9 - new tim burton related animated film

[Variety of Cells]

9 was a short, 11 minutes animated piece done by Shane Acker, and it was quite good.  Not my favorite piece, but there's a lot about it that I respect.  The whole thing is on youtube.

It is being remade into a feature, whose trailer you can find here http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/9/hd/

I wanted to know your opinions on this.  Cause that new trailer... well, frankly, looks pretty generic.  I mean I guess it looks alright, but after watching the short, there really isn't a huge difference in quality.  The art direction is of a similar caliber, and the new trailer is much less contrasty.  All of the characters are pretty evenly lit.  So it goes from a cool inde animation to a washed out feature...

But what bugs me the most is the voices.  Even if you overlook the poor, generic quality of the dialogue, a film that can be made without words and still make sense is a much stronger film than one with it.   I don't see anything left to explore with this idea.  What are your thoughts?

Oh, and Tim Burton is just a producer... other websites have been throwing out his name to attract hits... figured that was a pretty good idea.

[Piobman]

Not sure what you mean by washed out. It looks pretty true to the short in my opinion. It's hard to compare a youtube video since that's a pretty low res image to begin with and don't all trailers have generic dialogue usually??. I'm mean seriously, how much can you get out of a minute movie trailer. I'll wait to watch it before making any judgments.

I thought the voice acting (from what they showed us) worked just fine... and  a non-speaking movie isn't necessarily a better movie. If that were true they should have made Dark Knight a silent movie!! Then it would be the Greatest-Greatest Movie Ever Made!

After seeing the trailer, I know I'd like to check it out. Its nice to see something that isn't another Disney-ish looking movie.

[Variety of Cells]

I contend that it does look like a disney-ish looking movie, especially compared to the original short.  While the quality on a youtube video may be low, you can still make rough judgments of the contrast values and the quality of the lighting.  There is much more ambient, unmotivated lighting in the trailer that makes the characters look more friendly/silly instead of dark and somewhat twisted.  Add to that a cast of characters set to save the world from monsters and you have something pretty generic. 

It is not right to dismiss a film based on a trailer, but trailers are made with two purposes; to get you to see the film and to give you an idea of what it will be like.  Trailers are made so you can judge whether or not you want to see it, and while I can't judge the script, I strongly doubt the dialogue will get any better. 

But thanks for your opinion.  I had a feeling I was being a little too hard on the trailer.  I'm interested to hear what people say when it comes out.

[Piobman]

By Disney-ish I meant in terms of content. Its not your usual Incredibles/Shrek themed movie. Something to note though... this is still being written by the original animator Shane Acker. So if the animation is what you see... and the writing is by the original guy... I see no reason to think it will be crap. If it has a good story, then I'm sold no matter what it looks like. (fingers crossed)

Personally, I think the animation looked improved.

By the way, just watched Wall-E tonight. I'm not much for animated stuff, but I really enjoyed this one.

[BathTub]

Is watching the short a big spoiler for the movie?

[Variety of Cells]

Good question, but I couldn't tell you. It's not a spoiler for the trailer anyway... if that makes any sense.

I also really liked Wall-E, so at least we have that in common. 

[pyro]

I also really enjoyed Wall-E, and I kept thinking about it while watching the short and thinking about what the trailer was going to be like....  The fact they seem to all have pretty normal voices in the trailer is more annoying than the fact that they are talking.  Imagine if Wall-E was also voiced by Elija Wood and EVE by Jennifer Connelly?  Weirdly I also had the same problem with the trailer vs the short that I had with the new Southside Johnny album of Tom Waits covers vs the originals.  The trailer seems to show a lot of action and as mentioned is brighter and seems more geared towards throwing it all in the face of the entire room while the short seemed more subtle and brooding (the Southside Johnny album is big band versions and sounds like sort of Las Vegas'd versions of some of Tom Waits again more subtle, soulful, sometimes brooding songs and completely miss the point of the originals like Shiver Me Timbers, Please Call Me Baby, etc).


I guess I'll reserve judgment too, but I can definitely see where you're coming from variety

[Variety of Cells]

That album sounds horrible... and knowing poor ol' Tom Waits, it will probably sell even better than anything Tom's made.

I understand the film is being directed by the same guy, but there's money in it now, and other influences.  They are quite powerful, and sometimes they can suck the charm out of a project. 

[Piobman]

That album sounds horrible... and knowing poor ol' Tom Waits, it will probably sell even better than anything Tom's made.

I understand the film is being directed by the same guy, but there's money in it now, and other influences.  They are quite powerful, and sometimes they can suck the charm out of a project. 

At least george lucas isn't directing it!

[Variety of Cells]

We agree once again.

[Piobman]

We agree once again.

I knew we could find common ground.