The first 10 minutes feel like 30, in a good way. The world feels like it has so much texture; there's a lot to take in. Unfortunately, once our main character "9" begins meeting the rest of the cast, things go downhill pretty quickly.
Pros: Very cool cast. This movie looked great for an independent 3D animated film. The monstrous machines that our characters meet are unlike any you'll see elsewhere. It has a uniquely mature tone for an animated film, especially for one from its time. You won't expect all the twists and turns in the story.
Now the cons: hardly anyone has any lines. John c Reilly and Crispin Glover in particular have less than 10 lines each it seems. Their characters are in many scenes but never seem to say anything. While Elijah Wood performs well, no one else seems to give much energy to their characters.
The animation does not hold up today unfortunately. Most of the character models are smooth 3D dolls with burlap textures painted on. This leads to some weird warping of the image around their eyes and joints. During action sequences it is very difficult to tell characters apart as they all have the same basic ragdoll model, with only slight variations in colors or head shape. The sound design leaves a lot to be desired too. All the machines sound like dinosaurs from Jurassic Park.
While you won't expect every twist in the film, you probably guessed from the first 20 minutes what the big reveal would be at the end.
This film feels like they had the perfect cast and crew for a masterpiece, but seemingly they lacked the support to bring it all together.
Nitpicking here: why do they breathe so much? There's a scene where they hide from a monster, and 9 covers his mouth because it can hear him breathing. The scene before this showed us he has a voice box, so what was that about? Another character falls over panting after running. So strange.
Pros: Very cool cast. This movie looked great for an independent 3D animated film. The monstrous machines that our characters meet are unlike any you'll see elsewhere. It has a uniquely mature tone for an animated film, especially for one from its time. You won't expect all the twists and turns in the story.
Now the cons: hardly anyone has any lines. John c Reilly and Crispin Glover in particular have less than 10 lines each it seems. Their characters are in many scenes but never seem to say anything. While Elijah Wood performs well, no one else seems to give much energy to their characters.
The animation does not hold up today unfortunately. Most of the character models are smooth 3D dolls with burlap textures painted on. This leads to some weird warping of the image around their eyes and joints. During action sequences it is very difficult to tell characters apart as they all have the same basic ragdoll model, with only slight variations in colors or head shape. The sound design leaves a lot to be desired too. All the machines sound like dinosaurs from Jurassic Park.
While you won't expect every twist in the film, you probably guessed from the first 20 minutes what the big reveal would be at the end.
This film feels like they had the perfect cast and crew for a masterpiece, but seemingly they lacked the support to bring it all together.
Nitpicking here: why do they breathe so much? There's a scene where they hide from a monster, and 9 covers his mouth because it can hear him breathing. The scene before this showed us he has a voice box, so what was that about? Another character falls over panting after running. So strange.