Video - What the HELL is 9?
Added 2021-10-29 18:29:38 +0000 UTCIt is finally out! I think my opinion of this film might surprise some people. Lemme know what you thought of the movie and the video!
~Saber
Comments
This movie came out when I had just turned 18, and was in college hoping to go into animation. I have always loved this movie and it's still one of my favorites, but I definitely gotta agree here. We wanted so badly to see more, there was so much that could have been explored. Fans like me built on it with fanworks of course, but I wish so badly 9 had developed into more.
Kryptid and Co
2021-10-30 04:20:06 +0000 UTCThe short earned that Academy Award nomination. And while I don't want to disrespect the movie's voice cast, I can't help but wonder if it would have been a better movie if it had kept to the short's voiceless ambiguity. It felt like once it had cast Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, et. al, it promptly divested itself of a need to write actual characters. "Hey, it's Elijah Wood! You know, Frodo! Underdog hero! Need I say more?" (Um, yes, movie, you probably should. Either that, or a lot less.) Keeping it voiceless might have given the audience more opportunity to speculate enjoyably on the mysteries, rather than providing just enough dialogue and exposition to frustrate on both a world-building and character level. Most frustratingly, in what was indeed a daringly "mature" animated piece for its time, the voices feel like the biggest concession to both the perceived "conventional" movie-going audience and one that would get the fidgets if it didn't get to hear the rag dolls talk. Largely I agree on the big points. Visually remarkable, but frustratingly empty. It's one of those movies that you can stand on and have a clear view of the greatness it could have been.
Kraken
2021-10-29 23:50:55 +0000 UTCSo 9 was pretty much one of those movies that pretty much came and went from theaters way back in 2009 (12 years ago...gosh, am I getting old or what?!), and it had so much potential...but that wasted potential would lead to the movie making less than the people behind it had hoped it would make. Thanks to your review, I can see why the movie didn't do so well...whatever positive aspects it had (visuals, action scenes, voice acting) are overshadowed by a story that it too fast paced, characters who are dull and whom we do not learn much about, and the overall sense that maybe 9 would have worked better as a TV series instead of a movie. If I recall correctly, you had similar thoughts about Raya and the Last Dragon earlier this year, with how that movie had so much lore one would like to know more about, but the movie did not spend enough time fleshing it out, and it would have worked better as a Disney+ streaming series. It's the same deal with 9: perhaps they could have done a TV series first to better establish the lore and the characters and then make a movie that could serve as the culmination of the saga. But alas...we're likely never gonna see a sequel or a series to 9 if it has become all but forgotten after all these years. I do appreciate how you did not let your nostalgia blind you to the movie's issues. You clearly did not look at the movie through rose-tinted glasses...rather, you were honest in your thoughts that 9-a movie that you loved years ago-was not as good as you remembered. A hot take for some? Perhaps. But I have always respected your opinions on movies, cartoons, and now games, that you have covered, and that remains true here. Know that I will always value your opinions-whether they are popular or not, and whether I agree with them or not-and that is a promise. All in all, I am glad you gave 9 an honest shake, and letting us know that it wasn't bad, but it was quite flawed. It looks like out of all the Halloween cartoons you have covered, Over the Garden Wall and Scary Godmother remain the best of the bunch, though I reckon 9 would still sit comfortably in third place...not a bad place to be. But you gotta admit...at least 9 was most likely better than Legend of Hallowaiiann (which I presume is still next on your list of Halloween-related movies to cover), amirite? =P Hope you're doing well, Saber...I will see you again soon! =)
Emily Shimp
2021-10-29 20:44:12 +0000 UTCYou suggest the film barely broke even, or when accounting for marketing was a financial loss. While I think you've got the info as the studio would describe it, the reality is that it almost certainly was not even close to breaking even. There's no certain rule without knowing what was actually spent, but the rule of thumb is to guess that thanks to hidden costs like P&A and the theaters' cut, a film needs to gross 2.5 times the production budget to break even. 9 would need about $75m to break even and would therefore have lost over $30m. (That's actual real break even, not Hollywood accounting, by which standard every movie loses money). Sometimes the P&A (Prints and advertising) is way higher than the original cost, like The Blair Witch Project or El Mariachi as two of the most extreme examples. And sometimes a movie gets dumped with almost no advertising to match the budget, like Ultraviolet. This movie looks to have had normal advertising. One slight positive, in a sense, is that the gross skews highly towards the US. A US film gets far more of every dollar in the US that in foreign markets. Some foreign markets take a very large cut, like China. This is why the film "World of Warcraft" is not getting a sequel despite doing very well worldwide. I only mention all of this because there's a real misconception about how close to making money many movies were. The studios want you to think they just missed. And none of this is about the quality of lack thereof of any movie. Just the numbers.
Kyle Olson
2021-10-29 19:45:32 +0000 UTCI have such vivid memories of seeing this, i adore that harsher edge on the design tone!
F
2021-10-29 18:31:13 +0000 UTC
