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 It’s unfair to focus on Tim Burton’s involvement in the breathtaking new animated feature 9, yet it’s impossible not to mention him in the same breath because of all of the studio marketing connecting him to the project. He is listed only as a producer of the film, and 9 certainly expresses the trademark Burton feel of quirky characters inhabiting a dark, curious, sometimes terrifying world. Lest it be forgotten, though, that there are other, more prominent members of the creative team that have worked together to create something truly memorable and effective: something bigger and better than some of Burton’s best work and, without a doubt, better than most of his recent works.
9 is no kiddie Pixar film; it is a truly high-stakes story of an apocalyptic future that pulls no punches. In fact, watching this in the middle of the summer, I couldn’t help but wish that it had been released then to pump some much-needed oomph into the limp offerings during the blockbuster months that have just passed.
Without giving too much away, mankind has been completely wiped out in the near future. The great cities of the world have been reduced to rubble and the only survivors are a small band of tiny doll people--director Shane Acker refers to them as stitch-punks. Audiences follow the exploits of 9 (Elijah Wood), a stitch-punk with the number 9 etched on his back, as he awakens and discovers the remnants of the old world of man.
He soon meets 2 (Martin Landau), who appears to be an explorer, an adventurer of sorts. Things quickly turn dangerous, though, as a mysterious mechanical beast discovers them and attacks. After a harrowing and breathtaking confrontation, 2 is taken by the beast, leaving 9 on his own.
 The action in the film is relentless and not for the weak of heart or young children. I found myself, an adult with a taste for horror films, cringing ever so slightly while the lives of these strange little creatures were in certain peril. This is a very good thing. Acker recognizes that a tale about the end of the world must be high-stakes. There’s no room at all for a jaunty Randy Newman tune describing all the wonderful things that are missed from this bleak cold world; no, this is a bleak, cold world that the characters (who are compelling and loveable without being saccharine) fully inhabit. Acker and writer Pamela Pettler are fully unapologetic with the material and it works.
9 then meets a number of other punks, specifically 1 (Christopher Plummer), the crotchety old-guard leader who is effective as a foil for 9’s enthusiastic plans to rescue 2, and 7 (Jennifer Connelly), a wild warrior type who wanders the wastelands looking for adventure. There’s also 6 (Crispin Glover), the crazy artist type who is clearly a direct homage to Burton himself, so much so as to be somewhat distracting. He wears the trademark black-and-white striped garb and has wild hair jutting from his burlap head at all angles; he’s a fine character, played delightfully odd by the always fun Glover, but it’s such a specific character type that 6 almost feels out of place. There are also twin punks, 3 and 4, who don’t speak but communicate through different sequences of flashing lights in their eye sockets. Bits of creative genius like this are sprinkled throughout the film and helps keep 9 fresh and exciting the whole way through.
Each of the stitch-punks is wonderfully varied in its style and presentation. There are numerous little details that are thrilling in their simple unexpectedness. In fact, the entire world is so imaginative, vast and complete that when the film came to its inevitable conclusion, I wanted more. I wanted to know more about these characters, their world, what was going to happen to them after the wild adventure I had just accompanied them on and what was going to happen to this bleak world.
 Obviously, their story goes further and deeper than just rescuing 2. Pettler does an excellent job of revealing just enough about the world, piece by piece, to keep the eyes of the viewer glued to the screen. In time, we learn what happened to mankind, how these stitch-punks exist and, most importantly, we fall in love with these quirky last remnants of humanity on our lonely planet.
Back to the initial statement, it’s impossible to mention 9 without saying Tim Burton’s name as well. While it’s unclear just how involved Burton was in the creative process of the film, when thinking back on the stable of Burton films that have been produced in the past decade, 9 is certainly one of the strongest, both aesthetically and materially. This is topnotch storytelling done powerfully and compellingly. Burton aside, however, it mustn’t be forgotten or ignored that 9 was based on a short made solely by Acker. Looking at it this way, I can’t help but get excited about what Acker will be doing next.
9 is now playing in theaters everywhere.
For more information, visit the film’s official Web site.
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