9 (2009)

Dir: Shane Acker
Universal DVD

2009 saw a lot of animated films released and (since I have kiddos) I've seen most of them. Frankly, most were better than I expected. This one was the most grown-up of the bunch released and definitely had some moments that were pretty scary for youngsters. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where the machines have risen up against us and destroyed pretty much everything and everyone. The only thing left of humanity are 9 living rag-dolls created by the scientist that also created the machines that killed us. One of them (#9 voiced by Elijah Wood) accidentally turns the semi-intelligent murder-bot back on and the dolls have to figure out how to defeat it. The action is tense and well staged but I wasn't too thrilled with the denouement. There's not a lot of character development but that's just fine considering there's not really any characters. I thought the character design on the good guys was outstanding and I really appreciated the world Acker created.

7/10