“9”, film by Shane Acker finally coming to theaters!

Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes! Ok, so I’m really excited for this movie. Almost two years ago someone sent me a link to a short (ten minutes) animated film by Shane Acker, entitled 9. I watched it, and was completely blown away. It was sort of like something from a person’s dream – somebody’s dark, bizarre, superawesome and intriguing dream. It was the only short film I’d ever seen that left me wanting much, much more; I felt as if ten minutes were not nearly enough to explore the universe Acker had created. You can image, therefore, how psyched I was to find out that the short was to be made into a feature-length film! And now that film is finally here! And with an amazing, all-star cast too! I’m already overdoing it with the exclamation points, and this is only how I felt before even watching the trailer!



How cool is that? 9 takes place in a sinister, postapocalyptic world where evil and frightening mechanical beasts threaten a group of sentient rag dolls who band together in an attempt to survive and find answers about themselves and the world that was. I was surprised at first that Elijah Wood was voicing 9, but I’ve come around to thinking he might be kind of perfect for the part. He can definitely do the whole earnest, innocent, underdog hero thing (à la Happy Feet, Lord of the Rings, etc) and he’s already done a lot of voice acting. Then we have Christopher Plummer as 1, coming right off his last big voice role with Pixar’s Up. He’s got a sweet voice, and I like it when he does animation, because then I can imagine the guy still looks like Captain von Trapp. I’m kind of neutral on Jennifer Connelly, but her character 7 does look pretty badass. The rest of the cast is pretty star-studded as well, but those three were the ones that jumped out at me.

One of the cool things about this film, aside from it’s unique design, is the fact that it seems to have the best action sequences I’ve ever seen in any animation anywhere. Check out this scene:



Although animated, 9 is not a kid’s movie. It’s dark and weird and features characters who fight what is essentially a losing battle. The beasts in this film are of the same brand of creepy that made the other mother in Coraline such a great villain. Check out this one, the Seamstress:



9 is directed by Shane Acker and produced by Tim Burton. In theaters September 9th. I am so there.

Persepolis, the graphic novel comes to life

Well, I decided to benefit from the long weekend by watching a whole slew of films online with my Netflix account, and let me say that I wasted a lot of time starting and even finishing some pretty mediocre films. One of them definitely stood out, though, so that’s the one I’ll focus on today. Like the recently premiered Coraline film, which I raved about last time, Persepolis is an adaptation of a book that employs a rather unique method of animation. But the similarities stop there. Based on an autobiographical graphic novel (in two parts) by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis recounts her memoirs of growing up in Iran in the 80s and 90s. Dealing with war, suppression, depression, and loneliness, Persepolis is not always a happy movie. Yet it does have a great deal of humor and lightness to contrast with the darker elements, and it strikes me as very honest (indeed, inexorably so.)

I’m arriving a little late to the Persepolis party, however. I read the books this past fall, but only got around to seeing the film this weekend. Though I definitely liked the books, I kind of hesitated to rush out and see the film because I didn’t think Satrapi’s particular style of drawing really lent itself to animation. Her images are direct and striking, but simple and minimalist. It works wonderfully for the story she tells in the book, but I just couldn’t imagine enjoying a feature-length film in that bare style. In this respect I confess myself to have been very much mistaken. The studio(s?) that worked on this film did an amazing job bringing Satrapi’s artwork to life. I found it incredible how such a minimalist approach could achieve such emotionally poignant and powerful effects. The images are simple, but they are very striking, strongly and effectively portraying some pretty harsh realities in stark black and white. Yet at the same time the film features some very tender, gentle, human moments among Marjane and her family. The young Marjane in particular was extremely real and childlike.

For me personally, I thought the sequences focusing on Marjane’s depression and loneliness later in the film were the most powerful, even more so than the images of war and killing. The artistic combination of animation and sound was very effective, but upsetting as well. Overall, I thought Persepolis was a fantastic adaptation of the original material, beautiful and alternatively funny and harrowing. If you’re looking for something to elevate and cheer your spirits, however, you might want to look elsewhere. Click here for the trailer.

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Just for the heck of it, some of the other stuff I watched this weekend:

• The Other Boleyn Girl - Beautiful to look at, but thoroughly unbelievable.
• Step Up 2 : The Streets - These kids are great dancers, but sadly not great actors. The bad script didn't help much either.
• Enchanted - Okay, this movie is awesome, but it was a re-watch for me.
• Lost In Austen - Delightful little BBC miniseries. Humorous romantic comedy time travel.

Coraline is officially awesome ...

… according to me, that is. But for what it’s worth, I though this Henry Selick directed, stop-motion animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book turned out very awesome indeed. I’ve seen a few other stop-motion films before, mostly of the Henry Selick and/or Tim Burton variety, but I don’t think even The Nightmare Before Christmas can measure up to this one. Much in the vein of Pan’s Labyrinth, Coraline puts a dark twist on the Alice-in-Wonderland theme of a girl who discovers another world in her own proverbial backyard (although perhaps not quite as dark as the aforementioned R-rated Guillermo del Toro film.) In fact, it's sort of like a modern-day Grimm fairy tale; it has the same kind of dark undertones. But I was really blown away by the sheer artistry of the stop-motion animation in this film. Since the rise of computer animation, the medium in which almost all American children’s films are now made, it’s amazing to think that everything depicted in Coraline was actually generated, not by a computer, but by human hands. Every puppet, every leaf and blade of grass, every roof shingle was physically constructed for the movie. The result is a stylized, but somehow very lifelike picture that is beautiful, funny, and in some ways intensely creepy.

Our story begins with young Coraline Jones moving into an old house that’s been divided up into separate apartments in some remote and rainy location. Her distracted parents and eccentric neighbors pay little attention to her, and she soon becomes bored and lonely, until she discovers a small door in the house that doesn’t seem to lead anywhere – most of the time. Despite several ominous clues and veiled warnings, Coraline is slowly drawn into the world beyond the door, a world very closely resembling her own, except for the simple fact that this one revolves around her. It’s magical and fun, and everything a kid could ever dream of – at first. Of course, things aren’t what they seem, but by the time Coraline senses danger she’s already become too entangled in the web to escape without first defeating something very old, very evil, and very nasty: the other mother.

One thing that impressed me the most about Coraline was actually the “real world” parts of the film. Not that the “other” world wasn’t fantastically and artistically portrayed. Believe me, those parts were really, really cool. But Coraline and her family seemed so lifelike and believable, like real people in a real world. Not only is that something you don’t usually see in stop-motion (which tends to rely heavily on crazy, cartoonish characters), but it also made the threat of the “other” world all the more sinister and scary. I also liked the character of Wieby (sp?). He wasn't in the book if I remember correctly, but I thought he made a delightful addition to the story. There wasn’t a lot of music in the movie, but the music that was featured in the opening sequences and closing credits was really lovely in a creepy sort of way, setting the tone of the film quite nicely.

I'm kind of curious as to how the film was marketed. I suppose the target audience was younger children, just like with the book, but I think it would be wrong to write it off as something that would only interest kids. I know I certainly enjoyed it, as did my (also college-aged) friend with whom I went to see it. Although I probably enjoyed it a little bit more.