It’s not every day you get to paint your childhood like a picture book, but Louis Clichy did it.

After working on Disney and Pixar animation films for years, Clichy finally managed to make a film close to home with Iron Boy, which made such a splash in the film festival circuit it managed to win a special jury prize at Cannes this year. When I was looking through what films were being shown at this year’s New York Film Festival, I was intrigued by the inclusion of an animated film. In previous years, animated films have always been ghettoized into only winning awards at festivals made explicitly for animation, like Annecy. It’s only been in recent years that other larger film festivals have managed to catch on that animation is not just for kids.

With this being my first film I’ve seen at NYFF, I was excited. I was even more excited when I saw more and more people trickle in, and when one of the producers and animation directors introduced the film as a deeply personal project for the director, I was stoked. Then the film started, and for the next hour and a half, I was entranced.

Iron Boy is based on Louis Clichy’s childhood in France. His family lived on a farm, and one of the most notable periods in his life came when he was forced to wear a back brace to correct his posture. This wasn’t just a corset–it was an iron contraption meant to keep the upper half of his body from tilting even the slightest. Christophe, the main character of Iron Boy, is forced to adjust this new reality as his family’s future becomes more uncertain.

The guiding relationship of the film is between Christophe and his commanding father, whose strict nature only deepens when the back brace goes on. He’s forced to rely on Christophe’s older brother for help around the farm, and Christophe starts to feel as though he can’t do anything right by his old man. When Christophe finds an outlet in playing the organ at the local chapel, his sense of self-worth markedly improves, but his father’s presence still lingers.

Although these tropes feel familiar in animated films, Iron Boy distinguishes itself through its gorgeous animation and use of magical realism. In the Q&A, the animation director reveals that it took the animators a day to make two seconds of the film, and the attention to detail in the final product is evident. The backgrounds are dreamlike, with the orange and blue hues contrasting wonderfully. The characters are formed through gently drawn lines that make them seem more lifelike than any recent Pixar character. When you watch the film, you not only feel like you’re watching someone’s life story, but that you’re reading a picture book you never read when you were a kid.

However, the magical realism is what really makes this film stand out. I’m a huge nerd whenever this trope comes up, and it’s even better when it’s connected to a character. Iron Boy knows how to make magic seem like an everyday thing. Whenever Christophe is on the verge, he aggressively tilts his head and the rest of the world tilts with him, feeling just as off-kilter as he feels. It changes his condition from something third-person into something deeply personal. It’s not his back that needs to change, but how he sees the world. Instead of accepting whatever comes his way, Christophe comes to realize that there is more than one way to grow a backbone.

Christophe might be the one with a brace, but his father is also one with significant setbacks. We all remember seeing our fathers as these invincible figures when we’re kids, only to come to the unsettling realization that they’re just as human as we are. They never let us see us cry, and yet seeing them that way is a paradigm shift. One of the miracles of this film is how the animation lets us see the little nuances that make that the stoic façade crumble. This paradigm shift doesn’t happen overnight, but little by little until it breaks.

This film was the best first film I’ve seen at NYFF. I’ve got the rest of the week sorted out, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.

FURTHER THOUGHTS

• This film truly understands there is no more nerve-wracking memory in your childhood than having your dad teach you how to drive.
• Deputy the dog was a mood throughout this whole film.
• Louis Clichy’s son voiced Christophe, which is just so damn sweet. And intimidating at the same time.