Research 9, the short

         I've now watched the short film 9 and have a couple of thoughts about it. From what I could interpret I would say the plot was about the main character, 9, trying to survive in a post-apocalyptical world against a monster who's killed his race. The director executes this idea in just 7 minutes brilliantly. I though the director's choice of using no dialogue was excellent. It allows the audience to focus more on what was going with the characters and what they were trying to express. The film starts off with 9 setting up his trap to kill the monster and while he’s waiting it dives into a flashback scene. This flashback scene allows to some background towards what’s going on. In this scene it appears that 9 and 5 are the only ones left and all of a sudden the light that shows the monster is near lights up. 5 tells 9 to go hide and essentially sacrifices himself for 9, leaving 9 to be the last one alive. That scene gives you the context as to why 9 is doing what he’s doing, not only for survival, but to honor his friends. Seeing that it’s a short film that’s the only real character development that was achieved but it was strong enough for the reader to gain a connection to the characters.

        9 ends up killing the monster with his scheme and lives to see another day. Seeing 9 make and execute his plan allowed the audience to see that he was quite intelligent. What really popped out to me was the animation and how it was used to differentiate 9’s species and the monster. 9 and his species had enlarged eyes that were the central part to their emotional aspect. The director would focus in on them when emotion needed to be felt and brought in incense to their character. The monster was perceived as big and scary with huge teeth and with subtle details as the other numbers cloth on it showing the monster was ruthless. The ending shows the spirits of the other numbers coming out and 5 giving 9 a simple head nod, letting him know to go on and that he’s brought them justice. Small gimmicks like that are laid throughout which is what really makes this short film interesting to me. Overall, I thought the directed captured his vision fantastically through the animation and the way he drove the plot and gave it a satisfying ending. Now it’s time to see how these ideas progress more in the movie!