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September 16, 2009

'9' not for age 9 and under

By STEVE OUELLETTE, Movie Review

It's far from the first post-apocalyptic movie to ever hit the big screen — not even of the animated variety — but "9" certainly adds something to the genre.

Not enough, though, to make up for a listless plot and a largely unsatisfying conclusion.

An expanded version of director Shane Acker's Oscar-winning 2004 11-minute short, "9" is padded out to 79 minutes with innovative visuals and plenty of battle scenes, but there's not enough substance to make it memorable.

Come to think of it, there's not a lot of actual substance to the movie's main characters either: Uniquely, they are a handful of burlap rag dolls somehow imbued with life, all that is apparently left of civilization after a takeover by vicious, destructive machines.

Our hero is #9 — each "stitchpunk" is identified only by the number on his or her back — who awakens in the midst of mayhem and a ruined world. Soon, however, he finds that there are others like him (eight others, to be precise), trying desperately to avoid a series of nightmarish contraptions bent on sucking the life out of them.

Elijah Wood ("Lord of the Rings") voices the neophyte #9, with some other familiar names around him. Jennifer Connelly is #7, a heroic female warrior; Crispin Glover is the eccentric #6; John C. Reilly is #5, a clever engineer; Martin Landau is #2, an aging inventor; Christopher Plummer is #1, the cautious and seemingly always wrong leader.

"9" is produced by Tim Burton, Acker's role model, but it doesn't have the depth or intrigue of Burton's stop-motion animation favorites such as "James and the Giant Peach," "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride." It's worth seeing, but maybe not until it gets to the small screen.

Though the frequent violence in the movie is of the cartoon variety — no oozing blood — "9" probably isn't a good idea for those, say, 9 and under. Some of the cleverly rendered evil machines have the potential to induce nightmares. Older kids will probably be OK and will get a kick out of the battles, but the story and the resolution might confuse them. It confuses me a little.

Rental Recommendation: Animated apocalypse was done so much better in "WALL-E." Grade: A.

E-mail Steve Ouellette at: ouellette1918@gmail.com

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