Today’s quick review: 9. Elijah Wood stars as 9, a foot-tall rag doll with a mechanical skeleton and the spark of life, in this dark CGI fantasy. 9 wakes up in a bedroom next to a dead man, and, venturing outside, he is greeted with the sight of a blasted city. He soon encounters 2, another doll like him, who promises to take him to the others. But their meeting is cut short by a mechanical cat-beast, a monstrous creature that takes away 2. 9 manages to find the others, a small group of rag dolls living under the rule of 1, dreading the roving mechanical beasts. 9 must decide whether to obey 1’s injunction not to leave their sanctuary or whether to venture out into the wastes after his newfound friend. Thus begins a grim adventure filled with loss, resourcefulness, and hope.
9’s main appeal is its atmosphere. The ruins of a shelled city are all the more dramatic through the eyes of a doll, and even the most rusted junk takes on new life in the hands of the tiny scavengers. The green glow of the dolls’ life force lends a mystical, otherworldly vibe to the browns and greys of the film, while the machines’ red eyes, jagged edges, and body asymmetry make even the strange rag dolls seem positively welcoming by comparison. The direction plays up the lonely, dangerous feel of the world: triumph can turn to tragedy in a heartbeat, and safety is never assured. And yet, there is still beauty in the world, preserved in secret places and between friends, and perseverance is rewarded.
The rag dolls manage to be effective characters in spite of their simplicity. The dolls are defined by their appearances and perhaps one or two key traits: 9 by his curiosity and loyalty, 2 by his resourcefulness and independence, etc. But these quick sketches are used effectively. Every interaction between the dolls adds a little more to their characters, and every crisis tests the mettle of their convictions. The result is a set of simple character archetypes that grow and change in well-defined ways as the movie goes on. This character development is bolstered by creditable voice acting and nuanced, meaningful animation.
The plot is minimalistic: the dolls square off against a series of mechanical beasts and spend the interim time discussing what to do next. The rules of the universe are not made clear in advance, so what few overarching elements there are, such as 2’s medallion, have little grounding or significance. That said, the events of the story do snowball nicely, and the bare-bones plot fits the bleak, mysterious setting quite well.
An unexpected strength of the movie is its action. The rag dolls show splendid resourcefulness in their battles with the mechanical beasts, making up for their disadvantages in size and strength with improvised weaponry, agility, and guts. Though out-and-out combat is rarer from the dolls than frantic attempt to flee, the handful of direct fights have a satisfying impact to them.
Overall, 9 lives up to its promise as a dark CGI film with strong atmosphere. Many parts of the movie are deliberately left as sketches—the backstory, the plot, the characters—but these sketches are used effectively and gradually fleshed out as needed. Watch 9 if you are looking for something brooding and creepy but fundamentally optimistic. Skip it if you dislike abstract, unfamiliar characters and settings or are looking for something light. 7.1 out of 10 on IMDB.