9, or make that 5 reasons to get excited for 9

One of the highlights of seeing Drag Me to Hell, beyond the scene where our heroine knocks over a corpse at a funeral, only to have it land on top of her and vomit onto her face, was the stellar trailer for 9. Ok, it's not the best title in the world. Even "The 9" would have been better. While it is simple and a bit mysterious (especially done up in all that green glowy mist), it can easily lead to conversations such as:

"Dude, I'm so excited to see 9 tonight!"
"Uh, see nine what?"
"No, you know, 9, it's a Tim Burton movie"
"Oh yeah! That dude is messed up. Why is it called 9?"
"I dunno man, it's about 9 living dolls that live in an post apocalyptic world and fight these evil machines"
"Hmm, yeah, sounds messed up. Why didn't they call it The Nine? Has a bit of a catchier ring to it don't you think?"

If you couldn't tell, that was me as Dude 2, losing another friend. But enough about the title. This movie is giving me the shivering-willies in the best way possible. Why several reasons

1. I totally dig post-apocalyptic themed fare, and this one fists the bill. The art direction looks quality, and sets the mood just right.
2. It's about time we had more adult themed animation. I still haven't checked out Waltz With Bashir, but beyond that I can't think of any other recent "mature" animated films. Sorry, but I'm really not into the Pixar films that everyone says is "not just for the kids!" Both Finding Nemo and Wall-E bored me to tears. I'm also interested to see how and to whom they market this film. It could be quite tricky as the animation angle will skew towards younger folks, but many images from just the trailer are damned near terrifying.

3. Who doesn't love evil robots? By the end of this summer audiences may be entering evil-machine fatigue after Terminator 4 and Transformers 2, but hopefully the new IP will renew interest. And just check out these freaky red eyed baddies. Waaaaaay more scary than anything from the latest Terminator.



This last picture of the bipedal AT-ST type robots reminds me of War of the Worlds and The Tripods trilogy by Samuel Youd. Both super creepy.

4. Tim Burton executive produces. The name speaks for itself. Tim Burton isn't afraid to go there and get super weird, freaky and scary. It was very smart to place this property under his control.

5. It's directed by Shane Acker, the original mind behind his award winning short. Check it out below. Anyone else excited for this pic?

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