The overall effect is one of a truly enjoyable children's book that, like its later adaptation, will live on as a classic for readers of all ages. Hughes's story, like the Cold War setting in the animated adaptation, serves as a message of peace in the face of war. Naturally, the Iron Man fights it, but I won't go in to details in order to avoid spoiling his methods and the ending. The second half of the book did not make it into the film, as a "space-bat-angel-dragon" appears out of a star that moved to just within the moon's orbit and lands on Australia, demanding humanity feed it living things or it will take it upon itself to devour cities. Unlike the animated film, the story is set in Hughes's native England, and, though set around the time in which it was written, it contains a certain timeless quality that will appeal to all readers. Hughes's story, originally published in 1968, features the titular Iron Man who terrorizes a town by eating their metal products, and the boy Hogarth, who finds a way to talk to him. Ted Hughes's The Iron Man served as the inspiration for the 1999 Warner Bros.
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