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.

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...

Shane Acker's original film that was the basis of the now big budget animated film. Running some 10 minutes the film concerns 9's battle with a patchwork monster that has been stealing the souls of his brethren. Its silent except for sound effects and its clear why Tim Burton produced a feature film version since the film is full of possibilities. As it stands now its a tightly paced beautiful to look at film. Its the best sort of film in that its reality bleeds off the screen and you very easily believe this is a real place and really happening. Acker's animation is extremely masterful. Watch the little motions of 9's body as he moves. There are small touches, gestures, shifts of weight that demolish any notion that we are watching anything other than real being. A small masterpiece. See this if you can.

A rag doll fights a monster that has been stealing the souls of his people.I saw this on you tube. Having a running time for about 10 minutes, I decided to watch this film and you know what? It was actually a fantastic and brilliant kind of "short" film. The animation is fantastic and original-looking and what I love about this film is that it's not afraid to be a dark animated film. There are some moments in here where it might be truly frightening for a child.More on animation: It looked fresh, original, and gritty. I loved it! Another great thing is that this film has NO (ZERO) - NADA - dialog but yet it still pulls off for great character development through the actions of the characters! This is just an animated film with a simple plot done in an extraordinary way. The look is fantastic and I'm sure Shane Acker will be a great animator when he makes more of these types of films. So if you have ten minutes to kill, go to you tube right now and search up "9".