9

A pretty effective short.

Without a single spoken dialogue, it manages to tell a very engaging story, mostly thanks to its haunting atmosphere and endearing main characters.

The feature length version was good too, and showed once again the great potential of Shane Acker as animator.

I hope to see another animated film directed by him sometime in the future.

Just watched this-Shane Acker's original short version of the now released feature version of 9. The title character is-as many commentators have mentioned-a rag doll who's on the run from a large creature that just killed a fellow worker with some light bulb gadget. The computer animation is pretty exciting with the chase and I can see why it was nominated for an Academy Award. But I guess because it was so short and there weren't too many details of why all this was happening made me a little unsatisfied with this animated short. In other words, I wanted this to be a little longer. So it's with that being said that I hope the feature version of 9 becomes a much more enjoyable experience than what I saw here...

When you are wanting to create an idea for a feature film, it's great to start somewhere small. That small start comes in the form of a short film, which can introduce not only the primary idea or concept of the story but it also can introduce a wide range of elements. When an aspiring filmmaker introduces these elements in a short form first, it allows them to create a blueprint for something even bigger- "The Feature Film". Shane Acker's thesis project from his time at UCLA film school, brings about the beginning of something he would build upon later to the 2009 feature length film version.

9 takes animation to a dark and bizarre realm where a living rag doll like being struggles to survive and fight against an enemy of terrifying proportions. Acker's dark animated world gives off such a ruined and atmospheric world resembling that of the apocalypse, where a world has ended and what remains struggles to survive. In the midst of this apocalyptic realm, there is a little more being offered to us here in terms of mystery and science fiction, but it's explored only to a certain point. Despite not going to extreme lengths in those areas(being that it is a short film and time is limited) it still manages to feel compelling and intriguing all the way through its 11 minute runtime. It is not in any way a perfect short film or concept, but having said that 9 is an excellent model for a short to feature film process.

Shane Acker created this all computer generated world that is both visually creative and detailed with stunning visuals and sound design. The animation appearing on screen is well detailed with very clear textures and modeling, but what enhances that animation is the lighting. Just like in live action and non-animated films, the right lighting setup can have a great impact on what's being shown on scree- creating mood, emotion, atmosphere and so on. Lighting throughout the film acts as a constant reminder of the darkness of the world and how fearful the characters are in this world. Then one of the last things to notice in 9 is the sound design, which is quite good. Each and every sound feels right on point with the interactions between characters and environment. Even though there is no actual dialogue being spoken, the film's sound design and visuals all come together to tell an interesting story.

Once 9 has ended you are left with an interesting concept for a story, where you might be asking yourself, "Is there more to this world?". The answer to that is yes there is, which came as Shane Acker's 2009 full-length feature film version. As I said earlier in this review that this film is in no way a perfect idea, but it does show great promise for future endeavors to further explore the world of 9. Overall Star Rating: 8/10

A rag doll fights a monster that has been stealing the souls of his people.

I saw this on you tube. Having a running time for about 10 minutes, I decided to watch this film and you know what? It was actually a fantastic and brilliant kind of "short" film. The animation is fantastic and original-looking and what I love about this film is that it's not afraid to be a dark animated film. There are some moments in here where it might be truly frightening for a child.

More on animation: It looked fresh, original, and gritty. I loved it! Another great thing is that this film has NO (ZERO) - NADA - dialog but yet it still pulls off for great character development through the actions of the characters! This is just an animated film with a simple plot done in an extraordinary way. The look is fantastic and I'm sure Shane Acker will be a great animator when he makes more of these types of films. So if you have ten minutes to kill, go to you tube right now and search up "9".

I was planning on watching the movie 9 recently until someone pointed out it was an expanded version of a short film that I'd not seen, which made me want to watch the short film in the extras and then leave it a while before watching the more recent version. I probably made the right call on that since the original was made on a much more limited budget to say the least and is much simpler and smaller – so seeing it after a full version may have worked against it. Anyway, what I found was a short film that does what a short film is meant to do – engage and deliver quickly.

The plot is not really explained – or at least the background to the world and characters anyways. Instead we are thrown into the middle of it as one ragdoll character has its soul captured by some sort of mechanical creature; this leaves doll #9 to either survive it, kill it or die trying. The short is as simple as that and, in the absence of detail and plot to engage, it is all about atmosphere and feeling. These are almost harder than the visual aspect to create but Acker gets it right, producing a very dark feeling film that engages because of its Gothic feel and dark air. Visually the film works very well even if the limited resources do show. The animation is smooth, the creatures have character and presences with only the slightest touch and the wider world is interesting.

Overall this was an enjoyable and dark short film that worked off atmosphere and visual creativity. I will be interested to see if an expansion and additions of characters, voices etc make it a better experience or if it dilutes the simple short too much across a longer running time.