Iron Boy is the rare animated movie that tells a story easily suitable for live action.

Usually, the genre is reserved for what would be hard to film in our practical reality. But Iron Boy’s animation adds an almost inherent air of nostalgic melancholia to its coming-of-age tale. 

The hand-drawn 2D harkens back to a bygone era, of a piece with the rearview-gazing nature of animation-friendly childhood stories for adult audiences. Plus, animation captures the surreality of a youthful perspective, when life expressively appears both wondrous and strange, before accumulated experience normalizes and desensitizes the world. 

This thematic thread also connects to how the ending ultimately contextualizes the events of Iron Boy for the titular homie. A back brace may cause the depicted adolescent problems, but bodily harm can be healed. Conversely, his other concerns in this new movie teach him a fundamental truth about the human condition, that — to quote Death of a Salesman — “life is a wrenching away.” 

Away from hand-drawn 2D, away from what was and is, away from innocence. 

And, unlike for his spine, there’s no remedy.

Welcome to existing, bud.