Word: number
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...Like Coraline, 9 opens with a creepy sewing scene as the mad and soon-to-be-dead scientist puts the finishing touches on Number 9, the last of his creations. The dolls are distinguishable by the numbers stamped on their backs and the various notions that adorn them. Wise Number 2 (voiced by Martin Landau) laces up like a corset. Number 5 (John C. Reilly), who is cuddly, sweet and needs ego-boosting, is missing an eye and wears a lone button on his chest, kind of like Don Freeman's beloved bear Corduroy. Number 6 is loopy, creative...
...There's friction in the doll community. Number 1 (Christopher Plummer) is a cautious, shriveled type, who rules the gang from atop a throne in the remains of a former church and prefers to hide from the mechanical beasts. Given that the dolls are about eight inches tall and the mechanical beasts appear to be the size of dinosaurs or giant arachnids, this seems rational enough. The dolls have no needs (not for air, food or fuel, although they find an occasional lightbulb useful) and neither do the machines, so you'd think everyone could go to their respective corners...
...Coraline's playful weirdness and Wall-E's plotline, lack the power of either. The script by Pamela Pettler, who also worked on Burton's Corpse Bride script, doesn't support Acker's ambition for profundity. Unless this is your very first postapocalyptic story, a line like the one Number 2 delivers - "Technology has been the ruin of us" - is more likely to induce an eye roll than anything else. In movies, our technology is so often the ruin of us. We got that message from Stanley Kubrick way back when, and we get it now. But couldn't filmmakers...
...same time, Muslims have become a more familiar part of American society - nearly half of all Americans claim to personally know someone who is Muslim, compared with just 38% of Americans in November 2001. And that number will probably rise in the future, as familiarity with Islam and Muslims is much more common among younger Americans...
...Mousavi aide that recently said it had documented the deaths of 72 protesters in the weeks-long protests that shook the capital. (Authorities say 41 people, including security personnel, died during the prolonged crackdown after Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory, though human-rights groups put the number in the hundreds...