The Iron Giant (1999) In this animated adaptation of Ted Hughes' Cold War fable "The Iron Man", a giant alien robot (Vin Diesel) crash-lands near the small town of Rockwell, Maine, in 1957. Exploring the area, a local 9-year-old boy, Hogarth, (Eli Marienthal) discovers the robot, and soon forms an unlikely friendship with him. When a paranoid government agent, Kent Mansley, (Christopher McDonald) becomes determined to destroy the robot, Hogarth and beatnik Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.) must do what they can to save the misunderstood machine.