Animation has hit it big this year, as far as great fucking movies go. Coraline was beautifully crafted and creepy, Up was uplifting (and for once, no pun intended) and brought me to tears, and even though I have yet to see Ponyo, I'm sure it's astonishing; Miyazaki can do no wrong.
Which brings me to 9, the Tim Burton produced film about sack dolls in a post-apocalyptic world. Like Coraline, 9 is visually stunning, and viewers can tell that lots of time and care went into the film. However, unlike Coraline, 9 failed to immerse me into their world.
Was it the under-developed story? The manic pace? Maybe.
But what bothered me the most was the voice of 9. Elijah Wood did nothing to create a voice for 9. To be honest, I'm not sure how a sack doll would sound, but it shouldn't sound like Elijah Wood.
Ever since Shrek, many animated movies have used big-name film actors instead of unknown voice actors. Sometimes, it works (once again, see Coraline) but most of the time, it fails. We see on-screen actors all the time, and they're great on film. But they're not voice actors. Most of them probably never trained to create different voices, and we're stuck with cartoon characters with normal voices.
Maybe using big names drawns in more people. But as an audience member, I would rather hear an unknown really bringing life into a character through voice, like Nancy Cartwright and Bart Simpson or Tom Kenny and Spongebob.
And if you haven't seen 9 yet, I would stick with the trailer. The trailer is amazing.
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