Research 9, the Feature Film

 

The short film 9 is an animated story about a goggled creature with the number 9 on its back that was turned into a full length film 4 years after the original short film's release. The full length film holds the same setting as the short film, a post apocalyptic Earth, but goes a lot more into depth with its story. When watching the short film, I wasn't sure as to what was going on. That was because nothing was properly explained in the short before it moved on to the next conflict. The film does a better job at this, most likely due to having a longer run time. The story that the film expands on is not only more fleshed out, but it is also intriguing. The story and characters were all written well and went well with the amazing animation work. The only time that I remembered that the film wasn't stop motion was during scenes where humans would appear. The sound design was also really well done. There were sound clues that would hint toward what would happen next or would come from something that happened in the background, even if the viewer wasn't meant to pay attention to it. 

Despite the positives of the writing and presentation of the film, there were still some problems with both. For example, the action scenes got stale after a certain point in the movie. This was because the film has a tendency of saving characters from danger by having a distraction take place. There are multiple instances where this would happen and it got to a point where I expected it to happen more times than not. Although it wasn't much of a problem, it took me a while to see the characters act in ways that were human. Don't get me wrong, I'm not gatekeeping being a human, it was just weird seeing 9 clutch his injured arm as if it were bleeding. It's a little bit weirder to think that later on in the story, one of the characters fails to realize that their hand is broken before they see it. Plus, how come some of the characters are noticeably older than others? I'd assume inorganic creatures such as these wouldn't age in similar ways to humans, but I could be wrong. 

All in all, the film was an enjoyable experience and definitely holds up 19 years after its release. I've praised the animation of both the short and the feature film and that isn't just to fill in the minimum sentence count, the films genuinely look amazing.