Synopsis

In a ruined future where humanity has vanished, a timid rag doll marked with the number 9 awakens in a deserted laboratory. He soon discovers other numbered creations hiding from deadly machines that now rule the wasteland. As 9 searches for answers about their origins, he must overcome fear, unite the survivors, and confront the technology that destroyed the human world.

Factoids & Trivia

• The feature grew out of Shane Acker's 11-minute animated short, which was completed in 2004 while he was studying at UCLA. The short won a Student Academy Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

• Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov helped bring the short to feature length. Pamela Pettler expanded Acker's concept into the screenplay, while Acker returned to create the larger world and mythology.

• Production on the feature began in early 2007 at Starz Animation Toronto. Although the movie is computer animated, the characters were treated as "virtual puppets," with designs and expressions developed through paper sketches, clay work, and digital sculpting.

• Acker based the numbered creations partly on Aristotle's idea of the different facets of humanity. Each character was designed to embody particular human qualities, flaws, and emotional tendencies.

• The movie's visual style draws on steampunk, industrial design, alchemy, Jules Verne, and mid-century European machinery. The production team aged and weathered nearly every object to make the post-apocalyptic setting appear assembled from discarded remnants of human civilization.

• Animators used filmed reference performances to capture details from the voice sessions, including facial movements, posture, and gestures. The silent characters 3 and 4 were animated with inspiration from meerkats and silent-film performers.

• The film was deliberately released in the United States on September 9, 2009, matching the title's number in the date format 9/9/09.

• The soundtrack was released on August 31, 2009, nine days before the theatrical opening. Its promotional campaign also featured "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria, which appeared in the trailers.