Bet ween the Frames

All about real film criticism
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Sunday , September 13 , 2009

9: The creativity, the details, the melancholy

Posted by betweentheframes , Reader : 511 , 04:36:55

There are nine of them in the computer-animated movie, nine little beings stitched together out of scraps. Burlap sock puppets, rag dolls with lenses for eyes. The eyes are surprisingly expressive. They live in rubble and try to keep from being destroyed by hound-like mechanical creatures that scout around the refuse, looking for signs of organic life to snatch. Despite their constructed appearance, you just know that these nine little beings are somehow organic. The creativity, the details, the melancholy wonder of it all will make you appreciate the film, especially 9, with a zipper down his burlap front allowing him to store items he wants or needs. 9 is a feature-length expansion of an 11-minute film by Shane Acker that received an Academy Award nomination in 2005. Acker refers to the little beings as “stitch punks,” which reflects an attitude you cannot see on screen. The beings are survivors, not posers. In the short film, the creatures are mute. In the 79-minute feature, they talk and the actors that provide the voices are Elijah Wood (No. 9), John C. Reilly (No. 5), Jennifer Connelly (No. 7), Christopher Plummer (No. 1), Crispin Glover (No. 6), Martin Landau (No. 2) and Fred Tatasciore (No. 8). Two of the beings – twins – are mute, but use their lenses to project historic footage. The atmosphere in 9 is bleak, but the characters refuse to succumb. Neither should viewers.

There are nine of them in the computer-animated movie, nine little beings stitched together out of scraps. Burlap sock puppets, rag dolls with lenses for eyes. The eyes are surprisingly expressive. They live in rubble and try to keep from being destroyed by hound-like mechanical creatures that scout around the refuse, looking for signs of organic life to snatch. Despite their constructed appearance, you just know that these nine little beings are somehow organic.

The creativity, the details, the melancholy wonder of it all will make you appreciate the film, especially 9, with a zipper down his burlap front allowing him to store items he wants or needs.

9 is a feature-length expansion of an 11-minute film by Shane Acker that received an Academy Award nomination in 2005. Acker refers to the little beings as “stitch punks,” which reflects an attitude you cannot see on screen. The beings are survivors, not posers.

In the short film, the creatures are mute. In the 79-minute feature, they talk and the actors that provide the voices are Elijah Wood (No. 9), John C. Reilly (No. 5), Jennifer Connelly (No. 7), Christopher Plummer (No. 1), Crispin Glover (No. 6), Martin Landau (No. 2) and Fred Tatasciore (No. 8). Two of the beings – twins – are mute, but use their lenses to project historic footage.

The atmosphere in 9 is bleak, but the characters refuse to succumb. Neither should viewers.

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