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- Title
Frankenstein without Frankenstein: The Iron Giant and the Absent Creator.
- Authors
Miller, T. S.
- Abstract
This essay positions Brad Bird's animated film The Iron Giant as an overlooked adaptation of the Frankenstein story, with reference to its multiple intertexts in both Shelley's novel and the tradition of film adaptations. The Iron Giant tells the tale of an artificial being that, unlike Frankenstein's monster, receives the "proper" nurturing and moral education from a surrogate parent; accordingly, Bird's giant learns to reject the destructive impulses that turn Frankenstein into a tragedy. Although Bird's rereading of this foundational text obviously includes children among its audience, it is not simplistically optimistic, and its real innovation lies in the absence of the giant's creator from the plot: we see a being truly abandoned by its maker, yet one whose capacities for self-determination and regenerative "self-creation" win out over alienation.
- Subjects
ESSAYS; FRANKENSTEIN'S monster (Fictional character); ANIMATED films; IRON Giant, The (Film); BIRD, Brad, 1957-; FILM adaptations; MORAL education
- Publication
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 2009, Vol 20, Issue 3, p385
- ISSN
0897-0521
- Publication type
Essay