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Friday
11Sep2009

Movie Review - '9'

DateFriday, September 11, 2009 at 12:02AM
9

Starring Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, John C. Reilly, and Jennifer Connelly
Directed by Shane Acker
Rated PG-13

9poster.jpg You may not believe your eyes when 9 comes on the screen. The detailed animation is so rich and well-constructed that, for a fleeting moment, I forgot that I was watching a cartoon. We've come a long way since Steamboat Willie. It's hard to imagine this story unfolding with any other visual style.

Of course, you may not believe your ears when you hear some of the dialogue in 9, which has a fairly standard man vs. machine theme and some imaginative character and story creations.

However, when the time comes to propel that story from one scene to the next, the film loses its charm in what seems to be dialogue lifted straight out of a template from an action movie.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of patrons aren't paying to hear 9 but rather to see it, and as far as that goes, this is a miraculous achievement. But movies aren't and cannot be isolated as one thing and not another. That's actually what sets them apart from just about every other form of theatrical performance or literature; it's such a synthesis of everything, from story to visuals to music. But director Shane Acker has created a terrific little universe here, populated by sentient ragdolls in a fight for their survival against the last remaining machines on Earth.

Some time after an apocalypse brought on by machines revolting against their creators, a small population a "living" dolls - each a kind of mechatronic wonder of gears, old car parts, transistors, and more - has sought refuge in the remains of a gothic church. The leader of this group is called 1. He has the number written on his back. There are also 2 - 8, although 3, 4, and 7 are nowhere to be found at the beginning of this journey. And since this is 9, you can guess whose journey this really is.

Because there are very human qualities to each of the dolls, 9 has more bravado and fight than the others. Of course, he hasn't been hiding out from The Machine for years and years. 9 is fresh off the assembly line, the apparent last creation of a human scientist. His mission is simple: Stop the machines. Beneath that mission, but not too far in the subtext, is answering the biggest of all questions: Why are we here?

9 isn't long enough to be a real thinkpiece, and there is so much action - a surprising amount, given the detail of the animation - that the biggest answer of all is kind of played as an afterthought and never gets adequate attention, though its resolution is certainly sound. The reason for that could be that Acker and screenwriter Pamela Pettler simply have so much work to do setting up this world and these characters that the humanizing aspects of the story just get squeezed out. At a little less than 90 minutes, there is more time that could be given to that part of the story, but then the pacing would have felt way off.

There is an awful lot of good here. A great scene features "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as heard through virgin ears. Several other scenes pay obvious tribute to recent classics like Terminator, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I believe even Jurassic Park. And it can't be stressed enough how great the animation is.

Of particular interest to those of us who follow the trends in animated films carefully is that this is the second mold-breaking animated release in 2009 by Focus Features. We primarily think of Focus as dealing with smaller awards season fare and, indeed, both 9 and Coraline are a brave new direction for the baby brother of Universal. One of those films belongs in the race for Best Animated Feature at next year's Academy Awards.

It's doubtful both would make it because of the glory of Up, plus Monsters vs. Aliens and possibly Disney's Princess and the Frog later this year. But there's no doubt that Focus is branching out of the safety zone of making kid-friendly animation, because both Coraline and 9 deal with issues far too complex for 8-year-olds. And for the most part, it's paying off.

Because of some of the hindrances of the story, I came away from 9 believing it would probably be a better two-parter. A trilogy seems like it's too much, but another 90 minutes would allow the action to keep the majority of its pacing while sneaking in more of the double-edged theme of Acker's highly ambitious story. As it is, it's still worth your time, just so you can see firsthand how animation keeps surprising and delighting us.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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