9

9
Rated PG-13
79 Minutes
Nicole’s Rating: B

It’s the end of the world. The war was between man and machine and the machines have won. The last man alive has created life or somewhat transposed it into his nine creations within his last moments on Earth. Now it’s their turn to save what is left of the world ruled by machines.

First off, yes this is an animated film and yes it is rated PG-13 for a reason. Do not take you little kids to see this, I guarantee they’ll have nightmares. I’m sure I’ll be having some after seeing this. I actually think one creature was a part of my nightmares not long ago.

Characters
#1 played by Christopher Plummer
#2 played by Martin Landau
#3 and #4 (the twins) had no voice acting
#5 played by John C. Reilly
#6 played by Crispin Glover
#7 played by Jennifer Connelly
#8 played by Fred Tatasciore
#9 played by Elijah Wood

I’m not going to go through all these characters individually because they need to be grouped together. Each number had their role such as #1 being the overzealous ruler of the group, #2 the old man, #3 and #4 the twins were the researchers, #5 the unlucky hero, #6 the nervous, out of place wall flower, #7 the ultimate heroine, #8 the brawny body guard and #9 the new guy with all the answers. Each character was written well, but I honestly can’t say too much for the voice work. Yes, these big names help bring the crowd into the theater, but just because they’re good “actors” doesn’t mean they are good “voice actors”. There needed to be a little more dramatics and fluctuations in the vocal range. It just seemed to monotone for an animated film.

Production
This movie was beautifully animated! At times it felt so real and lifelike. You can stare at the stitches in the dolls and think to yourself “that has to be real”. But then there were some animation errors that to me, the director and producers should have noticed before releasing. Most of the animation errors come from the light bulb that they used throughout the movie. Next, the animation did felt rush at the end. This seems to be common with Tim Burton films. Everything looks great and in place at the beginning, but the end feels like the production company was getting sick and tired for dealing with these 9 little men. Just like I said, at the beginning it felt so lifelike and real, but at the end you notice that you’re watching animation.

Hi-Low
+ The details in the backgrounds and foregrounds. Again animation was greatly lifelike.

- The timeline
I honestly couldn’t comprehend what time this was supposed to be. It was suppose to the apocalyptic era, but at the beginning they’re showing the scientist working as an old man during WWII. Now I can pretend it’s another parallel universe, but they didn’t specify that either.

+ The way that #8 gets an euphoric high if very creative, along with how all of them use everyday objects to go into battle against raging machines.

- Background story
If felt the story was missing something and that was the background story of the individual ragmen. We get the story of #9 but I honestly would like to hear how the others came to be and how they learned.


I can tell this film is going to be a cult classic, but like most cult classics they were never made for the big screen. I did enjoy this film and it gave me a few chills, even made me jump a couple of times, but this is something a group of people should watch a raining night at home, but not with the kiddies.