I remember the trailer for this film, and I am a sucker for “Welcome Home” by Coheed and Cambria. This had Tim Burton attached to it. This looked like it could be kinda scary, but in a kid-friendly way.
Then I looked at the voice actors. There is Elijah Wood (#9), Jennifer Connolley (#7), Crispin Glover (#6), Christopher Plummer (#1), Martin Landau (#2), John C. Reilly (#5), and Fred Tatasciore (#8). Sign me up!!
I’m truly surprised that this film doesn’t get more love. While it doesn’t do all the happy things that Toy Story, Despicable Me, Shrek, or Frozen do, it still tells an amazing story. I do think the biggest problem and one of the best aspects of this film is the unique aesthetic. It is a dark future with some steampunk influences everywhere you look. The main characters are mostly sack dolls, better known as “Stitchpunks”, or evil ass machines.
I think that is probably the biggest reason for it not being a bigger commercial success. You wouldn’t want to bring your 5-8-year-old children to see this because it has some scary shit going on at times. Most of these have the scary antagonist, but this is actually dark stuff. Obviously, I like it. But it doesn’t lend itself to being a commercial success, unfortunately. Rest assured, the great Iron Giant faced issues, too.
How can I not love a movie where the first character we meet is 9 and the second character is 2? This was made for me. Not only that, it borrows a bit from Identity, in its own weird way, and I loved that film too.
I love how Rotten Tomatoes‘ opening synopsis states, “Although its story is perhaps too familiar and less complex than some might wish”. This is why I truly dislike that site. May I see a showing of hands of people who have seen other movies about sack dolls in a steampunk world where mankind has died, and a scientist put 9 fragments of his soul into the aforementioned dolls. Anybody? Does that seem “too familiar”? No? Come on, this is a pretty unique idea. Yes, it has a few tropes or cliches, like the good guy having a somewhat cowardly friend, and a bad guy with a bodyguard who likes to have control over others. So do thousands of other films, so I just don’t think that is “too familiar”. There are only so many personality traits to choose from, especially when it comes to animation.
This is where I should mention that I think John C Reilly is incredibly underrated as an actor. I think most of us agree that Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Connolley, Elijah Wood, and Martin Landau are all very good to exceptional performers. Reilly sometimes doesn’t get praise due to the comedic films that he does. But the guy is really talented in almost every role that I have seen him in. I just listed like 15-20 films of his that I liked him in, but my point is that the dude can act, and I highly recommend The Sisters Brothers.
I know that I have mentioned how dark this film can get, like scary, but I should also point out just how good the animation is. I love the creativity of the Cat-Beast, the Seamstress, the Bird Beast, and the Machine itself. They all felt like big, bad creatures in a video game, and I naturally applaud that.
I would have to say that my favorite scene was probably the “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” scene because it was obvious what was gonna happen, I still think the way they approached it felt different enough. Yes, it was predictable. I am willing to bet that if you had to guess who would die in that scene at that point in the movie, most would have guessed correctly. Still, that doesn’t mean it was a bad or boring decision. Sometimes the obvious decision is also the best one for the overall product.
One final thing I want to touch on is the ending. So please skip this paragraph if you wish to avoid end spoilers. The scene where 9 frees the souls is fantastic. They could have really played it up for “the feels,” and I think they could have made a lot of people cry, but instead of being the Notebook, they made it short, sweet, and powerful. 5 was arguably the saddest aspect, and having just recently lost a good buddy of mine, it brought upon some emotions, naturally. Still, they could have milked it, and they didn’t.
Final Rating: 7.4 feels right. Is it the best ever? Nah. Did I enjoy the hell out of it? Yup. Have I seen it multiple times and love it every time? Yup. Even if it was too familiar to film critic snobs, it hit all the right notes for me and was only 80 minutes or so. That’s awesome.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Focus Features
- (presents)
- Relativity Media
- (in association with)
- Arc Productions
- Starz Animation
- Tim Burton Productions
Please go find a copy and support the creators.