This extended version of Shane Acker's Oscar-winning 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 doll-humans have been
killed off, supposedly by something called the Great Machine.
Accompanied by his shrinking group of fellow oppressed creatures, 9
launches a mission to attack the 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. (C-) (Two Stars)
