me - all ages and intergalatci origins are welcome.  LJC's Iron Giant site has some great exclusive interviews with some of the animators you can read by CLICKING HERE.

9/3/99 - Still looking for your own Ultimate Iron Giant figure? Don't despair- yet.  According to rumors, Kay Bee, Amazon, Toy Time and WB Studio Stores and others ordered the toy, although I have yet to see one online at any of these locations. If you spy one anywhere online or otherwise, let The Scrap Yard know! Also, it appears that The Iron Giant has dropped out of the Top 20.  Very sad. Perhaps this long weekend will give it a little boost, and there are high hopes for it overseas.

9/2/99 - Announcing The Iron Giant Scrap Yard Fan Art Contest! This site will host a contest (with prizes) for the best & most creative original art relating to the movie. Age & education are not a factor - just express yourself and let the Giant inspire you! As I said, prizes will be rewarded, so watch this space for more information and send it in! Jpgs, bmps, picts & targas are excepted, but try to keep the size manageble. Mail entries to: dostorm@hotmail.com.   Get those crayons flying, fire up the butane torch, whatever - just send it in!:-)

9/1/99 - The Iron Giant is still slipping away at the box office, but there are some theaters that are actually adding evening shows.  Apparently one theater in NY recently had a few sold out shows.  Perhaps word of mouth is starting to build!

8/31/99 - If you're trying to get your mits on some Iron Giant stuff, be patient.  The latest is that Trendmaster's greatly underestimated demand for the toys but is catching up.  More should be out by the end of September (I'm trying to get a confirmation on this) and perhaps even more this Christmas.  Just in time for the big Academy Awards push :-)

8/30/99 - USA Today printed an interesting article about the lack of financial success of The Iron Giant, and what some industry types think.  CLICK HERE  to read it.

8/27/99 - LA Times has a very supportive article you can read by CLICKING HERE.