New Poster for “9″

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I’m not trying to be a shill for Shane Acker’s forthcoming feature “9″, but the imagery is so striking and the film itself so anticipated (by me), I can’t seem to help it. This Friday, this new poster will be up at local theatres (click on image to enlarge) which will formally begin the public marketing campaign. Virally, on Facebook, a page has been established where the back-story of “9″ has begun to unfold through the voice of the film’s Scientist. According to a press release: “Here, readers can see the Machine that will help rebuild the Nation and be the first to see his designs that will change the world.” – Focus Features will release “9″ in theatres on 9/9/09.

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  • Scott

    Hmmmm…. I guess nobody checked (or cared) to see if there might be some confusion with the Rob Marshall-directed musical opening at Christmas ’09 called…. NINE.

  • http://saturdaymorningcentral.com Tommy

    Looks a little like a video game to me, but sounds interesting.

  • http://chrissokalofsky.com Chris Sokalofsky

    You’re not the only one anticipating this movie. This has the potential to blow open the door on what constitutes a big budget animated film. If this film does well, then it may shake the stigma of the standard “family friendly” film that’s become the standard for our industry. I for one am hoping for the best on this one!

  • joe g

    In my opinion this movie would be better if it was done in stop motion puppetry

  • Al

    “Looks a little like a video game to me”

    I don’t understand why people use this comment to criticize a CG animated film. Essentially, every CG animation and video games are derived from…**surprised, surprised**….Computer Graphics. Of course it looks like a video game. There is supposed to be an artificial stylized visual look to it. Where you expecting photorealism?

  • Sam Filstrup

    I’m just as excited and plan on seeing it I just hope it does well in the box office.

  • Ricky

    This is going to be terrible. Whose brilliant idea was it to make all the character designs identical? If you saw “Nightwatch” you’ll know what you’re in for. Woof.

  • Ptah_Hashish

    i am a little surprised that no one said a thing about the poster’s text, “From…visionary director Shane Acker”

    Visionary director? that’s a little over the top. did i miss a meeting?

  • timmyelliot

    I am completely looking forward to this film.

    In reference to the video game comment that someone else made.
    Originally, it did almost seem like the characters were lower poly with heavy use of textures to make up for detail (such as the grain on their burlap bodies). But, I’ve only seen, low resolution youtube videos, which might have exaggerated the effect for me.

  • Blatherpuss

    I am honestly more pumped for this film then I was for Up. Up was a good movie, don’t get me wrong, but it’s always nice to see a movie that’s trying something completely different in terms of design and setting in animation coming out! Hopefully the story will follow suit and not be cookie cutter Saturday Morning Fair.

  • http://www.onanimation.com Daniel Caylor

    I only recently learned that this was done by Starz Animation in Toronto of Veggie Tales and Everyone’s Hero fame. On their website it says they make their films for around the 20mil mark, which is incredible. Chris may be right about blowing open doors.

    When I first saw the trailer, I thought it looked lame. But then they released a new trailer, that I believe was posted here, that made me want to see it. I’ll definitely see it, and hope for the best :)

  • http://saturdaymorningcentral.com Tommy

    Al,

    As a fan of both video games and computer animation, I’d say there is a big difference in quality between the two. The trailers I’ve seen for 9 just reminded me of the quality of animation you see in video games as opposed to features.

    I’m sure it’s just because of it’s low budget, but trust me, I’m looking forward to seeing this film.

  • http://www.animationinsider.net/ Aaron H. Bynum

    The new (second) trailer they’ve been playing in theaters for a while is pretty awesome too…

  • Carlos

    I guess in this case the videogame comparison is understandable… since the main characters have a similar aesthetic to LittleBigPlanet’s Sackboys.

    http://www.waltercedric.com/images/stories/OfficiallylicensedSackBoyplushwillbeavai_13E48/sackboy.sackgirl.plush.available.jpg

    Still really looking forward to it.

  • Al

    Hey Tommy, I appreciate the clarification. The line between video games and computer animation on the quality of animation is getting more blur. There is quality animation in some video games that are just as good as the movies. If video games looks like this movie, its just fine with me.

  • Mac

    I really want this to be good, but one problem I’ve had with the clips and trailers so far is that a lot of the characters look too similar – especially in such a dark world. Maybe it will be easier in the context of the final film, but so far it’s been tricky keeping track of who’s who. The rather boring voice work doesn’t help much either. However, there’s a lot to be excited about with this movie and hopefully some of the ‘problems’ I have seen are only from watching brief clips out of context.

  • AlphaTom

    The “visionary director” title is a trend I hope stops soon. They had that on Watchmen posters too. It just feels a little too pat-on-the-backy for my tastes.

    But I am super excited to see this movie.

  • Scott

    “I don’t understand why people use this comment to criticize a CG animated film.”

    They don’t. It’s only mentioned when a cg animated film that looks like a VIDEO game, which 9 does.

    I hope it does well–but if it’s like the short, don’t audiences to get too excited.

  • http://www.billdorais@gmail.com wabash

    I agree that the “look” of this trailer is sub par. The quality of the rendering looks very student film. Everything else seems great, just a bit of a shame to not finish it off w/ more love.

  • http://spitandspite.com Oh My F******g Gawd!

    “imagery is so striking”… really?!?
    anyways…

    I hope it makes a ton of money but it most likely won’t. This isn’t drawing in my young teenage brother and sisters so what’s the market for this exactly? the nerds who read this blog (yea i’m in that group) or people who like sci-fi goth and tim burton? i’ll go see it but i get a feeling it’ll fall flat unfortunately. Hope it doesn’t though….

  • http://tetecarree.blogspot.com David Gale

    Why is everything so green nowadays? I mean the colour green. I must have started with Floria Sigismondi’s Marylin Manson videos from the 90′s, which I guess this is a descendant of.

  • really?

    Wait, did anybody even see the short? It’s the sort of concept a high school student would come with.

  • Karen

    TIm Burton hasn’t made a good film in over a decade. I always had a glimmer of hope for a new Burton film, but after travesty that was Sweeney Todd, I gave up. A great story, characters, and music handed to him on a platter, and he screws it up. Sheesh! I know Burton didn’t direct this, but beyond Burton’s name being attached, who cares?

  • http://tomboycomics.blogspot.com emily

    Geez, guys. If it doesn’t interest you that’s fine, but don’t knock a film because it doesn’t have a known director attached. We should be happy that unknown animation artists are getting chances to direct films, and share their unique vision. I personally don’t think the film will interest me too much, but am happy for Shane Acker, who first conceived of the film idea during grad studies at UCLA.

    And if you don’t like Tim Burton, or his recent work, then you should be glad to know that he is producing, not directing the film…

  • http://allenpov.blogspot.com Enoch Allen

    I can’t knock this film, myself. I have too much emotional capital invested to do that.

    I am Praying that this film’s box-office performance is at least above expectations, because then that means that more in this vein (animated films that tackle deeper, darker subject matter) will be made & taken seriously even by those outside certain demographics.

  • tiffanyy

    I am so anxious to see this movie it looks great!:]i saw the trailer:]looks very interesting!