Blu-ray of the Day: 9

Voices: Elijah Wood, John C Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C Reilly, Crispin Glover.
Director: Shane Acker.
Screenplay: Pamela Pettler.
Score: Deborah Lurie.

Story-wise, 9 may lose a few points but it scores a perfect 10 for animation, especially if you see it in high definition. Ironically, the 2005 short that inspired it was Oscar-nominated whereas the movie inexplicably wasn’t. Produced by Tim Burton, it’s set in a post-apocalypse parallel universe, where machines have wiped out all life except a small band of rag-doll scavengers. The adult themes and alarming visuals may be too intense for children but everyone else will relish 9’s extraordinary imagination, breathtaking action and surprisingly nuanced performances that are as much a marvel as the virtuosic production design. All of the extras are HD, except for five, raw deleted scenes and the original, 11-minute short that director Shane Acker spent four years making for his college thesis. Acker also contributes to a commentary with three of his collaborators. Disappointingly, this Madman Entertainment disc lacks the U-Control picture-in-picture track included on the region-free editions Universal released in the US and UK.

Movie: 😀 😀 😀 😀 😐
Image: 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Extras: 😀 😀 😀 😀