Three, according to singer-songwriter Bob Dorough and Schoolhouse Rock, is a magic number. Six, according to Mobil, gets Cardinal fans reduced-price coffee when the team scores that many runs. "9," according to writer-director Scott Ackers, is the savior of. . . . Well, I’m not sure what the animated hobbit, or straw man, with the perfectly round, blinking eyes is the savior of, but probably the world as we know it, or some version thereof.
Writer-director Shane Acker, expanding on his short film of the same title with screenplay help from Pamela Pettler, runs through most of the scenarios that are typical to post-apocaleptic stories, but what gives "9" an advantage are its brevity (about 75 minutes), well-known voices inhabiting the character and excellent animation. And it’s also so very numerically imaginative to open the film on 9/09/09.
The creatures certainly are cute, both the nine stalwarts and a stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Michelin man.
Elijah Wood is the voice of our hero, with Jennifer Connelly a rabble-rousing young fighter, Christopher Plummer an old military man tied to tradition and the tactics of the old days, Martin Landau as an inventor, John C. Reilly as a charming, one-eyed repair creature obviously patterned after Greg Morris, the technical genius of the original "Mission: Impossible" TV series and Crispin Glover as an artist.
They add a lot to the entertainment value, but unfortunately, this is an animated science-fiction tale, so all the action is predictable and the story line just too pat. At the same time, it’s a little complicated and violent to use as children’s entertainment.
At multiple locations.
–Joe