|
Directed by Shane Acker |
9 Once
in a while, sneaking up on them so to speak and now paying attention to the
needs and releases of the big studios, moviegoers are treated to a most
personal film. One of those is
the new film “9,” and though not perfect by any means, it still
reflects that rare attention these days, one person’s creation. “9” is the vision of Shane Acker, an
animator who originally made it as an 11-minute short,
and then somehow found a couple of film big-shots – Tim Burton and his
friends – who were willing to put their names on the line as producers
of a full-length feature. As the film starts, the world has ended; one
inventor has worked against his limited time to make nine – well, what
are they? – puppets, maybe, or strange little
creatures made of different cloth, who have lenses for eyes and strange
fingers and toes. They are the
only living creatures on earth, but they still must face a malevolent force
– a strange machine – that tries to kill them, and whom they must
fight off. Each of the nine can speak, in the voices of some
well-known actors: Christopher Plummer, who’s Number 1 (his number is
on the back of his clothing).
Then there’s Martin Landau, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly,
and the voice of the film’s hero, Number 9, the protagonist, Elijah
Wood. He debates with Number 1,
who would like for them all to hide; 9 insists that
they must come out and fight this force.
We see what happens to the nine as they do fight, and that is about
the limit of the film’s plot, which is quite a bit too thin for a
feature film, since we never learn what the machine/creature is, nor who made
it, or why it keeps attacking the nine figures. And yet the film is richly designed, first as a
post-apocalyptic world, with a lowering grey sky and the remnants of cities
littering the landscape. And the
nine creatures themselves are also inventive; who would have thought to make
them out of cloth? But the
animation works, and there are moments that come close to tragedy, so I for
one will give Mr. Acker credit for what he did accomplish; he could have done
so much more, though. |