IT'S A GOOD ONE.

9 (B-)

The animated film 9 is full of wonder and spectacle in a post apocalyptic setting to the world as we know it. Humans are no longer inhabitants of the earth as the machines they created for war and destruction become self aware and turn on all forms of life on the planet (similar to the plot of The Matrix). The story really begins as the audience watches a elaborate and intricate doll named 9 wake up in the world devoid of any sign of life besides the blowing wind.

Elijah Wood voices the doll 9 through his journey to discover the reason for his existence. He soon discovers that he is one of nine dolls created by a human before he was finished off. These remaining dolls are struggling to survive against the superior machines and their mission to destroy life.

This project features the voices of Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Connelly, Martin Landau, and John C. Reilly. These are some well known Hollywood actors but of course with animation all we get are their voices so they really have to bring their emotions into their vocals. I can say most of them did a decent job minus Reilly who voiced the character 5. It felt like Reilly was just reading the script animatedly as opposed to reading like the character himself or emotionally. I thought Plummer did the best job with his character number 1.

The visuals in the movie were breathtaking in every sense of the word. The decaying world was so well represented with the visuals shown by the director it made you feel part of its mortified environment.

The story overall was pretty good but I just did not feel the writers gave a good explanation why they wrote this story and why I the viewer am supposed to care about these living dolls and their survival. The characters are given decent development as the path to this desolate world is unfolded and existence of the dolls are described.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this alternate universe and most of its inhabitants. Despite the opposition being so much larger in size and capability I did not get a daunting feeling from the task of stopping this huge robot, and once the task is finally at hand it is drawn out causing me to desire a more abrupt ending. I recommend anyone making a date with the theater to consider seeing 9. It is definitely not in the realm of Pixar products, but well done none the less.

*