9

I took the kids to go see 9 today. It was opening day (9/9/09... get it?) and we've been talking about it for a while. I think that Capone, a reviewer for aintitcool.com, summed it up best with the following statement...

"Capone gives Shane Acker's 9 a 3 for story, 8 for voice acting, and 10 for visuals!!!"

The visuals were truly stunning. I know that it was all computer generated. But more times than not I was believing that I was watching stop-motion. And a few times even I forgot that what I was seeing on screen wasn't real to begin with. The voice acting was spot on. That is something that is sometimes overlooked, forced, or simply miscast in animated adventures. And the story was alright. It felt like I'd seen something similar in any number of end-of-the-world anime over the years. The ending was down-right horrid, but in a feel-good, corny, dorky, sappy kind of way. I wonder if the ending was the director's original or if it was force-fed to him by studio execs.

Either way, I liked the film and would recommend it. The little robot-doll-things were adorable. And the robot-creature-nasties were downright terrifying. This is definitely not something for the little 'uns.