I just watched 9 and UP back to back in theaters a mile or so apart. It has been an interesting few hours.
One is about soulless machines and puppets with pieces of a soul, the other lifts your soul if there’s a piece of it left to be found.
One is a post-apocalyptic nightmare, the other is a whimsical dream.
One is a study in browns and fire, the other is all about color and clouds.
One embraces gritty realism and pseudoscientific magic, the other throws realism out the window and works its own magic.
One is at its best when it’s loudest, the other is at its best when it’s quiet.
One viewing of one will last me a lifetime, the other will be a cherished DVD that I view many times.
One is bitter and freaky, the other is bittersweet and weepy.
One tries to hammer a Message home, the other unabashedly embraces emotion, often about a home.
I hesitatingly recommend one, and heartily recommend the other.
Both are visually excellent, deeply creative and fiercely unique.
Each is a master work in its own way, and well worth seeing if you have any interest whatsoever in the subject matter.
Each, in its own way, embraces the message of looking forward and living life while learning from the past, even as you let go.
Funny how that works out.
Tish Tosh Tesh 
I loved UP, but it’s not my favorite Pixar movie by far. It was incredibly poignant, however, and I love it for that.
9 is on my radar because it is a Tim Burton movie that legitimately looks legitimately unique. And Tim Burton has become synonymous in my world with “trying too hard to be unique that it has become ordinary.” I’m glad to see it succeeds.
I loved the juxtaposition. Thanks for writing this!
I really want to see 9, and so does one of our friends, but the wife is not sold on it…yet. Perhaps I should download the Hi-Res trailer and show it to her again in all its 1600×900 widescreen glory.
Cap’n, my wife didn’t want to see 9, and from what I told her of it afterward, she’s happy she didn’t. I went with my brother (18), and he loved it. If you like the trailer, you’ll get more of the same, and better. (For both movies, actually.) Different tastes and all that, but really, both are done very well and fun for different reasons.
TFN, thanks! There really are marked contrasts between the two, and I knew I had to write about them. I have a keen interest in animated movies; my college degree is in computer animation. (Some of my fellow graduates are working in the field. One worked on the Pixar short, Partly Cloudy. I still wish Pixar would make a satellite studio around our alma mater.)
Beej, UP isn’t my favorite Pixar show either, but it’s a great movie, and well worth seeing at least once. 9 definitely has the Tim Burton “mind trip” feel to it, but it’s less “different for different’s sake” and more “crazy idea brought to fruition”.
Never heard of either of those films before but they look pretty awesome. Thanks for the links! 🙂
Apparently, 9 is based on a short film, found here:
9 Short
The low down on 9 was that it was never Tim Burtons. It was done off of the other guys short film he had made a while ago.
Tim burton was looking for something to run with and found it and basically offered to help produce it. Tim Burtons involvement was more having the weight to get a project off the ground that is “ground breaking” and as a consultant to the creative development/flushing out the story.
Or so I have heard.
The big thing is Tim Burton attaches his name to it and it gives it validity and puts rears in the seats
Plainsrunner, check out the link that I posted right before your comment. You’re right, it was Shane Acker’s short film that started this, and it looks like a fair dose of the final film was maintained from the short. I do wonder how much Burton influenced, but perhaps it doesn’t matter all that much in the end.
Funny thing is, I, for one, didn’t go because of Burton. I went because it looked interesting. I’ve never bought into the “rockstar” mentality espoused by either big name actors or people behind the camera. I didn’t even know Burton was involved until I watched the trailer for the third time. I didn’t care.