9 (2009)

9 (2009)

Release Date: September 9, 2009 (In other words, 9/9/09. Cool, huh?)

9 is what happens when Little Big Planet does Fallout. The premise of living dolls surviving in a post-apocalyptic world is certainly an unique one, but does the film itself live up to the concept?

The ragdoll 9 awakens in a scientist’s laboratory and ventures outside with a talisman he found in the laboratory. Outside he meets another doll, 2, who gives 9 the ability to speak before being captured by a cat robot. 9 meets another group consisting of 2’s apprentice 5, cowardly leader 1 and his bully of a bodyguard 8, and the mad oracle 6, who has a thing for circles. 9 disobeys 1 and goes to rescue 2, after befriending 5 and convincing him to come with him. 9 and 5 are able to find 2, but the three are attacked by the cat robot and it takes the timely arrival of the missing presumed dead 7 to save them and kill the cat robot. 9 finds that the cat robot was guarding a mysterious hole that his talisman fits right into, so he puts it in place. This was a very bad decision, as the talisman was the key needed to awaken Skynet, the machine that destroyed the world in the first place. As thanks, Skynet steals 2’s soul, rendering the rescue operation a bust.

7 shows 9 and 5 where she has been hiding with two other dolls, 3 and 4, who show us that Skynet was created as a thinking robot by the scientist, which was quickly co-opted by an obvious Hitler stand-in to create war machines. As is always the case, the machines turned against their creators and destroyed humanity with chemical weapons. The group returns to 1’s hideout, but he gives them an earful for putting his group at risk, and is proven right when Skynet sends a pteranodon robot to follow the dolls to their hideout. The pteranodon is destroyed, but the hideout also goes up in flames. That night, another robot captures 7 and 8 by using 2’s body as a hypnotising lure. This one’s on 8, as he was too busy using a magnet to get high when he should have been standing guard. I was gonna stay and watch guard, but then I got high...

The dolls head to Skynet’s factory but they’re too late to save 8, as Skynet steals his soul just as they arrive. On the plus side, 9 destroys the hypnotising robot and saves 7, while the others use a barrel of oil, a harpoon gun, and an airship to create a bomb and destroy the factory. (And they didn’t even need any rubies to get all those things!) The dolls celebrate, but Skynet survived the blast, and worse, it’s no longer trapped in the factory and can move about. 5 and 6 are killed, but 9 is finally able to figure out 6’s mad ravings about the source and returns to the scientist’s laboratory, where he finds a recording explaining that the scientist created the dolls using alchemy and his own soul. He was a Full Stitching Alchemist, if you will. Anyway, the recording reveals that removing the talisman will shut down Skynet, and 9 returns to the other dolls which had been holding Skynet back while he had been retrieving this information. 9 plans to sacrifice himself to buy the others the time they need to remove the talisman, but 1 finally grows a pair and pushes 9 out of the way, allowing his soul to be taken instead. While Skynet is distracted, 9 removes the talisman and releases the absorbed souls, turning Skynet into scrap metal in the process, and the surviving dolls (9, 7, 3 and 4)  all lived happily ever after – until the sequel when Skynet comes back as Matt Smith.

9 is an expanded remake of a short 10 minute cartoon. The original version featured only 9 and the cat robot, and what had happened to the world to cause this was left ambiguous. Naturally, the film has more time to go into what happened, as well as feature more characters. The inclusion of Skynet in the film works well, as the cat robot is frightening enough in both incarnations, making for a nasty surprise when it is revealed to be a low level minion for a far worse threat. The backstory answering questions posed by the original version as to what happened to cause the world’s ruin is also quite interesting, albeit nothing particularly original, and I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of it.

The grim feel of this devastated world is cleverly portrayed in visual short hand through the character designs. Characters are made from scraps scavenged together from anything that comes to hand. For example, the dolls are made from different kinds of cloth, with some having patches or being damaged in places, and it’s clear where they’ve been stitched together. Likewise, Skynet’s creations are a combination of rusty, jagged metal, bones and anything else that comes to hand. This lends an unique style to the film’s characters, as well as possible symbolism from the doll protagonists being made from soft materials and the evil robots desecrating their former compatriots and the remains of long dead beings.

One notable thing about 9 is that the film is very short by film standards. Not including the credits, the film lasts only 69 minutes. As such, events are very fast-paced, but there’s still a distinct beginning, middle and end to lend a strong structure. It doesn’t feel as if any time in the film is wasted, which is an advantage for a film as short as this one. If anything, there’s a lot of material to go through, and it feels like the film could have been longer if it had wanted to be.

9 is a film that sticks in the memory for its striking design and visuals, and for the confidence with which it presents its new world and lore. Although it doesn’t do anything terribly new, the assured execution and presentation of the material is enough to elevate the film.