REVIEW: 9
D: Shane Acker
(Voices) Elijah Wood, Jenniffer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau.
A rag doll that awakens in a post-apocalyptic world, holds the key to humanity's salvation (imdb.com)
What a lovely, wonderful film. I had heard it was sad, so that's why I didn't watch it before. I loved it. I loved the characters and how adorable they are, without being lovey-cutsie-whatever.
Produced by Tim Burton, you can see little things that scream his name in the film. The drawings 6 makes, the music (Danny Elfman is a genius) and the design of the dolls themselves (don't tell me 8 didn't remind you of Oogie Boogie). They look like they came out of Burton's drawings and that's always wonderful. But they're modern, and the animation makes them look incredibly real.
It's a short film, very entertaining, very moving too. You get to see these characters for five minutes and fall in love with them at once. You don't want them to go away, but this is war and there are casualties. It's wood against metal, it's old-fashion against modern things, it's mechanical instrument against the digital world. And how hard it is to watch these fragil things, these fabric-made things fight against a monster that is pretty much indestructable.
5 stars.