Animated sci-fi fable, set in the Fifties and drawn in a retro comic-book style, though the anti-violence message (specifically anti-nuke message) is hardly dated at all. The saccharine relationship between an overimaginative boy and a humongous metal-eating robot from outer space is in the Spielberg vein (specifically E.T. vein); as is the smug anti-government sentiment; as is the frantic backpedalling from a halfway unhappy ending. Christopher McDonald, who has made a career as a horse's ass in live action, is still typecast as a horse's ass in voice only; and his attempts to chum up to the little hero through such forms of address as "skipper," "slugger," "champ," "chief," and "buckaroo," elicit the best laughs, or the closest things to laughs. Based (very loosely) on a children's book by Britain's former Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes; with the voices of Harry Connick, Jr., and Jennifer Aniston; directed by Brad Bird. (1999) — Duncan Shepherd
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