A wonderful animated fable for the whole family to enjoy, Director Brad Bird's The Iron Giant receives a belated but welcome special-edition release from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. It may have been a long time coming, but this feature-packed disc undoubtedly deserves a place on the shelf of any fan. The feature is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, and it looks better than ever -- sporting a remarkably clean transfer with bold, vivid colors that seem to leap from the screen. English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio offers a clean mix of music and dialogue with the occasional, effective directional effect, with an alternate French Dolby Digital 5.1 also included. A commentary track with director Brad Bird, story-department heads Jeffrey Lynch and Steven Markowski, and head of animation Tony Fucile provides the filmmakers a chance to discuss their motivations with the film, and the track is alternately entertaining and informative. Journey further into the world of the Iron Giant with eight additional scenes, which even half-finished offer a tantalizing look at what the filmmakers could have accomplished given a little more time and a bigger budget. There's some truly inventive stuff here, and a dream sequence with the giant proves especially intriguing in its potential. It's too bad many of these scenes didn't make it into the film because as opposed to most deleted scenes, one really feels like these moments would have added great character depth while also entertaining the viewer. No less than 13 branching featurettes offer viewers the opportunity to interact with the feature by selecting a nuts and bolts icon that appears on the screen from time to time, and unpredictable storyboard-department animator Teddy Newton delves into the creative process in a pair of insightful featurettes. Fellow animators will no doubt relish the opportunity to take a peek at the actual animation process in additional featurettes, and viewers can join Vin Diesel behind the microphone as he and director Bird discuss the creative process. A trailer lovingly cut by director Bird himself gives greater emotional impact than the also included theatrical trailer, and DVD-ROM features will have viewers exploring and enjoying this wonderful release for many hours after they have taken in the main attraction.