On 7 January 2022, I watched a spectacular computer-animated sci fi feature film with only the slightest of titles – 9 – but which was anything but slight in terms of its content and scope.
Directed by Shane Acker (upon whose earlier, Oscar-nominated, 11-min animated short, 9, this movie-length treatment was based), and released in 2009 by Universal Pictures under the Focus Features name, 9 was co-produced by Tim Burton, but is very different from his 'normal' death-obsessed works.
Beginning in an alternate 1930s Earth, 9 has as its titular character the ninth in a series of small, numbered, ragdoll-like homunculi known as stitchpunks. These have come to life following the death of their scientist creator in a grim, fearful post-apocalyptic world, for they collectively contain his soul.
The scientist had transferred it into the stitschpunks via alchemy, in a last attempt to right the terrible wrong that had resulted when an exceedingly powerful sentient machine, 'the BRAIN', invented by him to bring about world peace, was hijacked by the military for purposes of war instead. This had resulted in the BRAIN being transformed into the Fabrication Machine, which duly created other, deadly sentient machines that wiped out not just humanity but also every other living organism on Earth.
With the passing of the years, most of the machines eventually cease to function too, and the stitchpunks elude the final few by surviving in hiding – until one of them, 9, inadvertently brings the original BRAIN back to life. This mechanical entity in turn swiftly reanimates other killing machines, and also seeks to suck out the life force of the stitchpunks in order to fuel its own continuing existence. The movie presents their perilous mission to destroy the BRAIN and restore those stitchpunks that it has successfully drained.
The animation in 9 is absolutely astonishing in both design and execution, the sense of poignancy and pathos pervading the entire movie is almost palpable in its intensity. As for the highly individualistic stitchpunks, with their own very different personalities, they are voiced by the likes of Elijah Wood (stitchpunk #9), Christopher Plummer (#1), Martin Landau ('#2), and Jennifer Connelly (#7).
As for their enemies: one particular mechanical foe, known as the Seamstress and resembling a huge hooded cobra but sporting a series of insectoid limbs on its thorax, plus an abdomen that can unzip itself to engulf its victims and then sew itself back together, is truly horrifying! (Do I detect the twisted touch of Burton?) Click here to view it in all its gruesomely gory glory!
I won't provide spoilers as to how successful or otherwise the nine stitchpunks prove to be in their desperate but determined endeavours to save not only themselves but also the entire planet itself. However, the closing scene in 9 subtly yet also very skillfully offers a genuinely uplifting sensation of hope for the future of Earth, and the return of life to it, by focusing almost in passing upon the reappearance of some of its smallest subjects, in every sense. Think The War of the Worlds…
9 is a truly fantastic – and fantastical – animated movie that I'm surprised has not attracted much more attention and acclaim than it has done (perhaps because it received a PG-13 rating in the USA and a 12 rating in the UK, whereas animated features aimed at family viewing generally receive nothing more stringent than a PG rating?). And to see what I mean, be sure to click here to watch an official 9 trailer on YouTube.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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