Susan Granger’s review of “9” (Focus Features)
After Shane Acker won a Student Academy Award for an 11-minute animated short film in 2004, he expanded his sci-fi fable with the encouragement of producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov.
It all begins when a tiny “stitchpunk” rag doll (voiced by Elijah Wood) with the #9 on his back comes to life in a desolate, dreary, post-apocalyptic world. He’s totally bewildered. It’s not until he’s befriended by a kindly, inventor ‘brother,’ known as #2 (voiced by Martin Landau), that he even has a voice. He learns that the dark emptiness is filled with danger: “Sometimes fear is the appropriate response.” Humans are gone. Machines have decimated mankind and it’s the sacred mission of creatures, like himself, to perpetuate “life” as we know it on Earth.
Each of #9’s numerical colleagues has distinct qualities and weaknesses. #1 (voiced by Christopher Plummer) is a war vet and voice of negativity. #3 and #4 are nonverbal twins who communicate with the bygone world. #5 (voiced by John C. Reilly) is an engineer who’s bullied by #1. #6 (voiced by Crispin Glover) is a visionary artist. #7 (voiced by Jennifer Connelly) is a brave, if reckless warrior. #8 (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) is a dimwitted brute. So it’s up to young #9 to weld them into a cohesive team to defeat their common enemy, the villainous mechanical beast: “All we have now is each other.”
Shane Acker notes: “I had the idea for the character of #9, an innocent who would risk his life for his brethren and use intellect, rather than might, to slay a beast.”
Screenwriter Pamela Pettler (“Monster House,” “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride”) has supplied dialogue and the innovative CGI has been expanded. At an exciting 80 minutes, it’s still a bit short and, although imaginative, the storyline is one-dimensional.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “9” is a sinister, scary 7, rated PG-13. For whatever reason, number nine dominates the cinematic landscape this fall. There’s also Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi thriller “District 9,” the Israeli film “9.99” and Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the Broadway musical “Nine.”
