Comparing 9, the short, and 9, the full length movie

 In this blog, I will be comparing the short film "9" as well as the full-length movie "9". I am excited to watch these as I have heard good things when googling both of them. I am interested to see how the intricacies of a short film differ from a long film. I did some background research which made me even more intrigued by the short film, which I have never heard of. On the other hand, I had seen some advertisements beforehand and the trailer for the movie.

Short Film: This short film is amazing, there are so many intricate parts to this piece. The animation is not perfect, but because of the style of animation, it gives it a proper feel for the more solemn mood of the story. The dystopian post-apocalyptic world of the short film holds unique characters like the small characters who have their insides empty and used for storage so maybe robots? There are many questions that probably won't ever be answered such as where are their souls and why is the monster doing what it does. We also don't know what the main character is thinking because we only see facial expressions, despite this I think the sound fits well. The directorial style I think was made for low budget, which is why it uses the stylization of no dialogue and the animation, however, it uses it to its advantage by putting the hidden themes in the short. The ending with the releasing of souls? was also interesting as I think it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. Like, I think this could have just been a small part of a bigger story.

Full-Length Film: The movie starts with a scientist making 9, the main character which already gives us so much more information than the short. We also have an early plot point with the Talisman and 9's meeting of other characters like 2. I think that 9's personality changes too much though. In the movie, 9 is brave and is making the first moves. We also have plot points with the brain that creates monsters which confused me a bit. In this film there is dialogue and honestly, I preferred the animation in the short film to this. While the beginning, end, and characters are MUCH more fleshed out I don't know how much I actually liked this movie.

When comparing the two, it's obvious that I liked the short more. I feel like it was supposed to be open-ended where your mind does half the work. The movie doesn't really let you do that as much and feels more like you are just on a ride. I prefer more introspective works and the mood in the short really encapsulates what I think the post-apocalyptic world should feel like. While the full-length film had better production value. I preferred the short overall.