Shane Acker’s feature debut gets added to a list of animated films to see this year, ‘Objectified’ follows up from the ‘Helvetica’ team, and free best of Club Bootie tracks.

2009 is looking to be a good year for animated films. Sure, there will be another high-quality Pixar release, but that’s almost expected at this point. There’s also the Neil Gaiman-via-Henry Selick adaptation of Coraline coming in the spring, which we’ve mentioned before, that’s looking as gorgeous as you would expect (and has an elaborate website full of all kinds of stop-animated bonus goodies). If you’ve been paying attention, you may have just heard about the dark horse Waltz With Bashir from Israel gobbling up awards and playing now in select cities, that looks to be Persepolis minus the whimsy, plus a lot more war.

Now, the trailer for a movie called 9 puts another mark on this year’s powerhouse animation line-up.

Props to Focus Features for picking up both Coraline and this for the same year; it’s like hitting bingo for things supported by Under Culture. Writer/Director Shane Acker expands his original 11-minute, no-dialogue, Academy Award-nominated short film, about a colony of rag dolls fighting evil robots in a post-apocalypse (one), into a full feature. I originally saw the short a couple years back when it was one of the highlights of that year’s Animation Show (two), and the world he painted can definitely support a deeper story. The trailer looks fantastic, especially in HD, and includes a song you may recognize as Coheed & Cambria’s ‘Welcome Home’ from Rock Band (free space). The film gets production help from Tim Burton (four), and voice talent including the likes of Elijah Wood — okay, whatever — but Jennifer Connelly, John C Reilly, Martin Landau, and Crispin Glover (BINGO!).

This one looks pretty promising. And even more badass if, like me, you’ve been playing Little Big Planet recently and glad to see little burlap dudes are also capable of kicking some ass.

I remember Acker coming out for the Q&A portion and describing how excited he was about the film project, seeming very genuine and oh-man-I-can’t-believe-it-either about the chance to work with such great talent. If the trailer isn’t enough, you can find the original short with a simple web search before this one pops up on, what else, 9/9/09.

(When, coincidentally, there might also be another film starring Daniel Day Lewis, called Nine, releasing the same day — according to, well, io9 of all places. Careful your head doesn’t explode…*coughNINEcough*. There, now for feng shui purposes I’ve said it a full nine times in one post.)

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For the design nerds out there, another sweet documentary is headed your way from the exciting talents that brought you Helvetica, a movie about fonts. No, not Helvetica Neue: Font Harder or Times New Roman: Cruise Control.

This one’s called Objectified, and it’s about industrial design (oooo!).

Helvetica is still lingering in my Netflix queue, but both of these films tackle wonderfully dull-sounding vocations that are actually extremely deep and elegant in practice. The kind of thing you would flip to on PBS and find yourself riveted by, and possibly change the way you look at the seemingly mundane objects all around you. I can’t wait to see these films.

And as it turns out, they’re airing Helvetica this month for PBS’s Independent Lens series, so check your local listings for some hot typeface action.

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Finally, who can say no to free music? Especially when it’s funky mash-ups of dance tunes perfect to raise eyebrows at your next party, from the world’s premiere bootleg enthusiasts of Club Bootie.

Right now you can download their Best of Bootie 2008 cd, plus another dozen bonus tracks.

Having recently attended their LA club night, I must profess some love for what these people are doing. It’s a great fun way to dance the night away. Everyone knows the mash-up thing is not as trendy as it was a few years back, but come on, tell me you don’t have more fun on the floor when it’s songs you know the words to with an extra shot of groove. It’s okay to stop pretending.

Not every track on here is a certified winner, but there are a couple home runs, like the MIA/Wreckx N Effect - Paper Planes/Rump Shaker track, and the Justice/Jackson 5 - D.A.N.C.E./I Want You Back mix we all knew was coming. Go listen for yourself and start building that next party playlist.