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This extended version of Shane Acker's Oscar-nominated 11-minute animated student short follows a group of retro "stitchpunk" doll characters who have numbers instead of names. Elijah Wood voices the title character.
"9" bumbles around a post-apocalyptic World War II era bombed-out European landscape where most of the humans have been killed off in a huge war where machines took over.
Accompanied by his shrinking group of fellow oppressed creatures, 9 launches a mission to attack the "Great" machine, which seems to embody the monster of industrial capitalism to which his genius creator contributed.
John C. Reilly stands out for his vocals as number 5.
Unfortunately, the film's overblown chase plot, which substitutes for a story, never makes its thematic perspective clear.
Acker's elaborate, dingy visual devices fall flat due to a lack of empathetic context for the creatures, who come off as soulless.
Following such recent "nine" titled films like "$9.99," " District 9," and "Cloud 9," Acker's animated sci-fi feature feels like an inanimate object that the cat dragged in.
Tim Burton and Russian visionary Timur Bekmambetov take producing credits for a movie your kids won't get, and you won't enjoy.
(Focus Features) Rated PG-13. 81 mins.
