9 is a computer animated movie, based on an original, short, award-winning, film with the same title. The short, created by Shane Acker as a student project, received praise by Tim Burton for its artistic vision. Burton later decided to produce the feature length movie "9" with Shane Acker directing it.

Based in a fictional futuristic setting, 9 investigates the idea of a human world being run into the ground by the very machines they created to help them. A brief summary of events: a lonely scientist is ordered by his nation in a time of dwindling resources to create technology that will bring them great prosperity and provide many jobs for the nation’s people as well as the creation of machines of war. The flag of this nation is red, a white circle in the middle, and a black militaristic symbol contrast on the white background; of course, the flag being a simple reminder that the government of this nation is a Nazi-like, totalitarian one with full control over all aspects of life. As such, without letting the scientist run experimental tests on his new artificially intelligent "brain" creation, the government steals it away and puts it to immediate work. The machine malfunctions and an apocalypse occurs, leaving the scientist with a guilty conscious and a big decision to make.

The movie begins with as little introduction as the main character 9 (Elijah Woods) receives. Suddenly awakening, strung up by one hand in a laboratory, and left to understand who he is, where he is, and what he is doing here. 9 notices all of his features, a hand sewn body of thread, two mechanical eye devices, a black number nine drawn on his back in ink, copper hands, feet, and a mysterious zipper adorning his chest that seems to serve no immediate purpose. He stumbles out of the house revealing a war-torn world, smoke rising, fresh corpses in automobiles, bullet cartridges strewn about the cracked streets, and shrill noises being carried in the wind. After a sudden meeting with 2, another "stitch-punk" doll, and a brief encounter with an aggressive machine, the viewer is now left to watch as the events unravel over the course of an hour and thirty minutes time.

The movie at its core is an animated sci-fi action fantasy film. Its only problem however, is that it seems to desperately wants to involve the viewer in its complex story and make them feel the desperation of the dangerous, war-scarred apocalypse that the stitch punks have to endure. The movies pacing is very off, and the viewer is hit with an overload of story at one time, unfortunately that being near the end of the movie. 9 makes you believe that a monstrous script was meticulously written after the short film was approved to be made into a feature length movie but the run time constricted a lot of the material, and in the end the movie came out as a mildly shallow action film with interesting ideas.

If 9 explained itself to its audience more in the beginning and middle of the movie, it would have been sufficient to move the action to the end of the movie, lending to an explosive climax and gentle resolution. This would ultimately make 9 a more satisfying experience. Revealing anymore about the movie than would be criminal, as after that there isn't much meat left to the story until the climax of the movie.

The reason to spend money to watch 9 is, without a doubt, its beyond impressive animation, production values, and artistic vision. The setting of the 9 universe is incredibly thorough: bombed out buildings, dust storms, rusted metal bits and pieces rattling about the streets, totalitarian government propaganda blowing in the wind, occasional unsettling mechanical screeches heard from far off, and of course, the main characters. The action sequences are stylized and adrenaline-building. Watching stiched dolls fight manic machinery with hand-crafted yet practical weaponry, all the while being thrown around a post-apocalyptic jungle gym, is indescribably enticing. During one notable fight scene, the theatre audience uttered awe at the gymnastic-esque attacks being executed on screen. It truly is exciting to view.

The stitch punk dolls are brilliantly unique, each with a distinct personality trait and a character design to match. For example, 7 (Jennifer Connelly) is a brave and lionhearted female (the only female character in the movie.) She wears a bone mask on her head that covers her eyes, tooth earrings, and covers herself in plate armor. Each stitch punk has their own trademark item which they carry around with them on their quest which further addresses their individual behavior. 9 is courageous and carries a staff with a light bulb affixed at the top which aluminates dark places, 8 is an oaf with brute force, his mouth stitched shut making him the only stitch punk who never actually carries out a conversation, and carries with him a giant knife which he protects the group with.

A lot of consideration and polish went into the characters, making them each unique but easy to understand. The machines are no different adorning sharp edges, and cast of black metals, acute, red eyes, and have many sharp objects to the cut the stitch punk’s soft exteriors with. They are truly fearsome. The most impressive of the machines, "The Seamstress," could very well be where the PG-13 rating comes from as the tactics it uses against the stitch punks is very frightening. As far as animated monstrosities go, it is a step under the horrifying baby doll head mechanical spider which crawls out from under the bed in Toy Story, but never the less terrifying. The cold, heartless, machines can be tagged as the movies antagonists just at first glance.

Juxtaposed with the beautiful setting, raggedy stitch punks, and sharp machineries, the design of the humans is clunky and awkward. When the humans of the 9 universe are occasionally mentioned and shown on screen, they stand out against their lifelike backgrounds. They have the look of wet clay. Their features are grotesque. Their details are scarce. Their appearance is cringe-worthy. A minor gripe, but none the less sets this movie’s animation apart from flawlessness.

After getting over the awesome aesthetics and heart pounding adventure-fantasy action sequences, viewers are left with nothing much to look forward too. Watching 5 (John C. Reilly) mourn over a loss he encounters is one of the most comical moments of the movie because of how terribly detached it all sounds. Instead of feeling sympathy for the loss, you feel sympathy for the story line as one of its key "sad moments" is mercilessly butchered. The rest of the cast does a fair job, 9 (Elijah Woods), 7 (Jennifer Connelly), and 1 (Christopher Plummer) delivering the best conversation the movie has to offer, and thankfully 9, 7, and 1 are the main characters as far as the plot line goes.

Looking past the movie’s polish, theme, and close to perfect animation, there is a hollow story which desperately wants to be told, a sufficient enough ending which will leave you feeling let down but not robbed of the experience, and the fact that you are paying movie ticket prices to watch an hour and a half long movie. If you are a sucker for great animation or intense fantasy violence, watch 9, if not, you would not be missing out by skipping this one.