The Iron Giant is a 1999 American animated science-fiction film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird. It's based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes (which was published in the United States as The Iron Giant) and stars 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 who discovers a giant metallic robot that fell from space. With the help of a beatnik artist, he has to stop the U.S. military and a federal agent from finding and destroying the Giant.