9

Rating: 9.0/10

Genre: Animation Drama

Overall value for money and time: 9.4/10

Highly underrated, highly unappreciated. This movie deserves more than what the critics have called it. It packs a stronger theme than any other animations I have ever watched. I highly recommend catching it without reading the sypnosis. In a sentence: It's a film about a newborn creature, 9 who tries to find meaning in its existence.

For a fuller sypnosis, *warning spoilers ahead*:

A dark animation film which takes place in a hypothetical yet potentially possible era where machines have gradually reduced the human race to extinction. The creator of 9 puppet-like figures have finished his final work before dying and when 9 awakened, it was up to him to tie the loose ends of this new world in which he was "born" into.

It started off with great suspense, and from the synopsis I have provided above, you'll have no problem trying to follow the movie with much ease. However, the ending packs an intelligent twist which will surely sweep you off your feet, like it did mine, and it further linked and reinforced the storyline. I'm not too sure if the director did really have the upcoming "ideas" in mind but I am convinced that it's not your average animation - the director did put much thought into it.

There might be some references to the creator of the 9 beings trying to be "God himself", and how he created new life into the world, the beginning of a new civilisation (portayed at the end). While most of the movie is almost perfect, there isn't a movie without its flaws. A couple of them include the ambiguity of the ending scene and the questionable "artifact" which was missing link in the activation of the "brain".

*Major spoilers ahead* 9 of the beings made up parts of the creator's soul. When 9 was completed, it was the creator's last ounce of soul left in him, leaving him dead on the floor. The creator was an ingenious scientist who created the "brain", which was the very first machine which had the ability to manufacture more machines without human intervention. When the military intended to abuse the "brain" and cast the scientist out, it caused the "brain" to revolt. It caused an uprising and a war between humans and machine, and humans were all wiped out. The scientist realised that the "brain" lacked "humanity", which was the missing link in making it "good", so he used an artifact to drain out pieces of his soul in hope that they will bring peace to the world.

9 woke up with the scientist dead on the floor, found the artifact and carried it around with him, until it fell into the hands of the machines. One of the underlings brought it back to the "brain", inserted it into the deactivated "brain" and caused it to come to life again. The artifact acted as a portal to transfer soul into an inanimate object - in this case the machines and puppet-like beings.

What I didn't understand was when the ending disclosed the 9 beings being part of the scientist's soul, and the machine had already by then absorbed 5 of them, it felt like all the other 4 had to do was to sacrifice themselves to the machine which would make it human. But that was not how it ended, strangely. I could have been misled by the explanation or the explanation wasn't clear enough in the movie itself. Also, if "brain" was inactivated all along, then where did all those machines come from? One possibility is that the underlings were all made before the uprising and when humans finally managed to detach the "brain" from the artifact, it somehow found its way into the hands of the scientist and he started creating the 9 beings.

Moving away from the ambiguities of the movie, now's here the best parts of it. When 9 found the rest of the beings, 8, 6, 5, 2 and 1, they were separated, or more accurately seggregated from 7, 3 and 4. 1 was portrayed as the leader who in the guise of protecting the rest sacrificed those who threatened his own existence. 6 was the crazy one who scribbled werid symbols on his drawing blocks; 5 was the cowardly one, 2 was the old man who asked lots of questions, and 8 was the big macho brainless one. 7 was the only female, with great dexterity and agility; 3 and 4 were twins that were the brainy ones. Analyzing the characteristics of each one of them, it came to my realisation that it was all well planned on the director's part.

1 - ego

2 - inquisitive

3,4 - brainy scientists

5 - fearful

6 - creative

7 - feminine

8 - masculine

9 - humanity

It all made sense to have them in this order, where the scientist had to lose his ego first to save mankind. When he created the "brain", it was the most significant creation in human history but after realising that it was a mistake, he started to find a way to save civilisation. All 9 were charactistic of a typical male persona, and since he was a scientist, he had 2 numbers to dominate that trait of being brainy and intelligent. There's a feminine side to every guy and 7 denotes it. 8 was the masculine figure which was impulsive and didn't think much, and there was this scene where he put a magnet over his head several times. It didn't quite occur to me the reason until further analysis, that that was a subliminal way of illustrating "pleasure or desire".

Last but not least, 9 was the last of the scientist's soul, which was the last piece of humanity left in him, to save his own kind and was fueled by emotions and altruism. That's not all, the seggregation also made sense. 3,4 and 7 were the parts which didn't belong to the pact most, and how 1 was able to manipulate and be in control of the other numbers which had no desire to be independent.

There were shocking moments, funny moments and awesome state of the art CG. It's almost as perfect an animation can get for the matured audience and for those who loves thought provoking movies. Truly one of the best movies of the year! I could easily watch this 9 times!!!