Verdict:
9 is difficult to complain about other than it being rather standard. There are people out there who will see the cover art of this animated film and think “ah, this thing is probably too weird and artsy for me”, but if 9 is guilty of anything it is of being too normal and balanced. The story is quite simple and the line-up of characters is actually full of clichés. There is our naive but upright hero, the feisty girl, the cynical old wise man afraid of change, etc.
One will notice a lack of relationship development, when the newly born protagonist character meets the others, and everyone acts as if they met each other before. This feels like a shortcut made by the creators, even if the storyline hints at the reason for this behaviour.
The story takes other shortcuts as well. In the original animated short, the characters didn’t speak. Much was left to the imagination of the viewer. But in this extended version, the characters talk to one another and explain things. New plot elements are introduced, and plot resolutions are added, but these resolutions are either poorly substantiated or just don’t make sense. The issue is that, once you start showing the audience a concrete resolution to something, keeping things vague results in a plot hole rather than in a mystery.
For the people who see the cover art and the trailer and subsequently go in with their minds open for a challenge might receive a less intelligent product than what they expected.
But that is not to say that 9 is bad. The pacing is just right, with the change between mystery and action scenes fluent enough to keep your interest the whole time.
The art is the most striking thing about 9. It combines knitting and steampunk, and the puppets in 9 are called Stitchpunks (does that sound to you like they are trying to copywrite an entire artistic style?). 9 was originally a short animation created by Shane Acker. That version already seems to have some similarities to Tim Burton’s work, and I wonder if that caught Tim Burton’s attention, who then came on as a producer for the extended version, providing his nightmarish finishing touches. Either way, you can definitely see traces of Burton’s influence in the feature film. The villains are properly terrifying. The post-apocalyptic landscape is detailed, though the computer animation inevitably does not age that well. The particle effects look blurry.
The soundtrack, composed by Danny Elfman and Deborah Lurie, imbues 9 with emotional depth and complements the dark mysterious mood of the visuals. It also reflects the differences in the characters of Stitchpunks.
The dialogue is smart. The cast consists of surprisingly high-caliber names, like Elijah Wood and John C. Reiley. It’s strange that 9 is not more popular, given so many known names involved in its production.
Perhaps it is a combination of the niche depressing “stitchpunk” appeal and the middling reviews that are ultimately burying this animation in obscurity. However, although lacking depth, this is still an animated film worthy of your time, praiseworthy primarily for its captivating visuals and mood.