The Iron Giant still makes me cry. Not only does it make me cry like a newborn babe at the end, but early on, in the barn, when the Giant says "Superman," I tear up. This is presumably a sense memory frontback (thank you James Cameron, for inventing the frontback) to the end of the film. That I know in the end it'll all be OK is, time after time, completely irrelevant.

An animated robot connects with me at a gut emotional level far more than most film characters. This either says a lot about me, or a lot about the state of film today. Or maybe just a lot about how good the Iron Giant is.

It's also worth noting that the film has a lot more resonance today than it did 5 years ago. The Cold War stuff dovetails nicely with our current propaganda/scare machine. Reds=terrorists. Duck and cover=taping up your windows. And most importanly, you don't have to be a gun.