In this computer animated tale, humans have suffered annihilation at the hands of their own creations and a groups of dolls is left to figure out what happened and attain an understanding of the world.
The animation in this film uses a lot of soft lines juxtaposed against sharp and rough edges. The best example of this is found in the way the characters are animated. The main character, 9, is drawn with a majority of soft edges. His eyes, hands and body are all rounded giving him a more jovial appearance and therefore letting the viewer know that he is the protagonist. The evil characters (i.e. the machines), however, are drawn with rough lines and very sharp edges. One of these characters is a snake-like creature composed of spider-like appendages used for catching and sewing up the protagonist and his companions. This character also has the head of a beat up baby doll adding to the evil nature of the lines. There is one character who encompasses both traits of soft and sharp lines. This character, 1, has very soft features except for his eyes. His eyes have three slits that close in a triangle shape giving him meaner eyes. 9 has many slits giving him more rounded and nicer looking eyes.
The film has a very bleak tone due to its apocalyptic nature. There are very few bright colors save the occasional neon green or red and usually these colors indicate some form of danger. The film also carries the theme of man vs. nature, and in some ways man vs. self. This is told mainly through little vignettes played by twin characters who join with 9.
