YMMV / 9

Both:

• Ugly Cute: While a lot of people find the stitchpunks adorable, some of their designs are a bit... unusual and creepy to some.

The short:

• Heartwarming Moments: 5's ghost nodding to 9 after killing the Machine.

The movie:

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is the Fabrication Machine a spiteful bastard of mad science intent on finishing what it started, or a lost child who desperately wants a soul of its own?
  • Word of God describes the Fabrication machine as an abused child who is given a lot of power.
  • Also the stitchpunks themselves, who may each represent specific aspects of the Scientist's soul/personality. This casts a much more interesting light on certain members of the cast.
• Angst? What Angst?: 9 is a remarkably together guy considering that he single-handedly woke up the Big Bad and inadvertently killed his very first friend
• Animation Age Ghetto: Practically forced in against its will: despite numerous trailers explicitly stating that this was NOT a children's film, plenty of parents brought small children to see it and were upset to discover that the darkly-colored, PG-13 - rated post-apocalyptic sci-fi film was not, in fact, for kids.
• Awesome Music:
  • Coheed and Cambria's "Welcome Home" is used in the trailer, and it is epic. The full song is just as epic as it seems in the trailer.
  • The song at the beginning of the trailer, known as the Captain by The Knife, perfectly sets the desolate tone of the movie.
  • The actual soundtrack is pretty good too, especially "The Seamstress" and the end credits music, which isn't on the soundtrack for some reason.
    • Deborah Lurie and Danny Elfman's score, with ''Release'' as a standout.
  • "Over the Rainbow", which the filmmakers admitted would be the song they'd want to survive the apocalypse.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: At one point in the movie, 8 pulls out a magnet and holds it over his head. This seems to bring him a lot of pleasure. This is never explored further since soon after, 8 is captured by the seamstress and has his soul sucked out by the machine.
• Canon Fodder: By the truckload if you ask most fans.
• Cargo Ship: There is someone out there who ships 1/His Cape. Dead serious here. 8/His Sword also exists. As does 8/His Magnet (which is partially canon).
• Complete Monster: The Chancellor is the manipulative dictator who runs the State. As revealed in flashbacks from the film and supplementary materials, the Chancellor was the catalyst behind the Great World War that left countless dead and every country except his own on the verge of bankruptcy and starvation. Taking advantage of this, the Chancellor manipulates the Scientist into constructing the B.R.A.I.N. under threat, after which the Chancellor reformats the B.R.A.I.N. into a "Fabrication Machine" to produce weapons of war. Subjecting the Machine to great abuse and stress over the course of months, the Chancellor uses the weapons it makes to wage war on every country but his own and get thousands slaughtered. When the Fabrication Machine goes rogue, the Chancellor frames the whole ordeal on the Scientist and tries to save his own life by abandoning the State, showing himself for the despicably selfish monster he is.
• Crack Pairing: Since it's got so few characters and everybody is a machine, pretty much anything and everything has been shipped together, mostly for laughs. 6, being an Ensemble Dark Horse, is the one most subject to pairings, mostly with 5 or 9. See Ho Yay, Launcher of a Thousand Ships, Ship Tease and Slash Fic below.
  • At least one fanfic exists shipping 1 with The Winged Beast. Brain Bleach, anyone?
  • Seamstress/2 is growing in popularity, too. Wait, isn't that necrophilia?
    • Even worse. Depending on which point of the movie we're talking about, it's necrophilia inside one's own body.
• Crazy Is Cool: Getting high on magnet usage and lacking in brainpower doesn't stop 8 from being a hardcore (and surprisingly accurate) badass who takes down machines many times larger than himself with kitchen tools.
• Creepy Awesome: All the "monsters", but especially the Seamstress.
• Critical Dissonance: While the movie was well-liked by audiences and gained a large fan following, critic responses were more mixed, with many criticizing the movie's writing and short length.
• Crossover Ship: Thanks to their many similarities, there are a number of fans out there who ship the Fabrication Machine with GLaDOS.
• Cult Classic: While the actual movie did slightly above average in box office and received mixed reviews, the film's got a respectably-sized fanbase.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: 6 is the most popular character, despite only having four lines!
  • 8 is also extremely memorable and well-liked, despite being both a moron and kind of a dick.
  • Everyone loves 5, in both the original short and the feature. His death is widely considered to be the saddest of all of the stitchpunks.
  • Of all the "monsters", the Seamstress seems to be the clear fan-favorite, thanks to how incredibly goddamn horrifying its design is.
• Evil Is Cool: The Fabrication Machine. A brilliant, soulless machine working to destroy all life, unlike most rebellious robots, succeeded in exterminating humanity? Hell yes. Plus, it has a magnificent design. All of the machines, really. They're just so goddamn scary.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: If you value your life, do not call this a Tim Burton movie in front of the fans. Tim Burton was just a producer, the actual director is Shane Acker.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Mr. Fab," the Fabrication Machine. An alternate to this is "Fab Mac"
  • Petrie for the pterodactyl monster.
  • 1 is the Sack Pope. He is also known by Pope Doll and 1Pimp. Now there is this ridiculously addictive song for Pope Doll. Pope Dooooooolllllll! He enters the rooooooooooooom...
    • Now with '''face melting guitar intro!''' "He's got a cape, he's got a staff, he's got a great big BODYGUARD!"
  • On certain DeviantArt communities, 5 is known as "Angst waffle".
    • He's also sometimes referred to as Pyro5 and "Gerbil Butt".
  • 9 is also commonly referred to as 9Noob due to his Idiot Hero moments.
  • 2 is commonly known as either "Pedo2" (by those who make him a Memetic Molester), or "Grandpa2." He's also called "Creeper2" by some on Deviantart.
  • There's also Pedo9, which originated from a very creepy looking figurine made before the movie came out. It's for the best that it isn't linked to here.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The Russian version. It's not 'all' bad and some people do like it, and it does have some changes to the plot that are an interesting idea (such as the characters being the souls of the scientist's friends and family instead of pieces of his own soul). However, it makes so many other changes to the movie that most who have had the chance to see it would rather they just forget it exists.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • 2's death and funeral scenes may be sadder to watch given Martin Landau's 2017 passing. Same could be said for 1’s death scene because of Christopher Plummer's death in 2021.
  • After the stitchpunks defeated the Winged Beast, their safehouse a cathedral is on fire is hard to look at in light of Notre Dame De Paris' destruction by fire in April 15, 2019.
• Ho Yay: It breathes this trope. Come on, only one character (7) is distinctly female, and two (3 and 4) might be interpreted either way (the art book does mention that 7 is the only female though). 5 and 6 especially seem to be a magnet for this.
• It Was His Sled: Since promotional videos released before the film showed the Seamstress, with 2's body strung onto her tail, it's generally common and open knowledge that the aforementioned 2 dies. Not helping is the fact that it happens rather early in a relatively short movie.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: A consistent criticism of the movie is its 72-minute runtime, barely counting it as feature-length. This came both from critics and from fans who came in anticipating an epic with a 2.5 hour runtime.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Every character in fandom verse, but mostly 5 and 7.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "THIS IS SMASHING!!!" Bizarrely, the line never actually appeared in the film.
  • "Pope Doll is NOT AMUSED."
  • "DID SOMEONE SAY 9?!"
  • The LittleBigPlanet movie is darker than I expected. ^ExplanationBecause both 9 and LittleBigPlanet are about sack dolls, jokes have been made of the former being a much Darker and Edgier adaptation of the latter.
• Narm Charm: The "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" sequence is really, really over the top. That doesn't stop the payoff from being absolutely terrifying.
• One-Scene Wonder: Unlike the other "monsters", the Winged Beast only gets one action scene, but it's just as memorable and scary as anything else in the movie.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: It's amazing how many fans saw more chemistry between 9 and 5 than between 9 and 7. Then again, that's probably founded upon overthinking, and it was never canonically established that 9 and 7 had romantic feelings for each other in the first place. The implications were based on one or two shots of them holding hands. And since they're really just little dolls, it's perfectly likely that their relationship was platonic and childlike.
• Ship Tease: 7 and 9, 5 and 9, 5 and 6, 5 and 2. Many more, if the fandom is anything to go by.
• Slash Fic: And God knows there's a lot of it for a movie about sackdolls. 5/9, 5/2, 5/6, 6/8, 1/2...
• So Okay, It's Average: The critical consensus is that it's high on imaginative splendor and short on narrative depth, making for a visually interesting but overall "meh" film. The fans, on the other hand...
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Many fans have expressed... disappointment with the edited version aired on Syfy and USA. Apparent edits included removal of dialogue, removal of the light staff building scene, and removal of the factory chase scene.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: 3 and 4. Try to figure out what gender they are without the Word of God, which says "open to interpretation".
  • The 9 art book, however, does state that 7 is the only female of the stitchpunks.
• Vindicated by History: The movie gained mixed reception on its initial release, many reviewers calling it an interesting but rather flat and shallow film. Nowadays, it's remembered much more fondly for its surprisingly deep lore and worldbuilding, the intriguing villains and their terrifyingly awesome action sequences, the surprisingly heartwarming, or sometimes heartbreaking, moments shared between the characters, and the overall wonderful presentation of the film.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: This is the rare animated film that plays Real Is Brown completely straight, and is still incredibly gorgeous.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: A disturbing number of parents who brought small children along, despite the commercials clearly stating it was not a kid's animated movie. Most were in tears of terror by the middle of the film.
  • Despite the fact that it's rated PG-13, the movie's genre has been labelled as "Kids & Family" in some movie-related websites. Kind of surprising, considering the fact that a total of nine sentient beings (1, 2, 5, 6, 8, Mr. Fab, the Cat Beast, the Winged Beast, and the Seamstress) get brutally killed over the course of the movie.
• The Woobie:
  • Every one of the dolls, really, given the losses and trauma they sustain throughout the movie.
• Woolseyism: The Russian dub of the movie deviates significantly from the original script, being re-written by Dmitriy Glukhovskiy (the author of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. novels and Metro 2033). In it, the Stitchpunks contain souls of people close to the Scientist or otherwise significant individuals (1 is the Chancellor, 3 and 4 are the Scientist's children, while 7 is his wife and 9 is the Scientist himself).

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