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It's a rare occasion when an animated short film (10 minutes and 38 seconds) leaves me thinking about it for days afterwards. That's what Shane Acker's "9" did to me when I first saw it in 2005. Acker's short about a tiny puppet trying to survive and save his puppet friends was good enough to be nominated for best animated short in the 2005 Academy Awards, although it didn't get the plum.

Here's the original 2005 short film:

But Acker's efforts seem to be paying off, as he teamed up with Tim Burton to produce a feature-length movie based on the "9" animated short. The movie will carry on the original's dark, gloomy settings, with the puppets (called "stitchpunks") trying to survive in a world overrun by mechanical monsters.

The premise is pretty standard for any post-apocalyptic movie. Machines have eradicated the human race, and now the stitchpunks -- gifted with souls by a now-dead creator -- now have the daunting mission of making life go on in a decrepit, dead world.

The official trailer is really neat:

With powerhouse voice actors like Elijah Wood, Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, and Martin Landau, this is yet another 2009 gem you won't want to miss.