'9': Not your average animated film

"This is definitely not your little brother's animated movie." And this is certainly a tagline worthy of a film like "9," the newest computer-animated film released by Focus Features and perhaps the first computer-animated film to be a decent action film (with a message, too).

Based on director Shane Acker's 2005 Oscar-nominated short film, "9" depicts a world in which the landscape has been leveled by destructive machinery. It's as if WALL*E decided to turn against the world at the end of his film. But humanity has shreds left in ragdoll creatures. Led by newcomer 9 (voiced angelically by Elijah Wood), they aim to stop the chaos once and for all.

Though Tim Burton is one of the producers of "9," this film is a far cry from his others. Though there are moments of reflection by the characters, which resemble Edward Scissorhands, this is an action film all the way. The numbered characters fight off nightmare-inducing skulled machine-monsters one by one in a sequence that would translate well into a video game. Action sequences even include slow motion, could be attributed to the film's producer, Timur Bekmambetov, the director of "Wanted."

The characters have their own personalities that are defined through their dialogue and their overall look. Unlike the others, who look like an afterthought with button fronts and made from scraps of burlap and striped fabric, 9 is the perfect specimen. The characters are voiced by such distinguished actors as Christopher Plummer, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly and Martin Landau. Reilly in particular gives an innocence to his character that tugs on the heartstrings. (Watch out for 8, who uses a magnet in the most peculiar way imaginable.)

The look of the film is also something to be applauded. This world is a broken landscape and appears to be emulating the destruction of World War II Europe with dismantled and brick buildings, the ground littered with bricks, dirt and bodies. The film's color palette of grey, brown, black and green paired with a clouded pink sky gives the landscape an eerie, yet hopeful quality that makes the landscape of the film almost a character in itself.

The ending is optimistic, with the line, "This world is ours now, it's what we make of it." Though a bit cheesy, this line embodies the film's message of hope in the midst of darkness and the need for action in order to make the world a better place. And given the less than desirable films to come out in the month of September, this film proves with humanity and action that both entertain and enlighten that sometimes there is an exception to the rule.