Animated films aimed at mature audiences are in short supply in this day and age but 9 tries to scratch that itch for movie goers. Based on a short film by the same name and in the same style, 9 chronicles the adventures of a ragdoll named 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood) and his predecessors numbered 1 through 8 as they fight to survive against what they call “The Beast”. The film reminds audiences that it was made for a mature audience by contrasting the opening scene of the movie which shows an old man’s fingers elegantly stitching together a small ragdoll with the images of death and an empty, post-apocalyptic wasteland.

There were not too many flaws with the movie but its biggest problem was its runtime which comes in at just under one hour and twenty minutes. It manages to get its point across and tie up the main plot but with such a short runtime, many sub-plots and confusing concepts are left unexplained. The film has some issues when it comes to speech as well. With such a stylish and gracefully designed look, 9 has some extremely basic dialogue.

The visual style in the film is the most praise-worthy thing about it. Every environment in every scene is expansive and unbelievably detailed. The main characters all have the same general look, but the numbers that are stitched on their backs makes them easily discernable. The real creative vision shows in the appropriately creepy, part machine, part monster foes that have amazingly ingenious and complicated character designs. Each of these machines has incredibly well choreographed action sequences coupled with them where every movement can be seen as opposed to the lightning-flash type fighting found in most CGI action films.

Part of maintaining the stylistic visual look was keeping the environments oppressive and bleak which ties into the fact that the whole film is exceptionally dark. It’s refreshing to see such a turn in tone for this genre and when coupled with such an original and creative storyline 9 stands out amongst all of the Pixar and DreamWorks animated films.