Animation is Film Review: Iron Boy is a warm, transcendent coming-of-age story

Childhood takes on a warm shine that doesn't buff out the bumps of adolescence in the supremely charming, endlessly lovely Iron Boy, which hails from director Louis Clichy. Clichy previously worked at Pixar, but this is the first film that he says comes from him himself. During his pre-film introduction at Animation is Film (sadly, I missed the post-film Q&A, as I was rushing to another screening), Clichy was as sparkling and funny as the film itself. He talked about the inspiration the film draws on from his own childhood -- like the film's protagonist, Clichy grew up on a farm and wore a brace as a kid (he sometimes still does) -- and noted that the film is very French, including some of the characters' forceful, "rude" way of speaking. In short, he set the stage perfectly for the film to come. Iron Boy is one of my favorite movies of the year, and hopefully will factor into the coming award season.

We meet Christophe in the late eighties. He's ten years old, living on a farm on the outskirts of a small village in rural France. His immediate concerns in life are fairly typical of a kid his age: trying to survive at school, fit in, make friends. He's also desperate to take on more responsibility on the farm. He's particularly keen to finally get behind the wheel of the family's tractor, a duty currently tended to by his gruff father and sometimes kind, sometimes aloof older brother, JB.

Our introduction to Christophe takes place during picture day at school. After watching a bunch of funny vignettes of other students getting their pictures taken, Christophe takes the chair, and despite the photographer's best interventions, the kid can't manage to stay sitting up straight. This is just the first inkling of a larger spinal problem, one that isn't precisely named in the film (or if it was, I missed it), but one that leads to Christophe being prescribed a pretty intense metal brace (thus, the film's English title). He has to wear it all times except when he's bathing, even when he sleeps. In addition to forming a tight corset around his trunk, there's also a bit that juts out and holds his chin in place, making it difficult to look around. At school, he has to prop books up. At home, his plate has to be similarly elevated. It makes him an object of ridicule at school -- so much for fitting in.

What follows is a beautiful coming-of-age story, and one that is uproariously funny, often emotional, and occasional outright magical. The film's title makes it sound like a pint-sized superhero story, and in some regards, it is. Christophe has a power, maybe an imaginary one, where if he manages to shift his head despite the apparatus trying to prevent him from doing so, the whole world tilts and shifts to follow suit. In the film's early such scenes, this power is normally employed in moments of anger and frustration, a way to get back at a world that isn't fair, one he can no longer move easily through. But in later scenes, scenes that will forever be imprinted on my brain, the power takes on a different slant, one defined by joy and love. It's a beautiful representation of the character's arc, and shows how he's coming into his own.

That journey of acceptance, of navigating this weird new reality, is full of wonderful characters and sweet moments. My favorite of the various narrative threads is Christophe taking up the organ. After being assigned to turn pages for the church's organist, Michel, Christophe becomes his pupil. It's a place where his disability doesn't get in the way (at least too much), and where his mechanical trappings seem to flow naturally into the various knobs, pipes, and pedals of the massive instrument, The kid becomes one with one with machine, and the resulting music is beautiful, angelic, transformational.

Christophe also takes up swimming, and has some understandable trouble with staying in his lane. There, he meets a girl who's maybe from the wrong side of the tracks (or the pool?) who becomes his friend, partner in crime, and love interest. Clara is a fun foil to Christophe, loose where he's rigid, comfortable in the world where he's not. Their chemistry doesn't come easy, per se, but it does come, and their relationship is sweet in its tentativeness.

That I've gone this long without mentioning the film's animation is actually insane, because Iron Boy is one of the most gorgeous movies of the year. The animation just emanates warm, and really captures that specific way light falls in the countryside, where the sun hits the fields and makes everything glow like the embers of a big, shared hearth. The watercolor style is pure pleasure to look at, the the way the characters come to life is a source of endless joy. It kind of feels like watching a distant French cousin of Calvin & Hobbes coming to life. What could be better than that?

Basically nothing! Iron Boy is a top-to-bottom, start-to-finish winner. Sweet, funny, silly, specific. It's everything you could want from a movie, and then some.