“It’s deep, it’s warm, and it’s one of the best animated films in recent years.”

Playing in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Centrepiece section is Iron Boy, directed by animator Louis Clichy, which won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year. Using ink brushes and watercolor painting, Clichy creates a dazzling film through traditional hand-drawn animation to tell a beautiful tale of a boy coming of age on his family’s rural French farm.

The film tells the story of Christophe and his family over several years. Christophe has developed a severe form of scoliosis that causes him to lean heavily to one side whenever he stands or sits. He begins falling over at school, at home, and even at church, eventually becoming unable to perform many of the basic duties required around the farm. His condition becomes embarrassing, and his parents eventually take him to doctors, who force him to wear a large back brace at all times except when he is showering or swimming.

Swimming is one of his few outlets, and it is there that he meets Clara, who becomes one of his first close friends. Because of his scoliosis he can no longer serve as an altar boy, but instead becomes an assistant to the organist, at first turning pages before eventually learning how to play. Despite his disability, Christophe is still able to find ways to succeed and improve himself, even as his condition limits what he can physically do. 

But the film does look at the societal barriers faced by disabled people. His father has a difficult time accepting Christophe’s situation, while other students poke fun at him, and he is not given opportunities that he needs to succeed. It is not Clichy’s primary preoccupation, but the simple presentation of the prejudice Christophe faces once his scoliosis begins affecting his everyday life, once he is forced to wear his brace, is enough to demonstrate the struggles many people deal with due to circumstances outside their control.

And this lack of control is exactly what Clichy places at the center of the film. Much of the story revolves around the livelihood of the family farm. After an accident, the family is forced to switch from livestock to wheat, requiring them to take out a loan. Christophe’s older brother, JB, has to move back home to help with the farm rather than attending agricultural vocational school (presumably, Christophe would have eventually taken over for JB had his scoliosis not worsened). The family’s financial stability is dependent on the success of the farm, which leaves them vulnerable to outside circumstances.

There is also a parallel in Christophe’s father’s own backstory. He originally wanted to become a woodworker, but when his father gave him the farm he ultimately had to work there instead. Each member of the family, Christophe, JB, and their father, is forced to live their life based on things they cannot control. For many reasons, Iron Boy becomes a testament to the struggles, resilience, and grit of the French working class.

Director Louis Clichy previously worked for Pixar in the art department on WALL-E and Up. He later directed two feature films, Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods in 2014 and Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion in 2018. Iron Boy is his first film using hand-drawn animation, and it was a tremendous choice. The visuals work perfectly and are gorgeous in nearly every shot. It also helps establish the rural setting in France, giving the film a warmth and realism that would not be similarly achievable through computer animation.

It makes the film much more intimate and surprisingly… realistic. It allows for a depth of emotion to be present and heightened in a way that computer animation does not. It naturally captures the characters’ emotions and physicality through the use of brushstrokes and watercolors. In many ways, it’s unexpected that a director like Clichy, with so much experience in computer graphics, would choose the traditional hand-drawn form for a film like this, but the decision makes Iron Boy feel completely distinct from his prior work.

Iron Boy succeeds not only because of its astounding animation, but also because of its themes of inequality, economic disparity, and disability. Clichy tells a resonant and truly emotional story about Christophe and his family trying to make the best of their situation. It’s deep, it’s warm, and it’s one of the best animated films in recent years.