Rag-doll apocalypse
The images in the beginning are incredible. These little rag dolls have last stitches made on them by big hands and then they add eyes that look like binoculars. This creature begins to walk with difficulty, goes through a bombed cityscape with fear.
This was first conceived as a short by Shane Acker, then a UCLA student, and was nominated for an Oscar in 2006. In fact it reminded me at that time of ‘a climate of creeping, crashing menace elaborated as hide and seek played out via this animation’s beautiful designs and haunting overtones’. It still is such as when “9” shakes hands with his already existent brothers #1 through #8 and they face off against the Beast a Transformer-like red-eyed monster.
It sounds weird to design life where there is none just to introduce it to another one that wants only to destroy it. Unfortunately, it’s all about providing room for some action scenes in form of an apocalypse visualized perfectly well but which is no less violent than other all action all the time films. It’s quite disappointing. After being impressed by his short Acher made I can’t wait to see what he will do at feature length especially since he has Tim Burton producing him.
They appear quite similar but without much effort one can differentiate them because different digits are sewn on their backs. The characters also have distinct visual aspects; besides they are voiced by different actors including Christopher Plummer who plays the leader #1 full of respect for their lives and Jennifer Connolly serves as the voice for female number seven symbolically representing womanhood amongst this species without genitalia not even nostalgically mentioned.
Nine should be considered youngest, perhaps its smartest, and most definitely its most daring members leading others around against what #1 had suggested. They look like remnants from an old city rather than the ones yet to come because the year might be anywhere after 1940, as evidenced by a 1940ish newsreel which tells us of a global war started by a dictator like Hitler that turned out to be more devastating than any in history. Was the Beast remaining behind to eliminate all survivors and thus guarantee final victory even without winners?
Let me say that such questions are interesting. However, dialogue is mostly just simplistic Action Speak with warnings barked out, instructions given, and strategic discussions conducted on their most basic level. So now that this film seems obviously addressed not to young kids but rather teenagers and above, does Hollywood believe eloquence or intelligence are no more required for action dialogues?
This was one of the good things about pre CGI times actions scenes could be visually nonsensical but they had to be made up of details readable from images. The modern CGI artists become complacent with their power over images and get lost in an overly complex picture. I’d probably suggest: “You’ll recognize it when you see it; also there’s one big red glowing eye.”
Compare this with Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” where the building is beyond massive. It might seem awesomely difficult at first sight however I have a large print of one of Miyazaki’s still drawings from the film showing how everything fits together clearly here.
This movie, although not very popular, is worth watching. Even though it could have been a chance for the profound mind-boggling scientific fantasies that are best when it comes to science fiction. The greatest thing to see in the movie is the way that its visuals are so creative. They are fascinating.
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