9 – Review

What’s in a number?
I was tempted to let my daughter write this review. She is barely two years old, and yet she enjoyed 9 immensely. She sat through the entire film, from start to end, and I do mean the end. She protested loudly when we wanted to stop the movie, and was only placated when we let her finish watching the credits. Throughout the movie, she emitted a series of gasps and sighs, periodically punctuated with an “Oh no!” as if she understood the storyline perfectly well.

And why won’t she, when 9 was created to be a stunning feast for the eyes but at the same time, embodies a simple plot that involves adventure, humanity and hope. The world is a barren wasteland, inhabited only by little rag dolls no longer than an adult human’s hand. 9, the lead character, awoke from a deep slumber to find that there are others like him. Their main purpose is to survive the mean robots that are out to obliterate their existence, or so they think…

My take on the movie
9 is certainly NOT like WALL-E or Ice Age or other similar animated features. When I say “similar”, I meant animated films that dwell on the relationship between the characters and the take-home moral of the story. I have nothing against these films, but I do believe that 9 will appeal only to certain groups of kids, but with a wider adult audience who will appreciate its dark post-apocalyptic desolate landscape and vicious villains in the form of mean machineries meant to murder and mar. That aside, I found the characters to be very endearing. There’s 1, a leader who’s not afraid to lead… and run. 2 is an innovative inventor, while 3 and 4 are twins who “catalog” everything they encounter for historical purposes. 5 is bent on being a loyal friend, 6 is a misfit artist, 7 is an adventurous soul (and also the sole female character!), 8 is the embodiment of strength while 9, the titular character, never gives up.

A lot of questions flood my mind when I was watching this movie: What are these ragdolls’ true purposes in life? Where did the humans go? However, all of them were answered in the movie’s climax, leaving me speechless as to how a single strand of hope for humanity can achieve so much…

Sign of good things to come
Shane Acker is no ordinary film maker, and I expect better things to come our way when this young director works as his magic in other future projects. While I was happy to watch an animated film produced by Tim Burton (Nightmare Before Christmas), it was Danny Elfman (who also provided the score for most of Tim Burton’s movies) who stole the show with his immaculately composed score.

Overall, a great animated feature that will have you hanging to the edge of your seats. I’ll give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars rating for its simple but gripping storyline.

(3.5/5)