The Iron Giant ( * * * )

This movie is head, shoulders, and alien gun turrets over any recent Disney fare, and by recent I mean since Aladdin.

The Acting: Best roles of Vin Diesel's and Jennifer Aniston's careers.

The Story: Big robot befriends boy, almost destroys Earth, but is redeemed by the Superman mythos, which they could actually use because it's Warner Bros.--sweet. By the time the Iron Giant morphs into a killing machine, you get to kinda liking him the way he was, as Hoghug's simple-headed friend. Setting it during the heart of the cold war was inspired.

The Direction: Brad Bird, who just did The Incredibles for Pixar, has a real sense of characterization and pacing and all that other crap that the Disneys and the George Lucases of the world are utterly devoid of.

Overall: Rent or buy it today! Or, failing that (if you've already seen it) just take a second to go...ahhh....good flick. Then you can go back to your usual daydreams of sunny Jamaica.

Tredekka Rules:

• Rule 11: Giant Robots Make Good Cinema, +1 point
• Rule 14: Cool Gun Award--actually, all of the Iron Giant's hidden armament is kick-ass. +1 point.
• Rule 30: Any animated film gets a pity star for the effort--you know, because they usually don't budget for human intestines, spitting, "MORE BLOOD!" or hot lesbian kissing. +1 star.

Tredekka Score: ( * * * )