Brad Bird’s animated masterpiece ‘The Iron Giant’ is Clay’s midnight movie

Brad Bird is back in the Pixar fold, and that’s a glorious thing. After cavorting with live-action characters Tom Cruise (“Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol”) and George Clooney (“Tomorrowland”), Bird is back on familiar animated turf for this summer’s “Incredibles 2.”

The man who directed two Pixar masterpieces, “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille,” made one other great movie: “The Iron Giant.” However, the 1999 film, featuring traditionally drawn animation, originally tanked at the box office, mainly because Warner Bros. didn’t know what they had.

Set in the Cold War 1950s, it’s about a gigantic metal robot that falls from outer space. He’s a force for good, but the U.S.