The Iron Giant is a 1999 American animated science fiction comedy-drama action film using both traditional animation and computer animation, produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird in his directorial debut. It is based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes (which was published in the United States as The Iron Giant) and is scripted by Tim McCanlies. The film stars the voices of Eli Marienthal, Christopher McDonald, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick, Jr., John Mahoney, and Vin Diesel. Set during the Cold War in 1957, the film is about a young boy named Hogarth Hughes who discovers a giant metallic robot who fell from space. With the help of a beatnik artist named Dean McCoppin, they have to stop the U.S. military and a paranoid federal agent named Kent Mans