9 is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which humans have been wiped off the planet. All that's left are rag dolls, each labeled with a number (they were created by the world's preeminent scientist prior to the end of civilization as we know it), and vicious machines that hunt the dolls down with the goal of killing them off. Wood voices 9, a rag doll that comes to life years after all the other numbered dolls. While the rest of his type survive by hiding out, 9 believes they need to face their enemy and destroy them instead of waiting to be found.
Wood says the film's dark tone was one of the main reasons he was interested in 9. "Yeah, totally. I think we have, and we’ve established this over many, many years, but the United States and their relationship with animation tends to be more geared towards families and children," explained Wood. "There are exceptions, certainly, to that rule. Pixar does a beautiful job of teetering on the edge of both. They appeal to families and children, but they also appeal to adults. But there are so many animated movies that are just for families, it seems. Whereas in Japan, if you go to Japan, there are movies like Akira and Ghost in the Shell that are like adult movies in the animation medium. That’s definitely something that appealed to me about this particular film. It felt like it was separating itself from some of the typical animation fare that we’re used to and appealing to a wider audience, an audience that might go see this kind of thing if it weren’t animated."
"The darkness, or maybe some of the more intense or adult themes," added Wood, "interested me as well. But, there’s also just the world. Shane definitely created something that is familiar but is also quite different. We haven’t seen these characters before. The fact that he made that short film over the course of four years and it was his college thesis is fascinating. He did it all by himself."
Elijah Wood worked on 9 off and on over the course of three years, doing voice work on the project while also working on other movies. Wood is no stranger to voice work, and he's picked up a few important tips over the years.
"Don’t go in too hungry. You’ll have a lot of problem with stomach gurgles. This is the mundane sh-t that you don’t think about. Stomach gurgles...it’s so interesting," said Wood, laughing. "Dry mouth. There’s that. There’s water, but then not too much water. You kind of just know. You also hear your own voice so you can kind of gauge where you’re at. So, dry mouth definitely is a weird one. Clicking noises. You can’t move too much because if you move too much, then there’s rustling noises of your clothing so that goes into it. It’s interesting. The mic picks up so much, so a stomach gurgle there would have been horrible. We’d have to go again."
Acker showed Wood a fair amount of the animation before he had to do 9's voice. "When things were even in their rough stages, we got to see them. But, that didn’t really happen until a year and a half to two years in. Largely, what we were seeing initially was pre-vis and also animated storyboards. We really didn’t get to see semi-finished stuff until probably about a year and a half. It’s such a gratifying thing because you do spend this time, even though you have a connection with the character and you have a sense of what the character is going to do and look like, it’s another thing entirely when you start to see it physically moving with your voice. It’s such an amazing [experience]. It’s a wonderful part of the process. It’s extremely rewarding. It’s also very solitary. A lot of the time you’re in this booth imbuing this character with a sense of life in a stationary position, and then those words get shipped to these animators and sometimes there’s up to 30 people working on your movements and face and stuff. It’s a whole other process that’s totally fascinating. And then it all comes together. It’s pretty amazing," said Wood.
"I think that’s probably one of the more challenging aspects of doing voice is that you are in a room, you have the script, you have a notion of what’s supposed to happen, but it helps when you’ve got some descriptive words that can describe what’s going on in the scene, for sure, if you don’t have any images," offered Wood.
The film's tone and Acker's vision played major parts in Wood signing on to 9. But he was also attracted to the character 9 because of the journey he goes on throughout the film. "He comes into this world extremely naïve because he doesn’t have any perspective as to what had transpired and who ‘1’ through ‘8’ are, and they’ve already established a sort of hierarchy," said Wood. "They’ve established a community that is built on keeping themselves away from what they fear. Then he comes in and says, 'Well wait, why have you set this up and who are we and where did these machines come from?' He comes with all of these questions. I really responded to his fearlessness and his questioning, and ultimately taking on board the fact that he has to help bring these people together to see what they are and how to ultimately combat the machines. I liked that about him, and I think his journey is sort of a heroic journey. He ultimately becomes heroic and courageous throughout the course of that journey with these characters. But, it’s also a very cerebral one. He’s the one getting them to all answer questions and think outside of the fear that they’ve established."
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9 hits theaters on 09/09/09 and is rated PG-13 for violence and scary images.
