By Sarah Cortina

Arts & Culture May. 12, 2010 - 03:01PM JST ( 5 )

TOKYO —

In “The Astounding Talent of Mr. Grenade” (2003), an anthropomorphic grenade performing a vaudeville juggling act accidentally pulls out its own pin, literally going out with a “bang.” In “The Hangnail” (1999), a man taunts a stray dog while gorging on corn chips. When he notices a hangnail on his finger, he tries to remove it, but rips off half his skin in the process—at which point the hungry dog exacts its bloody revenge.

A mind capable of creating such bizarre animated films must have a profound interest in… “Self-destruction?” suggests Shane Acker, 39, whose first feature-length movie, “9,” opened in Japan last weekend.

“9” is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have died out due to an unspecified global disaster. The only remaining life forms are sentient rag dolls called Stitchpunks and the gruesome robot-like machines that hunt them down. The film begins when one of the dolls, known only as 9, awakens in the barren landscape with no idea of who or where he is. He eventually discovers others of his kind, and they band together to uncover their origins and defeat the monsters.

The first version of “9” was actually an animated short that Acker made while a student at UCLA’s School of the Arts. Though it had just a 10-minute running time and no dialogue, it was enough to catch the eye of director Tim Burton, who approached Acker about turning it into a full-length feature. Burton and fellow devotee of the bizarre Timur Bekmambetov (director of “Night Watch” and producer of the forthcoming “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) signed on to produce, with Acker taking the helm as director.

The project proved to be an enormous challenge, he says during a visit to Tokyo. “I’d never done anything long-form… I’d never worked with live actors before, I’d never really worked with a team larger than eight or 10 people.” Essentially, he admits, he had to “learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Acker, a native of Illinois, has always been interested in illustration and cartooning, but started out as an architecture major. He took his first animation class to fulfill an elective requirement and “something just clicked… At the end of the day, [architecture] is a service profession. As much as you might like to think you’re an artist, you’re really working in the service of somebody else.” Animation, on the other hand, allowed him the opportunity to pursue his artistic vision.

Or so he thought. Acker admits that one of the hardest things about directing a feature film was learning to negotiate the political and business side of the industry. But a piece of advice from Burton helped him to reassess his situation.

“He told me it’s not always about finding the exact right project; it’s about finding a project in which you feel like you can start to inject these things that you are interested in, and sort of push from the inside out.”

There’s no denying that Acker’s vision is fully present in “9,” especially when it comes to the absence of human characters. In fact, flesh-and-blood people seldom appear from Acker’s work, which leads us to ask — what’s the deal?

“I just hate humans,” Acker deadpans.

Really? “No. What I love about animation is it’s inherently unreal. That’s the definition of animation—how do you bring the inanimate to life? How do you infuse it with a soul in some way? You’re not seeing a human, you’re seeing something completely ‘other,’ and if you can start to see the humanity in that, then I feel like I’ve done my job.”

Despite his love of animation, Acker is open to directing live-action films someday, though he says he would still want to do something bizarre and fantastical. For now, he’s getting back to the nuts and bolts of animation with another short film, as well as developing a second animated feature that he describes as a “Dark Crystal meets Secret of Nimh, kind of Lord of the Rings thing.”

He’s also going back to school. While “9” received generally positive reviews after its release in the U.S. last September, the director is realistic about the limitations of his training.

“I’m starting to learn how to screen-write, and all these things that I didn’t really focus on a lot in animation school. So I’m trying to build up my skill set, now that I’m a director.”

All three of Shane Acker’s short films can be viewed on his website, www.shaneacker.com. The original “9” is playing at Brillia Short Shorts Theater until June 11. See www.brillia-sst.jp for details.

This story originally appeared in Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp).