# THE IRON GIANT - with Sam Summers Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/1999-the-podcast-5273048/the-iron-giant-with-sam-summers Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/1999-the-podcast-5273048/the-iron-giant-with-sam-summers.md Podcast: [1999: The Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/1999-the-podcast-5273048) Published: 2026-09-15T08:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CCPN3007558283.mp3 Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CCPN3007558283.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/1999-the-podcast-5273048/episodes/the-iron-giant-with-sam-summers Duration seconds: 4369 ## Resource Our episodes on robots and animation have finally led us here: The Iron Giant, one of 1999's most notorious duds, and also one of its most beloved films. The Iron Giant was the feature directorial debut of Brad Bird, who would go on to direct landmark Pixar films The Incredibles and Ratatouille  and now serves in Pixar’s senior creative team. Unfortunately released in the highly competitive first week of August, coming in at #9 behind the likes of, among others, The Thomas Crown Affair, Runaway Bride, The Blair Witch Project and, also debuting that weekend, the box office behemoth The Sixth Sense, going on to make just $23 million on a budget of $70 million. How and why did such a lovely movie featuring a giant robot (and inspired by the suicide of Sylvia Plath) fail? We discuss that and a lot more with someone who would know: Dr. Sam Summers, co-host of the Disniversity podcast, and a lecturer on Animation History and Theory at Middlesex University in England. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/1999-the-podcast-5273048/episodes/the-iron-giant-with-sam-summers/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/1999-the-podcast-5273048/the-iron-giant-with-sam-summers.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.