Simply Perfect

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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.

This is a really fun animation, mostly because it's just so simple of a story very detailed in animation and visually exciting. I mean, for all the complicated methods of the computer animation with great lighting effects and detailed skins and movements of the characters and their effects on the environments, it's a very easy man-vs-monster story that can appeal to everyone.A raggedly named 9, or marked 9, or the ninth raggedly or something to that effect is tragically left alone after its partner 4 sacrifices itself to a monster that steals its soul. 9 devises a way to defeat the monster so that it will no longer torment it, and in the process discovers a way to provide closure to the souls' entrapment (the souls of 1 through 8). This is presented through faction fantasy pretty much existing as never-before-seen.It's very enjoyable and visually amazing. The monster seems almost perfect for the environment they come from, and the characters are very well emotionally presented considering their darned faces. The plot contains no real desire to be stretched into feature length or accepted as important, just presents six minutes of about as much fun as six minutes can give.

This is a really fun animation, mostly because it's just so simple of a story very detailed in animation and visually exciting. I mean, for all the complicated methods of the computer animation with great lighting effects and detailed skins and movements of the characters and their effects on the environments, it's a very easy man-vs-monster story that can appeal to everyone.A ragdoll named 9, or marked 9, or the ninth ragdoll or something to that effect is tragically left alone after its partner 4 sacrifices itself to a monster that steals its soul. 9 devises a way to defeat the monster so that it will no longer torment it, and in the process discovers a way to provide closure to the souls' entrapment (the souls of 1 through 8). This is presented through actiony fantasy pretty much existing as never-before-seen.It's very enjoyable and visually amazing. The monster seems almost perfect for the environment they come from, and the characters are very well emotionally presented considering their darned faces. The plot contains no real desire to be stretched into feature length or accepted as important, just presents six minutes of about as much fun as six minutes can give.--PolarisDiB

Great Visual Effects, stunning work!!! Shane is an inspiration to all short film makers.Brilliant Characters set in a visually fantastic backyard war zone. Dramatic lighting and gutting CGI environments create an astounding miniature world in trouble. Simple yet profound story telling without words, transcends past language barriers producing a universal story for all. With this film you can definitely see Shane's progress of his previous Good films to this breath taking achievement in short film making.A must see for any fan of animated shorts with stunning imagery.