9 (2005)

Just perfect...

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

We find ourselves on a post-apocalyptic planet looking similar to the Earth in Wall-E watching strange acts including books and light-bulbs performed by two small rag-dolls. We also see a strange metallic creature, considerably superior in size to the dolls, being on the hunt. It attacks doll#5 and kills it while absorbing its soul right afterward. Doll#9, however, manages to hide successfully and goes on with its experiments. Not much later, the metal predator is out again having its attention focused on another rag-doll. The moment it catches the doll, however, #9 appears in safe distance and we realize the one caught by the predator is not real, but merely a dummy. Furious with being tricked, the giant soul-eater targets #9 and follows him relentlessly through the bleak scenery. Is it all over for our little hero now?I saw this short-film already quite a while ago for the first time and was not impressed at all judging from the rating I gave it. This time it's different and I'm actually even curious to watch the full feature which was made four years after this Oscar-nominated short. It's probably gonna be different as in the short there was no talking at all and the long version features voice-work from Academy Award winners Landau, Connelly and Plummer. The consensus seems generally positive too, so I'm surprised Acker has not done any further work since then, although he has two projects in development, without release date though. Anyway, back to the short film. If creepy animation à la Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty or Coraline is your cup of tea, you should definitely give this one a go.

I was planning on watching the movie 9 recently until someone pointed out it was an expanded version of a short film that I'd not seen, which made me want to watch the short film in the extras and then leave it a while before watching the more recent version. I probably made the right call on that since the original was made on a much more limited budget to say the least and is much simpler and smaller – so seeing it after a full version may have worked against it. Anyway, what I found was a short film that does what a short film is meant to do – engage and deliver quickly.The plot is not really explained – or at least the background to the world and characters anyways. Instead we are thrown into the middle of it as one ragdoll character has its soul captured by some sort of mechanical creature; this leaves doll #9 to either survive it, kill it or die trying. The short is as simple as that and, in the absence of detail and plot to engage, it is all about atmosphere and feeling. These are almost harder than the visual aspect to create but Acker gets it right, producing a very dark feeling film that engages because of its Gothic feel and dark air. Visually the film works very well even if the limited resources do show. The animation is smooth, the creatures have character and presences with only the slightest touch and the wider world is interesting.Overall this was an enjoyable and dark short film that worked off atmosphere and visual creativity. I will be interested to see if an expansion and additions of characters, voices etc make it a better experience or if it dilutes the simple short too much across a longer running time.

A rag doll fights a monster that has been stealing the souls of his people.I saw this on you tube. Having a running time for about 10 minutes, I decided to watch this film and you know what? It was actually a fantastic and brilliant kind of "short" film. The animation is fantastic and original-looking and what I love about this film is that it's not afraid to be a dark animated film. There are some moments in here where it might be truly frightening for a child.More on animation: It looked fresh, original, and gritty. I loved it! Another great thing is that this film has NO (ZERO) - NADA - dialog but yet it still pulls off for great character development through the actions of the characters! This is just an animated film with a simple plot done in an extraordinary way. The look is fantastic and I'm sure Shane Acker will be a great animator when he makes more of these types of films. So if you have ten minutes to kill, go to you tube right now and search up "9".

This is an excellent short animation. The story is well written and directed. The animation sequences remind me of the first oddworld video game. Not that they have similar stories really, or characters, but the overall look and feel somehow remind me of the world painted in that game. The use of silent characters brings a weight to the action and tension happening on screen. The creature is a mixture of junk found within this world, but seems to hunt with a definite purpose. The ending shows us that purpose, and a quick glimpse into what it might be like to live in this tiny world.Very cool short.