Lack of character development dooms ‘9' to tedium

There's no rule that says animated films have to be cheerful, kid-friendly exercises. But “9” is really pressing the point.

This dark, post-apocalyptic movie is bleak to a fault. Maybe if director Shane Acker had found a distinctive story to go with his design skills, it'd be easier to take.

“9” has more in common with the current “District 9” than just a numeral.

Both features were based on short films that came to the attention of moviemaking heavyweights, and were expanded under the veterans' guidance.

For “9,” those guardian angels are Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (the latter the director of “Day Watch” and “Wanted”). Given their taste, you can see how Acker's gloomy scenario would be appealing.

You can also see this filmmaker's talent. For the first ten minutes or so, “9” has a truly magical quality, as we enter a blasted world where machines have eliminated humans.

The only tiny hope against the machine dominance comes in the form of small puppets. Our hero is known only by the number on his back, 9, and he looks like he's been stitched together out of burlap, clock works and lenses. (He also has the voice of Elijah Wood.)

There are others like him in this world-well, at least eight others. They fall into familiar types: a controlling leader (Christopher Plummer), a goofy sidekick (John C. Reilly), kindly professor (Martin Landau) and the like.

The set-up is there, and some of the early animation, introducing us to the intricate details of 9's design and his blown-up, steampunk world, is remarkable.

So it's especially disappointing to report that the muddy story soon settles into a back-and-forth between the angry machines and the little fighters. Whatever character development might have existed gets drowned in the film's brown, underlit landscape.

Even at a spare 79 minutes, the story grows tedious. Nothing breaks the monotonous rhythm of the hardware-heavy battle with the machines — except the occasional deaths of the main characters.

In other words, “9” is not exactly kiddie fare, at least not for small children. The question is who else it's for, other than animation fanatics and, I suppose, numerologists.