Animation has always found an audience to fit it's "design", some animation is strictly intended for an older more mature audience, as I'm sure Shane Acker's "9" isn't intended for youngsters, but an older teen plus audience. 9 is based on the 2006 Academy Award nominated short film by Shane Acker. The soul stealing of the original is carried over, yet the reasoning becomes deeper as the life source's origin of these inanimate objects comes into play.
9 takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that has been eradicated of humans by the machines they created. A scientist (Alan Oppenheimer) crafted an artificial intelligence powerful enough to advance technology to it's most dangerous level ever, but was taken by the government to manufacture weapons, that of course lead to a outcome of violence between the humans and the machines they thought were there to make their lives easy, this of course lead to the eventual takeover and destruction of mankind. The scientist saw his failure to stop this from happening and did all he could to breathe life into nine little stitched burlap humanoids to save the planet from complete extinction.
The tale begins as 9 (Elijah Wood) awakens for the first time, without a voice, becomes curious as to where he is and when he pushes open the shutters to the room he is in, we see for the first time the destruction brought upon the Earth. 9 finds a small sphere with markings on it, being the curious sort he is, decides to keep it. Seeing another creature from his vantage point of the window, 9 sets out to find who ever it was he had seen. Only by taking this chance does 9 discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction.
The group of resilient fighters 9 stumbles upon include 1 (Christopher Plummer), a veteran of the war that brought mankind to the brink, he may not be as brave as he at first appears. 2 (Martin Landau), an aged inventor sent out to discover anything that will tell the group what is going on. 5 (John C. Reilly), a stalwart mechanic, who is the first to befriend 9. 6 (Crispin Glover), a loner and artist, it is his work on the design of the orb that starts 9 on his journey and 7 (Jennifer Connelly), a brave warrior, and the lone female of the group. 8 (Fred Tatasciore) is the sole enforcer of the group.
Setting out to rescue 2, 5 and 9 stumble upon a long thought lost 7, they do find 2 but unaware of the power of the orb 9 sets into motion a long dormant super machine, stealing 2's life force the machine grows in power. 5 and 9 return to the groups sanctuary to begin to devise a plan to stop the machine. 1 of course decides they are to be stripped of any possessions and thrown out, the group is attacked by a winged beast that the now fully alive brain has created. Just making their getaway, the group back to an almost full strength, now that 3 and 4 have also come out of hiding, they are the only two of the group who never speak, they catalogue everything, they are the groups historians. They of course have the information needed to stop what they call the beast.
9 is a dark, powerful and a nearly perfect movie, it has a few things that may be looked at and frowned upon - simple dialogue, simple plot and simple action sequences. Don't take me wrong this is a wonderful film, the action is there when it is needed, not to fill time, the dialogue is simple only because the dolls themselves are , well DOLLS. The plot couldn't have been deeper because we want to believe that these creatures could exist and that maybe our salvation may be 6 inch burlap dolls. The environment of the film is beautiful in its daunting desolation, the groups enemies are crafted from scraps of sharp, rusty and jagged metal. And the group of dolls shows a fierce determination to save what is left of mankind and along the way find themselves learning about emotions as well.
Based on this premise I give 9 a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0 this film has what could be the most spectacular visuals seen in a long time, the story is short enough to keep most teens interested with a story that could be the start of the adult computer animated feature.
9 is rated PG-13 for Violence and Scary Images
Running time is 1 hr. 19 mins.
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