9

 

Let me start out by saying  am a huge Tim Burton fan, so an animated movie that is produced by him I may have a little bot of bias simply because I have yet to be disappointed by a movie that Tim Burton has been involved in.  I love the concept for 9 with it being an animated movie taking place in a post-apocalyptic world in which humanity is no more as the war between man and machine went the way of the machines. Yet, hope is not all lost for a scientist before his death created a group of rag dolls that hold the key to the spark of life. The visuals we get from this movie are not ones that one expects from an animated movie as the attention to detail is spot on that you almost feel like it is not an animated movie that you are watching. I love the concept of this movie having a great darkness to it, yet even with the darkness there is still a glimmer of hope.

 

Elijah Wood in the role of the character of 9 works well. Wood has the ability in roles where he lends his voice, to change it slightly from role to role so each character is their own character, yet anyone can hear the voice and recognize it to be Elijah Wood. His performance as 9 is no exception as he really carries the character well, that you take to him instantly and you want things to go his way no matter what. John C. Reilly in the role of 5 does well. I have only ever seen Reilly in roles in comedy movies, so to see him in a serious animated movie I was not sure if he had that ability. I was pleased that he proved me wrong as I felt like he had amazing voice presence and his chemistry with the other characters works so well. The rest of the supporting cast all give great performances as well. With so many great actors in this movie it would be nearly impossible for the performances to have disappointed and been sub par.

 

The story for 9 is one that was unique and creative especially for an animated movie. An important aspect is that I will not give too much away because I found the trailers never really gave much to the story and because of that it puts the audience in the same boat as the character of 9 who has just awoken in this world and is trying to figure everything out. I loved feeling like I was learning everything at the same time and the story was not so predictable that I was not guessing what was going to happen. The story worked because I felt like it was able to be an epic movie in 79 minutes which is kind of unheard because most would believe an order for a movie to be epic the running time would have to be over two hours. Yet somehow Acker is able to give an epic movie because of the grandiose shots within the animation. Tim Burton as a producer it is truly interesting that his trademarks tend to come out from time to time throughout the movie. The themes of outsiders or the alienated triumphing over adversity and the film being co-composed by Danny Elfman just screamed Tim Burton. The visuals truly work so well with the story because there are those moments that work so perfectly to tell the story that dialogue would have not been needed to convey the major plot points.

 

The visuals in 9 work because of what helped inspire the post apocalyptic world. Having a reference point based in reality for this movie really helped blur the line between it being animated or being shot with actual sets and not animation. Post war Vienna Austria served to give 9 that real feel of the way the world would look after complete destruction of everything that was living from the gas bombs created by the machines. The subtle nuances as well work to only strengthen the visuals, due to the subtle hints to the Nazi's of the past, anyone that watches 9 should take note of the references of the Chancellor in 9 as being a nod to Hitler. While the most obvious part of this is that of Hitler was the Chancellor before he created the title of Fuhrer, but this is the smallest of the ties to Nazi Germany. During the scene where they are showing the past footage as to what helped create the world as it was is during the parade if you look the Chancellor makes a salute that ends up being very similar to the "Heil Hitler" of the Nazi's. Secondly, if you look at the flags they have a look that is very similar to the swastika that adorned the Nazi flag.

 

9 is one of those movies that it is intriguing to me to know that Acker originally created 9 as a 10 minute short film with no dialogue, I am truly intrigued to hopefully find a way to see the original 10 minute film. The voice talents truly give strong performances and I would not expect anything less from the talent in this film. Anything less from the talent in this film I truly loved the story and felt like something new and unique yet did not try to use comedy like almost all animated movies have to appeal to sometimes teenagers. I am giving 9, three and three quarter buckets of popcorn out of five. this is a film any Tim Burton fan should see and is one that is worth the price of renting if you are looking for an animated movie that is not your every day run of the mill animated movie.

 

-The Movie Man