'9' animates apocalyptic world

By animation standards, the title character of "9" isn't cute or endearing.

9 is a sort of burlap doll, about 8 inches tall, held together by a metal skeleton. He views the world through camera-lens eyes. His feet and hands appear to have been fashioned from hand-carved wood.

But against all odds, 9 is alive. He awakens next to the body of an old man - a scientist - who fashioned 9 in the waning days of some sort of apocalypse that has claimed all organic life on Earth. Now, like a newborn animal exploring its environment, 9 ventures forth from a ruined house into a world filled with corpses and unanticipated dangers, his wooden feet clopping through the rubble.

Fresh from college, writer/director/animator Shane Acker has made a wildly ambitious feature debut with "9," an expansion of his 2005 animated short that grabbed an Oscar nomination and a gold medal at that year's Student Academy Awards.

"9" finds our rag-doll animatron (voiced by Elijah Wood) bumping into others of his kind. They've all been carefully numbered by their deceased maker (9 was the last to be built). Led by the officious and dictatorial 1 (Christopher Plummer), who wears a sort of bishop's headgear and speaks with the dulcet tones of a Shakespearean actor, these tiny beings live in hiding, terrified of the machines that stalk the wasteland that was once a city.

On a visual level, "9" is extraordinary, from its vision of our ravaged civilization to the brilliant character animation (these puppets have only limited facial expression yet emerge as specific personalities) to the plethora of scary creatures that populate its dark corners.

Thematically, the movie is about as dark as any animated film you'll see. It is, after all, about the end of the human race. And Acker blessedly doesn't feel the need to explain everything . . . he simply drops us into this creepy world and expects us to catch up.

Narratively . . . well, there Acker's inexperience catches up with him. For all its grim beauty, "9" never quite jells as storytelling. Perhaps it's because "9" is dusted with the footprints of other films.

"9" was produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted"), whose names are prominent in the advertising since Acker is unknown.

The film offers a unique take on the future and enough dazzling sights to merit a second and even third viewing. But you have to wonder - are typical animation audiences going to go for something this challenging?

Produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Tim Burton, Dana Ginsburg, Jinko Gotoh, Jim Lemley, directed by Shane Acker, written by Shane Acker, Pamela Pettler, music by Deborah Lurie, distributed by Focus Features.