Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Robert Reynolds This short was deservedly nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be spoilers ahead: This short is a glimpse into a ruined world where a doll labeled "9" has to use its wits to survive and try to salvage the souls of its compatriots from a monster. Part of the story is told in a flashback. The short tells the story without dialog but dialog really isn't necessary.There's an incredibly exciting chase and various bits of business come together as setup for later events. The plotting is excellent and the end of the short is great. 9 is a very well developed character and this is a great short. The most impressive part of the short are the visuals. It's just a visually stunning piece of animation. The backgrounds are so detailed and impressive that the short would be worth watching just for those alone.The short was optioned to be turned into a feature film and I can easily see why. This short is an extra on the DVD release of the feature film and is well worth watching. Most highly recommended.

tavm Just watched this-Shane Acker's original short version of the now released feature version of 9. The title character is-as many commentators have mentioned-a rag doll who's on the run from a large creature that just killed a fellow worker with some light bulb gadget. The computer animation is pretty exciting with the chase and I can see why it was nominated for an Academy Award. But I guess because it was so short and there weren't too many details of why all this was happening made me a little unsatisfied with this animated short. In other words, I wanted this to be a little longer. So it's with that being said that I hope the feature version of 9 becomes a much more enjoyable experience than what I saw here...

MartinHafer This film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for 2006 and although it did not win, it deserves kudos for creating a very strange yet beautiful alternate world.The film begins with two creatures who are practically impossible to describe--they are that odd. However, a monstrous robot-like predator arrives and quickly sucks the soul out of one--while the other tries to escape. Being a very tenacious creature, it gives chase and most of the film consists of the creature trying to kill the smaller and weaker one.Graphically, this film is all computer generated and looks like a darker version of the Odd World characters created for several gaming systems. While very dark (not just in spirit but in lighting), the film abounds with wonderfully detailed and rendered graphics. It was exciting to watch and I look forward to more from this creative team.

Polaris_DiB This is a really fun animation, mostly because it's just so simple of a story very detailed in animation and visually exciting. I mean, for all the complicated methods of the computer animation with great lighting effects and detailed skins and movements of the characters and their effects on the environments, it's a very easy man-vs-monster story that can appeal to everyone.A ragdoll named 9, or marked 9, or the ninth ragdoll or something to that effect is tragically left alone after its partner 4 sacrifices itself to a monster that steals its soul. 9 devises a way to defeat the monster so that it will no longer torment it, and in the process discovers a way to provide closure to the souls' entrapment (the souls of 1 through 8). This is presented through actiony fantasy pretty much existing as never-before-seen.It's very enjoyable and visually amazing. The monster seems almost perfect for the environment they come from, and the characters are very well emotionally presented considering their darned faces. The plot contains no real desire to be stretched into feature length or accepted as important, just presents six minutes of about as much fun as six minutes can give.--PolarisDiB