9

Very few movies have the kind of cult following that the 2009 animated film, 9, has received over the years. Originally starting life as a 2005 Oscar-winning animated short, it was later transformed into a feature film after Tim Burton (who acts as a producer on this film) was impressed with the short’s vision and ideas, and managed to secure a deal alongside Focus Features (who had previously just had success with their own dark animated kid’s film with Coraline) to release the film as a feature length picture on the 9th of September, 2009 (which was just too corny to pass up). Although the response from most viewers wasn’t as positive this time around as it didn’t do well critically and performed poorly at the box office, the cult following this film has garnered is quite enormous. While many might not have seen this little film originally, almost everybody is familiar with it in some form of fashion whether through the distinctive design of the characters, the very disturbing tone and content for something directed mainly at children, or the multitude of dissection videos that have been created by online content creators who have spent hours upon hours hoping to untangle the mysteries left within this movie. Even if the reception was spotty, the legacy that came afterwards was certainly strong and gave this film a long-lasting pedigree. In a ravaged world that has seemingly become devoid of life, a sentient rag doll (voiced by Elijah Wood) comes to life to find a scientist lying dead at his feet and the number 9 etched onto the back of his sack-like body. Whilst wandering through the deserted landscape, the doll (who decides to go by 9) comes across other sentient dolls like him, also with numbers labelled on their backs, who tell him about humanity’s end and how the world has been taken over by a monstrous artificial robot which they call ‘’The Beast’’. After losing one of their own to one of the Beast’s malformed robot servants, 9 convinces the rest of them to travel to the factor which houses the Beast, and finish the creature off once and for all, making a stand as the last living things remaining on this planet. 9 isn’t really a great movie and can come across as a little shallow at times, but does offer up some memorable moments, interesting bits of storytelling that are engaging upon a closer inspection, and a distinct visual style that can lead to some very iconic and memorable imagery.

With the original short being only about 11 mins in length and containing no dialogue, it would stand to reason that what Burton saw in the film came from the visual design, cryptic and harsh environment, and the non-verbal form of storytelling and world building rather than anything truly gripping from a character, plot or writing perspective. Bringing over the same director, Shane Acker, to work on this movie, it would’ve allowed Acker the chance to expand upon his original idea while also showcasing the unique components that made his short so uniquely captivating in the first place. At the time, dark children’s material that had a notable edge still weren’t as publicly commercial as they would grow to be, so seeing it on full display in this movie which gets away with some harsh subject matters, grim imagery and even a few messed-up deaths scenes, is pretty cool with hindsight, especially because the film earns that harshness and isn’t just using it for edginess points. It is a bleak hypothetical situation, and the way the film goes about exploring this future is very subdued, not directed by mountains of expositions, and comes more from the contextual clues provided within the environment and the brief information found throughout their travels. It’s quite a short film (ironically), with it only running for about 79 mins, and while it does breeze through several massive revelations in a way that could’ve used a bit more patience, it does know when to allow a quiet, sombre and especially dark scene play out without disruption. The scripting for this film written by Pamela Pettler (who worked on similarly dark animated kid’s films like Monster House and Corpse Bride) can be fairly predictable, especially in regard to the dialogue and story structure, but does prove to have a few more layers to it when the film unveils its big twist in the final act. While nothing overly shocking, it does explain away several decisions the film was making, mainly the one-note nature of the characters and why they are positioned in such a way. While the film lays very strong seeds of ideas and does have a portion of insightful-ness to it that would make it prime for interpretation (which explains the onslaught of fan videos), it does still feel like the movie doesn’t quite stretch itself enough to be as thoughtful as it could’ve been. The world is able to speak for itself, the various allusions to different world wars throughout history as well as notable biblical comparisons are pretty neat, and the writing and characters, while basic, are still tolerable to be around and work for the story being told, but given the basic nature of the plot plus the various times it switches the main objectives on a dime, it does feel a little confused at times.

The film was able to get a lot of popular talent involved with voicing these main characters, which includes Elijah Wood as 9, Christopher Plummer as 1 (the leader of the group), Fred Tatasciore as 8 (the brutish action-led muscle of the group), Martin Landau as 2 (the inventor who sees potential in 9), Jennifer Connelly as 7 (a roguish outsider who isn’t willing to hide away in fear), John C. Reilly as 5 (a gentle big-hearted every-man), and Crispin Glover as 6 (the artistic oddball with the cryptic messages). With 3 and 4 acting as silent yet expressively inquisitive twins, these nine characters are able to stand out due to these aforementioned roles within the story as well as their pretty great designs which take these simple rag-doll bodies and litter them with enough detail and personally infused iconography to help them feel more alive and distinct. With that said, while they can be defined, they are also fairly one-note in their delivery, with each of them sticking to tropes and cliches familiar with these archetypes and never really breaking out of them throughout the movie. Since the film seems more interested in its subtext and how people can interpret its various ideas and visuals, it leaves some of the stuff in the forefront feeling a little basic and incredibly in-your-face straightforward by comparison, and while the film’s final twist does explain away the simplistic rudimentary nature of their personalities, it doesn’t come together as nicely as it could’ve because the characters themselves are strongly lacking in much life or even passion. Most of them feel like they’re at the whim of the plot, with 9 in particularly barely forming an identity and only acting as a tool to continue moving things forward and express the ever-changing main focal point of the narrative and this comes from the roles not being allowed to have a sense of personality or humor. Their dialogue is very traditional and lifeless, and while the voice work isn’t really bad, it is very monotonous and can make everything sound very stale and moody, so there isn’t much room for liveliness or flavor (which makes sense given the tone and situation, but it could’ve found a better balance). The film doesn’t really have any other characters outside of the scientist who created the machine that doomed humanity and then retroactively tried to fix things in the aftermath (voiced fittingly by Alan Oppenheimer), but he only has a brief cameo near the end of the film, so there isn’t anyone else to focus on as a trade-off.

It’s funny how even certain opinions on the film have switched with the passage of time, as when the film came out, it was criticized for its bland characters and fairly simplistic storyline but was praised for its intensity and visuals, but that opinion might’ve switched in recent years. This isn’t to say that people view the film as ugly now as it certainly isn’t, especially given the fact that it was being animated by Lux Animation, a relatively small company who mostly worked on foreign animated movies or television-exclusive features. While the style for this film is certainly memorable and the image of a rag doll against the apocalyptic future is certainly ingrained into pop culture, the film’s pretty bland and ugly color palette makes the world look fairly uninspired. It is inventive with its character designs and even creature designs, with a lot of the enemy robots being these wonderfully malformed beings that have a mix of robotic and living parts infused together to create a twisted new being (like they’re trying to emulate once living creatures by adopting their traits and literally wearing parts of them underneath their exoskeletons, its wonderfully morbid), but the world just contains a lot of dirty yellows and greens, dreary browns, and smoky greys which aren’t very appealing colors to have to look at for the course of an entire movie. The individual characters are well animated and expressive, most of the villainous threats are made to look pretty intimidating, the head robot does have a pretty generic design and moves a little strangely but can still and sound intimidating when it needs to, and while they film doesn’t necessarily look amazing and can feel a little cheap in places with some of the movements and camera motion, it does at least capture a distinct visual identity that was carried over from the original short and was given a bigger audience to show itself off to. It did help create some truly memorable visuals and scenes that have remained in the public eye, so even if the look itself can be a little drab, it has stayed with people over the years and that is always a good sign. The film is also pretty intense when it needs to be, with a lot of scenes that could very well scare and even traumatized young children given the twisted ways some of these moments are handled (with one involving the body of a former character being particularly messed up).

9 as a film may not be as creatively disturbing as something within Tim Burton’s line-up or be as effective as Coraline was, but for a short film that turned into a slightly less short film, its legacy has definitely been stitched into pop culture. Being an elusive movie that people are privy to for its mass cult awareness, it’s going to live on as that small picture that might not have impressed everybody and could’ve tweaked a few things surrounding its world and characters to feel more complete, but the interesting nuggets of psychological elements, the memorable imagery and the disturbed tone and subject matter, make it one that will be beloved by those that have stuck with it for all this time. This can act as a nice stepping off point into the world of twisted kid’s material as it provides its own fair share of creepy imagery and ideas, but also houses enough of a brain behind the mayhem to make them want to push through the tougher scenes, which is a sign that at least on some front, it knows what it’s doing. While it could’ve been a 9 out of 10, it can settle for a solid 6 at the very least.