9

FOCUS Features
In Theaters 09-09-09



Where District 9 gave us other worldly insight into the plights of segregation, apartheid and immigration, the new Tim Burton produced animated feature "9", opening in theaters today, ponders the dangers of turning over control to autonomous machines to fight our wars for us (a lesson we've been fed ad nauseam a la Skynet) interwoven with child-like fantasy and spiritual alchemy. Based on the 2005 award winning animated short feature by Shane Acker, before the utter obliteration of our world and total extinction of the human race one scientist puts a plan in motion to stop the evil we've unleashed upon ourselves by infusing life into a series of gear filled, servo eyed, canvas skinded dolls - numbered 1-9 - each with their own unique personality and quirky eccentricities. Together they must save this new world from the Matrix-like machines. Opening with 9's unsteady footing into his new life, like a new born fawn on wobbling legs, we're along for the ride from the "first room" into the larger world outside, through the haphazard journey where he finds his numbered siblings and encounters with ravenous mechanistic nemesis, to his resistance against the established hierarchy of his numbered clan that came before him, to discovering his origin and eventually the destiny for which he was created. Throughout we are treated to an intricate steampunk world the tiny creatures and mechanistic monsters have forged out of the rubble.

9 gets a 10

-MM