Shane Acker’s '9'

Puppet robots fight evil machines in a post-apocalyptic world in ‘9’. Shane Acker moves into feature film, following his Oscar-nominated short animation of the same name and delivering his impressive trademark ‘steampunk'

This year will be the year of nines in movies. Squeezing between the recent District 9, the upcoming musical Nine, and the German independent film Cloud 9, comes Shane Acker’s post-apocalyptic animation 9 to theaters this week. Movie enthusiasts will no doubt be familiar with Acker’s foray into feature film. The boy wonder impressed the American Academy and later such masters of fantasy like Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (of Wanted) with his short animation 9 back in 2005.

The most appropriate way to explain the feature 9 would be to call it an extended version of the short 9. The movie begins in a post-apocalyptic world in the near future, reminiscent of WALL-E, with bleak colors and sad remains of a civilized world now in ruins. The hero here is another robot, 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), looking more like a postmodern ragged doll. Machines have destroyed mankind, including a scientist who breathed life into nine puppet robots. 9 meets its predecessors in what could loosely be called a primitive community, led by the autocrat 1 (Christopher Plummer), and including the sidekick 5 (John C. Reilly) and the only woman robot, 7 (Jennifer Connelly).

As the group of numbered robots cooperates to fight the evil machines, they showcase human qualities like compassion, self-importance and a sense of humor. 9 reminds one of another sci-fi classic, the 1960s’ TV classic The Prisoner with its inhabitants of the Village referred to as numbers who find the power of community the hard way. The 2009 remake starts this Sunday on cnbc-e. Acker dubbed his design of the homely feel of his robots “stitchpunk,” and later fans called his unique visualization of machinery as “steampunk.” Why these invented words have stuck with so many moviegoers is a testament to the power of Acker’s imagination and the unique world he has created. The disappointment comes in the form of the story as 9 barely delivers what the original short film gave us, becoming yet another cautionary tale on virtues of human values in the manner of children’s animation.

Originally Published in Hürriyet Daily News on 11 Dec. 2009