Shane Acker's 2005 animated short film 9 is visually stunning, engaging, memorable, ambiguous, and suspenseful. Acker's 2009 feature version of 9 is narratively derivative, boring, bloated, and unambiguously expository. I point out these contrasts not because Acker is incapable of handling a feature length film - on the contrary, I look forward to his next work - but because 9 represents the small-mindedness of studios and their tendency toward boxed-in and self-defeating thought processes. A short film is a short film, which is a special art form. It has a purpose and a particular approach that make it different. How often does Random House or Simon & Schuster contact an author whose story has just appeared in the latest Glimmer Train and ask them to expand it into a novel? Never. So why do film execs believe that short films are cinematic Sea-Monkeys that just need a little studio cash to grow into features? The short version of 9 is pretty awesome; the feature is limp.Read the full review here
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