The first is 9 (trailers), whose trailer I saw in the sidebar, inspiring this post. (Keep in mind, watching the trailers was the full extent of my research for this post, so everything that follows may be completely wrong.) In a post-apocalyptic future (with a retro-futurist aesthetic), a group of small, walking, talking rag dolls must survive and defend themselves against the machines that've taken over and destroyed the world. Though Tim Burton was only a producer, it displays a very Burton-esque sensibility and visual style—charming but dark, gothic, with mixed time-period/technology cues (Matrix-esque machines and spinning-newspaper newsreels). In a world where even a Terminator movie gets toned down to a PG-13 rating, I'm impressed that the makers of 9 were willing to make an animated film featuring cute, merchandizing-ready characters with PG-13-level "violence and scary images" (according to the MPAA); I don't think anyone who's seen 9's trailers would think they'd be walking into The Care Bears Have Tea with Rainbow Brite, but I'm sure they were still under some pressure to make it more child-friendly and mainstream. I can't say for sure if they were able to resist that pressure or not, but the trailers seem to display a rather unique, and uncompromising, vision. Plus, I'm loving the cast they've assembled: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly (even if you don't like Walk Hard, you gotta love Dr. Steve Brule), Martin Landau, Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, and Christopher Plummer (Captain von Trapp!); my only regret is not being able to see them all actually acting together, live-action-wise.
Also coming out this fall is Nine (trailer), a musical film based on a stage musical based on a play based on Fellini's film 8 1/2 (trailer) based on Fellini's life. I saw 8 1/2 for the first time not so long ago, and though I found it arresting and intriguing in many ways—first and foremost visually—I think I need to watch it at least once more. (As is often the case with watching a film, reading a book, etc., for the first time, I think I was too focused on trying to follow what was going on plot-wise; I read somewhere recently that when Nabokov taught Anna Karenina, he started by telling his students the ending so that as they read they'd focus on Tolstoy's literary craftsmanship and not on "what's gonna happen.") Nine sounds like an intriguing idea (at least on paper) and has some impressive talent involved—the late Anthony Minghella and Michael Tolkin writing the screenplay, starring Penélope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Dame Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman (hopefully starting to atone for Australia), Sophia Loren, and Fergie (!)—but I have to say that the factor most likely to get me in the theater when it comes out is Daniel Day-Lewis. Not only would I see one of those Movie movies if DDL were in it, but (at least based on the trailer) he seems eerily to capture and embody Mastroianni's performance (though since this is DDL we're talking about, I'm sure we're going to get much more than just a Mastroianni impression). I'm certainly not anti-musical, but they aren't often films I anticipate months in advance; Nine is.
P.S. — You said earlier that you'd been watching a British mini-series that you might post on. What was it? I ask because I too have been watching a British mini-series, the 1981 ITV production of Brideshead Revisited with (among others) Jeremy Irons, Sir John Gielgud, and Sir Laurence Olivier. (When the film with Matthew Goode and Emma Thompson came out last year, even the most favorable reviews said, "It's good, but the mini-series was better," so I decided just to watch the mini-series; it's taken it this long to get to the top of my Netflix queue.) I'm still working my way through it (eleven hours total), and so far it's not exactly action packed—the last episode I saw mostly just consisted of Sebastian being a mopey alcoholic the whole time and everyone else worrying about this—but the compelling story and fantastic performances make it one definitely to look into.
I was a bit confused when I read this at first because it took until I got to the mentioned of animation that I realized there were two different movies. I thought you were joking at first because I had only seen the trailer for the musical and there was no way it was post-apocalyptic. I think Nine looks good, although it bears the distinct possibility of being a retread of Rob Marshall's Chicago. But definitely sounds worth a view.
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