“Sometimes fear is the appropriate response.”

The Scoop: 2009 PG-13, directed by Shane Acker and starring Elijah Wood, Crispin Glover, Christopher Lee, Martin Landau, Jennifer Connelly and John C. Reilly

Tagline: When our world ended, their mission began.

Summary Capsule: Rag dolls from the cover of Korn’s “Issues” album fight the machines from The Matrix.

Mike’s rating: 9 out of 9… OK, that was too easy.

Mike’s review: The first thing that comes to mind when watching 9, the first feature length production directed by former Weta digital animator Shane Acker, is that it’s really pretty. The animation is sheer eye-candy, which doesn’t really surprise me much considering Acker worked on The Return of the King. The second is that it owes a lot to Tim Burton and Henry Selick (in keeping with my theme of complete lack of surprise, Tim Burton is a producer). The third is that for all the eye-candy, the story moves really slow, which I guess is inevitable when you stretch an eleven minute animated short into a 90-minute sojourn.

The titular character, a kind of clockwork sock puppet, awakens to the lifeless form of his creator, and a post apocalyptic ruin of the outside world reminiscent of post-blitz London. After grabbing a little green mechanical button thing that you just know is gonna be important later, he heads out into world and discovers 2, a form of life like him, who seems to know what’s going on. Unfortunately he’s accosted by a robotic beastie with a cat skull for a head, effectively giving all the young children whose parents let them watch this because they thought it was a cute kids movie, savage nightmares. It’s then revealed that humankind is gone, having been hunted to extinction by the weapons they created, which now roam the remains of human cities looking to wipe out any forms of life. Yeah, it’s a feel-good animated movie.

While attempting to rescue 2, 9 also discovers that he is the last in a series of creations, each one sporting a number. 1 is the self-styled leader who holds onto his power with a little too much zeal and is convinced there’s no fighting the machines. 8 is 1’s bodyguard.  3 and 4 are two mute library keepers who photographically record everything around them. 5 takes the role of eager sidekick. 6 is an artist whose incoherent ramblings and cryptic drawings may make more sense than they appear and 7 is a fighter, waging a guerilla war against the machines.

A few words about the machines. They are made up of human and animal remains, jagged metal, eerie red lights and they are legitimately terrifying. From a crow robot that seems to be made entirely of blades, to the a snake creature that ties up and swallows it’s prey, to the primary engine which manufactures all the mechanical instruments of death, each machine seems to be powered by rage, and evokes an air of invincibility. In contrast, the rag dolls are literally doll-sized,  made up of cloth and with eyes that make them look consistently terrified. Many times during their confrontations, the situation seems hopeless.

The slowness of 9 isn’t in and of itself so bad. While waiting for something to happen you still have a *lot* to look at, and that makes even the hard to get through parts entertaining. The film’s biggest drawback is ultimately that it’s never as deep or as hopeful as it aspires to. We’ve all heard and seen the whole “humankind destroyed by our own technology” plot, most recently in The Matrix, (which makes it ironic that the robotic monsters in this film are eerily reminiscent of sentinels and other machines from that trilogy) so that plot aspect inevitably becomes more than a little cliched. The ending is meant to be hopeful, but the viewer has trouble getting past the whole “humankind has been completely wiped out” thing, which weighs the movie down.

Ultimately though, 9 is too good to write off as style over substance. It’s entertaining, visually engaging and genuinely thoughtful, but with an epic story that unfortunately isn’t really explored enough and an ending that isn’t as satisfying as it would like to be. It comes off as a bit too heavy, and a tad preachy, but it’s fun getting to that point.

Intermission!

• Director Shane Acker calls this a  “stitchpunk” movie.
• The design of 3 and 4 is based on a pair of garden gloves — the thumb can be seen in the back, and the wrist is gathered at the top.
• The second animated film released by Focus Features, after Coraline, which is also pretty nightmare inducing.
• 9 is based on a 2005 computer-animated short film which was nominated for an Oscar.

Groovy Quotes

Scientist: Nine, you shall protect the future.

Seven: We… awakened something.
Nine: No, I awakened something. Something terrible.

Nine: You’re nothing but a coward.
One: How *dare* you challenge me? I, who kept everyone safe? Ever since you got here, things have been unraveling! You’re nothing but a fool, guided by pointless queries!
Nine: And you are a blind man, guided by fear.
One: Sometimes fear is the appropriate response.

Five: Actually I don’t mind having one eye. It allows me to concentrate on just one thing at a time.

Five: You’re just like Two. You forget to remember to be scared.

Six: The source! The source! Go back… to the source.

If You Liked This Movie, Try These:

• Coraline
• 9 (the original animated short)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas