Research 9, the short

   

Hello! Today I took a look at the short film entitled 9 by Shane Acker. What it is that became a full length animation movie started off by a simple 7 minute short film. This short starts off with the main character, 9, fixing up some swinging contraption that later ends up being the one thing that saves him in the end. Then it transitions to show the antagonist evil creature enters in the junkyard where 9 and the other main character 5 are in. The two of them are passing by various old objects inspecting them and seeing how they can fix them which is what they did with a light bulb. This is where the Evil creature first spots them and 5 and 9 catch onto to the fact they have some eyes on them. 5 gestures for 9 to go hide as he is very frightened and as he runs away 5 picks up a weapon gearing up to go against this evil creature. Unfortunately he wasn’t prepared enough and the creature takes him from the back. The evil creature takes some sort of gadget from 5 that I believe has something to do with his life source, 9 has one just like it as well. The evil creature then kills 5 while 9 watches. The rest of the short film is 5 running from the evil creature as it is now after him. He seems to be very smart as he props up a fake of him to distract the creature. The film follows them in their through the junk yard and towards the end 5 decides to lead him on this very thin wobbly ledge when he gets the idea to go on the swinging contraption from earlier and use it to get  the evil creature to fall over the edge finally be ridding himself of him. I was very proud of 5 for this. His friend 9 sacrificed himself for him and while I was deeply sadden by his death in the beginning I believe that  5 made it worth while in the end by defeating the evil creature. I also felt a sense of peace at the very end when the gadget illuminates and it shows the ghosts of 5 and you could see him and 9 have more final moment and a goodbye. 9 definitely had some great character development, he went from the one who hides and watches the fight to being the fighter. The special effects incorporated were quite incredible as well. The robot like creatures and gadgets give it a sort of fun futuristic feel that was very enjoyable. I think the director did an excellent job executing this short film.