1 in a 9 “Stitch Punks”
In a not too distant future, where humanity has been decimated, by the very same war machines they had devised. Just before his death, a wise scientist creates 9 rag dolls, and transfers his own soul into them using his invention. And the new kid on the block “9″ seeks out the dolls, who are now in hiding, and then tries to lead them into a mission to save humanity.
Ok without giving the plot away too much, that in a nutshell is the synopsis of Burton’s latest feature 9 that will be hitting the screens on 9-9-09. I started my writing on PFC with a series of posts on Tim Burton, now I won’t say i am his die hard fan, i love his movies, i worship him, Burton is God, Blah, blah, blah to power of 9. Basically for me directors are two kinds- those whose movies i watch, and those whose movies i read. Actually when i hear fan boys proclaiming themselves as fans of Burton, i am tempted to ask them, but have you really read Burton. Do you just love Burton’s movies for the fact that they have dazzling effects, or do you really try to understand the philosophy behind his flicks?
The fact that in every other movie of his Burton sympathizes with the “Outsider”. Edward Scissorhands was an outsider to the carefully manicured, all perfect outside, internally screwed up world of the American suburbia. Ichabod Crane was not just an outsider to Sleepy Hollow, but he was an outsider in his own Police Department. Ed Wood was the outsider to a Hollywood studio system, creating his own brand of indie, underground cinema. And consider his choice of a superhero, Batman, a super hero with no special powers, a person who relies on a combination of hi tech gadgetry, surveillance, stealth, cunning and ruthlessness to defeat his rivals, most of them as vicious as he was.
And comming to the “dark, Gothic tone” of Burton’s movies, something again any fan boy would gush about. But are Burton’s movies really dark? The darkness is only in the atmosphere, the weird characters, the settings, but not in the soul of the movie itself. In effect most of Burton’s movies are a kind of dark fantasy tales, with the roles inverted. So instead of the beautiful damsel falling for a handsome, charming prince, she falls in love with a “beast” called Edward Scissorhands, a half disfigured, half robotic, ugly looking creation, with scissor like hands. In reality this “beast” had a more beautiful soul, than her handsome on the outside, shallow inside boyfriend. The Headless Horseman ravaging Sleepy Hollow, is not confronted by a gallant knight, but by Ichabod Crane, who prefers to use his brains, trembles at the sight of the horseman and agonizes over his childhood. Beyond the essentially dark , Gothic tone of Burton’s movies, lies the values of inner beauty, the need to respect the “others”, the ability to recognize that not every one is different.
Something which Burton again is looking at in 9, his latest feature, directed by Shane Acker. Beyond it’s promos of a dark apocalyptic universe, where humanity has been wiped out, and a Rag Tag Stich Punk group of 9, has been asked to save mankind, lie fundamental Questions, raised by the title character,
“Why should Human Civilization be saved?”, ” What is the meaning of Life?”, ” What is Humanity all about?”.
Ah again the twin concepts of the Outsiders and the Dark fantasy. The Outsiders here are the 9 Rag Dolls, the “Stich Punks” as called by Shane Acker, the movie director. And the man who would lead these “9 Stich Punks” is himself an “Outsider” of sorts, the newest entry into the group, 9. Its not just the fact that he is the youngest of the lot, or that he joins the group much late, its his basic outlook that makes him an “Outsider”. While the other “Stitch Punks” take upon the task of saving human civilization as just another job to be done, it is 9 who raises the question “Why”. And then the Dark Fantasy here, about the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, the evil being the Machines that wiped out the World, set amidst the ruins of human civilization in a distant time. For me the most fascinating part was of course the characteristics of the 9 Dolls. Basically this would be a series of posts looking at each character individually, and building up to the title character 9.
The Power of 1- TO PROTECT US
“Timur( of Wanted fame) also contributed greatly to our discussions of numerology, which figures significantly into the characters’ names – or numbers, if you will. “
In Numerology 1 is the most individualistic of all numbers. Taken positively it represents extraordinary leadership skills, very ambitious, driven, goal-oriented, taken in a negative manner it represents a person who is stubborn, concerned with status and appearance, demands respect and attention and needs to be the man in charge.
1 is the oldest of the 9 Stitchpunks. A self proclaimed leader of the group, he believes in hierarchy, obedience and domination. He perpetuates his control over the group, through fear, through his domineering attitude. Arrogant and hot tempered, not willing to take ”NO” for an answer, qualities that bring him to conflict with 9.
9 seeks to question the status quo, 1 seeks to perpetuate it.
9 seeks the answers to Why, 1 believes that questions are dangerous.
1 sees a threat to his position from 9’s questioning.
1(Christoper Plummer) meets the mysterious visitor 9(Elijah Wood)
The Voice behind 1- CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER.
1 had to be voiced by an actor who could be powerful and imposing without shouting all the time. I sought out Christopher Plummer, who, happily, committed to play the role and then of course nailed it right from the first session. He had a deep understanding of the character, who has a large arc in the story- Shane Acker
Christopher brings such wisdom of experience to the part. He conveys #1’s majesty and also his vulnerability- Jim Lemley
Christopher Plummer, and the name brings to me one of my abiding childhood memories, Capt George Von Trapp, the strict disciplinarian father in The Sound of Music, one of our all time family favorites, a movie that must have gone through more than a 100 viewings in my household, it is one of my Mom’s favorites along with Gone With the Wind and Ben Hur. Memories are still afresh of the sour, serious Capt Von Trapp, running his household with an iron hand, and then later slowly falling in love with the governess, Julie Andrews. Acker was right, Plummer is the kind of actor who can appear powerful without throwing his voice all around. It is his deep voice, his clipped manner of speech. You see it in The Sound of Music, when he imposes his authority on the kids, no histrionics, just a firm, hard voice.
Christopher Plummer as Capt Von Trapp
It does seem that Plummer was born to voice 1. Though Von Trapp marked Plummer’s most famous role, he had given out some memorable performances in a whole host of movies.Some of his more well known movies include Waterloo( As Duke of Wellington), Murder by Decree( As Sherlock Holmes), Jesus of Nazareth( as Herod). For me one of his best performances in recent times though was in the 1999 movie The Insider. Michael Mann’s take on corporate skulldugery involving the testimony of Dr.Jeffrey Wigand, against the malpractices of the tobacco firm, Brown & Wigand on CBS 60 Minutes Show. The movie had fabulous performances from Russel Crowe( one of his best IMO) as Wigand and Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman, the CBS producer of 60 Minutes, both going head to head. And then there was Plummer as Mike Wallace, Bergman’s mentor, who later falls out with him, in a stand out performance, especially in the scenes where Pacino feels betrayed by him.
Shane Acker and 9
The original Short
Shane Acker
Shane Acker started his career as an animator working on the visual effects in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. He shot into fame in 2005 when his short 9, ended up winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short.
The original story of 9 was about a rag Doll, living in the ruins of a decaying world, and its fight with the Cat Beast. In the original short story, 9 was the sole survivor with all the other rag dolls destroyed by the Beast. Acker had the idea way back in 1999, when the character took root in his mind.
“I had the idea for the character of #9, an innocent who would risk his life for his brethren and use intellect rather than might to slay a beast,I wanted to depict him empathetically, without dialogue. This way, the short film could be universal and accessible, while also challenging the audience to piece the details together in order to understand the whole. I thought that would make for a rewarding filmgoing experience, especially in animated form.”
During his student days in UCLA, Acker had a stop motion animation in mind. However due to the expenses involved, doing it on a student budget would have been prohibitive. Necessity as they say is the mother of invention, and so Acker comes up with an idea of making rag dolls out of scrap materials. In Acker’s own words again
They’re ‘stitchpunk’ creations, if you will. That’s a term which I first heard coined from a fan of the short film, and I’d say it fittingly describes the characters’ aesthetic, in what they physically are and in that they have been designed not as toys but to survive in a barren landscape.
Even before 9 had got the Oscar, movie producers Jim Lemley and Dana Ginsburg had championed the cause. Lemley by then an executive producer for the movie Red Eye, saw 9 on the recommendation of his assistant.
So I picked up the DVD copy, put it on, and sat at my desk to sign some papers. I turned to look at the screen, and by the end my jaw was on the floor. I watched it again and again. Shane was conveying humanity through things that aren’t even human.
After Lemley had begun to fund the production, that was when Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov( of Wanted fame), joined in, both of them blown away by the sheer brilliance of it.
Timur Bekmambetov-As a viewer, Shane’s short hooked me, so I wanted to hear the end of the story – and what happened before.
Tim Burton-The short was among the most extraordinary 11 minutes of film I’ve ever seen. Shane’s conception was and is a stunningly detailed and hauntingly beautiful universe that resonates not only visually but emotionally.
And so the journey began. A journey that will be discussed in more detail, leading up to 9.9.09.
9 is not just about Tim Burton or Shane Acker. It is about the power of humanity, the power of thought, the beauty of human civilization.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Awesome! We’re getting there! 9-09-09, Here we come!
terrific post! can’t wait for the countdown to 9. Plummer i suspect, is going to steal the show. he’s the man. I’ve never really seen much of his work but everytime he’s on screen, he’s authoratative and charming at the same time. He would make a great dictator.
Sid, Plummer has made his fame playing such kind of authoritarian roles Duke of Wellington in Waterloo, Herod in Jesus of Nazareth. Check out his performance in The Insider, in a movie where Al Pacino and Russel Crowe, burn up the screen with their sheer intensity, he makes an impact as the 3rd character, in a greyish role, refusing to be overshadowed by 2 actors who on their day, can outshine everything in sight.
i’ve seen the insider.. the inside man.. some other stuff he was in that i can’t recollect now.. eagerly awaiting his as doctor parnasus.. he looks like the maharishi from the other side of the looking glass.. but for now i think i’ll settle with ‘9′
Yep have seen that still, he was there in 12 Monkeys, and also in Wolf as the business tycoon who fires out Jack Nicholson. And yeah Syriana as the attorney who handles the oil company merger. He was the villain in one of the Pink Panther movies.
Oh man, some nice thoughts there on Burton. The ‘read the films’ thing is so true. I will share something on similar lines in context of big fish, may be in few days we ll discuss that. Big fish just cleared so many confusions for me on the 3rd watch this week. Anyways.
Good take on the ‘outsiders’ and the apparent dark tone. He is really more about peace and love than beasts and monsters. Seriously, if monsters were that sweet, hell I ll be a god damned monster!
As of 9, at times I did feel(I dread this word) the funda of leadership working beneath the whole plot, and this is a cool kinda case study. Will tell more only on seeing the film.
Thanks for introducing us to Plummer. I am sure many are on the same boat regarding his profile.
Tushar, awaiting ur posts on Big Fish, it is one of my fav Burton flicks. Just love that story telling funda, used to drive the entire movie.
Oh well i always love being the “Monster”, he,he.
Ya man, so many things about that film. Actually the other day I & Sid did a talk show kinds on Burton(to be unleashed shortly), and when I saw it I realized we trashed Big Fish a lil too much.So I went back to it one afternoon, and so many new things registered this time. My observations were on Burton’s storytelling craft, the fact that his powerful actors sometimes overshadow the characters, his most ‘real’ film to date misses fantasy rather ironically, him relaxing in this comparatively un-goth affair, and many bytes from the actors on the special features of that DVD. Will put it up post 9’s release. I am sure you have few new things to share too.
For me Big Fish is an interesting mix between “real” and “fantasy”. Again conflict here is between the father and son, the son does not believe in his Dad’s exaggerated tales, but at the end of the movie, he comes to know the truth behind each of those tales. Again in it Burton metaphorically using the fantasy element to highlight key phases in Bloom Sr’s life.
You have the segment where he meets the Giant, and then the funda of whether “I am too big for this town or is the town too small for me”. See if we take the early days, when Bloom grows too fast, its a kind of metaphor for his ambitions, something which can’t be fulfilled in the small town he stays in, and the “Giant” representing that, of a guy with large ambitions who is a misfit in that town.
Aren’t we doing a whole lot of injustice to Shane Acker by constantly promoting this as a Tim Buron film? Yikes!
Dude for that matter neither was “A Nightmare Before Christmas” directed by Burton, but its still known as a Burton flick. And i think in this post, there has been emphasis on Acker, and couple of posts comming up will also give due importance to Acker.
May be we should not do the same mistake again (of promoting a non-Burton movie as a Burton movie) ;)
Looking forward to upcoming posts..
It is not a mistake, its something called Marketing. Burton is the Brand here, and he was the one who gave the idea to Acker to convert this into a short movie.
Be honest how many of u will even watch this, if it was promoted as Shane Acker’s?
Also in what way is this a Non Burton flick, when he is clearly one of the producers behind the feature, and one of the driving forces.
hey guys.. wait for the movie to release and then i wish it all turns into no Burton and just Acker.
I agree, and it is good upto a point to ensure a movie’s success and reach. But see what happens with Jude Apatow movies today..who knows names of the directors who directed all those movies he produced? The brand here becomes bigger than the actual brains behind the creation.
Depends on where Acker goes after this, me thinks, he would make his own identity. See its like Rodriguez, initially did under Tarantino( From Dusk to Dawn), and later he made his own name. My guess is Shane Acker should make his own name.
Valid debate. I am trying to give as much love to Acker, more so after watching the short. But it’s like you can’t praise your wife’s sister much, or else eyes will pop out and questions will confound you in a bowl of fire. So let’s wait and see. Burton is like we say Tarantino presents, cus we trust he has a good choice more often than not.
Honestly though i think once the movie is released, Shane Acker is going to be the next big thing in Hollywood. The fact that he is backed by the B’s, Burton and Bekmambetov, shows he is really something.
Amen father Stewart. After this blogfest, i ready to throw every bit of my consciousness at this one
Actually this is an interesting point here. People like Burton, Tarantino, Spielberg, Coppola are brands by themselves, now does making a movie under their banner help the director or does it prove to be a mill stone for him. My take is that if the director is talented enough, he can create his own brand, distinct from his mentor, eg. Rodriguez. But i guess for not too excellent directors, the Brand Name helps them. This could be an interesting topic of discussion.
well, i guess you answered a question but sometimes, it is a matter of time.. eg: Henry Selick, who had a make one MonkeyBone and almost derail his career but returned l;ater this year very distinctly with ‘Coraline’ (which i’ve not yet seen). But the talent is distinct it is impossible to miss it. Eg:- Cloverfield for which i still don’t know the director. I still remember it as a J.J. Abrams films. The director of the film didn’t attempt anything distinct and stayed within the comfy confines of Abrams-verse. But then you have someone like Niel Blompkamp. Before ‘District 9′ was out- it was Peter jackson. But after the release, the film seems to have moved beyond the marketing into the realm of te directors vision.
Or an Aamir Khan-Ashutosh Gowariker connection, where Aamir has evolved as a brand for quality films, and Ashutosh has established his own brand and no one even remembers his initial blunders..
Another such case is Jerry Bruckheimer, to date i am not sure how many heard of Simon West( Con Air) or Boaz Yakin( Remember the Titans). And had Gore Verbinski, not directed The Ring, not many would have even noticed him for Pirates of Carribean series.
well, they’re both directors who never really made a really good film after that one… so i don’t think bruckhemier’s that much of an obstacle
Request u to correct some info. It is not Tim Burton’s latest feature but Shane Acker’s First Feature presented by Tim and Timur.
“9″ did not win the oscar for Best animated short. it was nominated.
It did win the “STUDENT Oscar” for best animated short.
is it releasing on 9.9.09 in india???
peace
looking forward to it.