DVD Reviews

9 - Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Dec 31, 2009, 14:19 GMT

From visionary filmmakers Tim Burton (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) and Academy Award-nominated director Shane Acker comes this visually stunning and original epic adventure. In the final days of humanity, a dedicated scientist gives the spark of life to nine of his creations. The world has turned into an unrecognizable landscape of machines and spare parts, but this group of nine finds that if they band together, ...more

“Welcome to the age of the Machine.”

Not to be confused with the musical film, Shane Acker’s dystopian short film is done as a full-length feature.

It’s a delight, though our future looks bleak as mankind is extinct and what’s left in the world is small stitch work people. Even their world is threatened when the destroyer of humankind is reawakened.

The world of mankind is dust. All that remains are the rusted remnants of our society. Yet there is life. Nine (Elijah Wood), a small burlap stitch work doll, awakens to find himself mute and without any knowledge as to how he got there. He picks up a mysterious talisman and begins to explore and comes across Two (Martin Landau) who is a scavenger.

The two new friends and attacked by a monstrous cat beast, Two is carried away and Nine is wounded. Nine is found by Five (John C. Reilly), a one eyed engineer, and taken to a cathedral and serves as sanctuary to the other stitch work people. You have One (Christopher Plummer) who is the self appointed leader, his enforcer the muscular Eight (Fred Tatasciore), the artistic Six (Crispin Glover) who draws images of the talisman that Nine lost.

He will meet later the two mute catalogers Three and Four and the adventurous, self-reliant warrior Seven (Jennifer Connelly). All of them are threatened when the talisman revives The Machine, an automaton that was responsible for the destruction of the world and it now wants to destroy numbers One trough Nine.

The makers of 9 create a fantastic universe, one that lies in an alternative timeline and in spirit between World War I and II, that will be a delight to revisit to gather all the nuances of that created world. That world began its life with an Oscar nominated student film by Shane Acker, happily included as a supplement on the disc.

That short would bring Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov on board. The film seems to cover several genres, including science fiction, war films, German expressionism, and even horror movies. Several spots in the ruined cityscape reminded me of the old Universal backlot that served as a backdrop to many a Universal horror film in the 30s.

Perhaps it’s all those genres and references to stuff I liked that caused me to enjoy the film so much. I’d wager that if you are thrilled by the same that you’ll like it also. The story is very simple, but grandeur comes in the setting and the realization of the characters. The animation is superb and only adds to the wonder of it all.
9 is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features include a commentary by director/writer/animator Shane Acker, animator Joe Ksander, head of story Ryan O’Loughlin, and editor Nick Kenway.

The Universal U-Control features a picture-in-picture commentary with interviews, footage, and other treasure troves of production detail. There are also 7 minutes of deleted scenes (standard definition). The 16 minute “9 - The Long and Short of it” (high definition) looks at how the film developed from the short to the feature. The 5 minute “On Tour with Shane Acker” (high definition) has the director walk around to various departments in the animation studio.

The 13 minute “The Look of 9” (high definition) is about the design of the world of the film. The 5-minute “Acting Out” (high definition) shows the lengths that the animators go to in creating the characters. The 11 minute “9” (standard definition) is the original short that the film was born from; it also has an optional commentary from Acker and Ksander. The disc is also D-Box, Pocket Blu, and BD-Live enhanced.

9 is a grand film. I’ve watched it twice and will probably go through it a third time. The film looks fantastic on Blu-ray and there are enough special features to satisfy. In my opinion, the film is one of the gems of 2009.