There is no doubt that animation has made huge leaps in the past decade. Pixar, in particular, has reworked and reinvented the genre in ways that the late Walt Disney could never imagine. The bar has now been raised so high that almost everyone who buys a ticket to an animated movie expects a high standard of craft and storytelling.
The new animation 9 certainly boasts very impressive craft. But in terms of storytelling, it falls a little short.
Conceived and directed by Shane Acker, the heroes of this movie are strangely beautiful ragdolls who are able to express a wide range of thoughts and emotions with their mechanical eyes and fabric mouths. (No wonder Tim Burton agreed to produce the film: these dolls are weird and whimsical in ways that Edward Scissorshand and The Nightmare Before Christmas were.)
These ragdolls live in a post-apocalyptic world where the human race has been completely wiped out by giant machines. One day, ragdoll number 9 (voice of Elijah Wood) accidentally turns on a gigantic evil machine – one that is capable of creating more evil contraptions from scrap metal. The ragdolls must now destroy it before it kills all of them.
Written by Pamela Pettler (Monster House), 9’s backstory of Man vs Machine is not new, while the main story of Machine vs Ragdolls has plenty of action but little depth. The script needs more work. That said, 9 is still a visual treat for animation lovers: The gorgeous animation and these eerie-looking ragdolls have a strange way of captivating you.
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