Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.

There are certainly worse Van Beuren/Aesop's Fables cartoons overall than 'The Iron Man'. That doesn't mean however that 'The Iron Man' is good, to me it's a long way from that. It does contain pretty much all of the faults of Van Beuren's worst, or all the faults of many Van Beuren cartoons, while having a few good points. Van Beuren have actually done quite a number of watchable or more cartoons, a few pretty good even though imperfect. So it's not as if they are all being hated on.

Its best asset is the music score, pretty much the best thing consistently of Van Beuren's output (sometimes even the only good thing). It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. 

Some of the synchronisation is nicely done and there is some liveliness pace-wise. The old man is amusing enough and not too annoying as is the robot. The middle third of 'The Iron Man' is the most successful and is pretty fun.

However, many of the faults of Van Beuren's cartoons are present here. The animation is not good, in fact it is downright bad most of the time with erratically sloppy character designs in particular and the lack of fluidity and crispness undo some nice background art. Often you can't actually tell what the animals are actually meant to be.

None of the rest of the characters are that interesting or fun, most are over-cutesy and unmemorable and others are pretty annoying. The story is not much of one and it feels at times random and very disjointed, almost like three different sections in one cartoons with little relation to one another. The middle third is the only section of 'The Iron Man' that works. The first two minutes are saccharine and dull, while the final third is far too strange, even by Van Beuren standards, and too brief (especially the senseless final gag), indicative of that the cartoon is too short.

Basically 'The Iron Man' is a stringing along of gags structured in a way that's disorganised and random. generally, while having a fair bit going on, it is very low on laughs. In terms of quality few of the gags are amusing or inventive, rarely rising above the forgettable and there is not much absurdist about them. The cartoon felt very rushed for two thirds of the length, despite some liveliness.

Overall, mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

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