You don’t have to clock Tim Burton’s name in the list of producers to sense his presence in Shane Acker’s patchy animated drama.
Elijah Wood leads the voice cast in the role of the titular 9, one of a group of creatures, all sackcloth and zips, trying to stay out of the clutches of the dreaded machine responsible for the end of the world as they know it.
Lending support to the artist formerly known as Frodo Baggins is Christopher Plummer, the wise old number one who wants to placate the machine.
John C Reilly plays number five, nine’s companion on his quest to save the missing number two. (Don’t worry about keeping track: the characters wear their numbers like footballers).
This is Acker’s debut feature, and as well as Burton he has Russian visual effects master Timur Bekmambetov of Wanted, Day/Night Watch fame as fellow producer.
Plenty of style, then, but the attempts at substance can be confusing, with 9 calling on as many influences, ideas and imagery as it has characters.
There are echoes of War of the Worlds (Spielberg’s version) and Raiders of the Lost Ark, plus the usual take-care-of-the-planet message. But it’s when the plot takes a turn for the religious at the end that confusion takes over.
With so many ideas in the mix it’s hard to see where the audience for 9 lies. Adults might find its message overly bleak. While children will be able to follow the basic search and rescue story easily enough, there are a couple of moments younger ones could find distressing. Nine out of 10 for visual effort; a bare pass for the rest.
9 (12A)
***
Dir: Shane Acker
Voices: Christopher Plummer, Elijah Wood, John C Reilly
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