The Animatrix

The Animatrix
by Andy Jones, K?ji Morimoto, Mahiro Maeda, Peter Chung, Shinichir? Watanabe

The Animatrix
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Hedy Burress, Kath Soucie, Pamela Adlon, Tara Strong, Tress MacNeille
Director: Andy Jones, K?ji Morimoto, Mahiro Maeda, Peter Chung, Shinichir? Watanabe
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Andy Wachowski
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-06-03
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video

Movie Reviews of The Animatrix

Movie Review: Decent addition to the Matrix ; not intrument to make The Matrix better
Summary: 3 Stars

I can't believe I just watched the whole DVD for the first time after all these years... The animations are generally pretty visceral, and they are entertaining in that respect. Perhaps inevitably, this leads to some potentially disturbing images. Nothing too gruesome, and the artistry in some of the CG segments more than make up for it. The Last Flight of the Osiris is a particularly pleasing sensual experience.

Unfortunately, the intellectual aspect of Animatrix is no better than the movies themselves, which is sorely wanting. Two of its showpieces, The Second Renaissance I and II, are maddeningly ludicrous. Nevermind the fact that liquefied human flesh cannot supply new useful energy to sustain new human bodies, except ultimately as a source of raw matter in E = mc^2. Nevermind the logical impossibility of a machine race that simultaneously possesses a singular (in the words of Morpheus himself) and individual consciousness (as evident by varying machine behavior in the anime). The portrayal of humans in these animes are downright insulting. It is as though the people of the future, who can build a race of servile robots and devise a plan as diabolical as blocking out the sun, lack the basic foresight to form a useful plan against a city-state of machines, that stayed friendly and peaceful to let humans initiate a thousand-warhead nuclear bombardment. It seems a school of adolescents can come up with more creative and more useful plans.

As a result, I find the Animatrix to be all in good fun as long as I watch it as a piece of visual art to be enjoyed. However, as with many works of art, trying to dig too deeply, too intellectually, one digs a hole so deep that Plato could not climb out. Be like Smith. Have fun; don't be so serious. You may need to remind young, impressionable watchers this point.

Summary of The Animatrix

From the creators of The Matrix trilogy, this groundbreaking collection of nine short films from seven of the world's leading anime directors provides a visionary fusion of CG-Animatrion and Japanese anime.

DVD Features:
Biographies
DVD ROM Features
Documentaries
Interactive Menus
Interviews


Matrix writer-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski commissioned seven artists from Japan, America and Korea to make nine short films set in the world of their feature trilogy. Some of the top anime directors contributed to this anthology, including Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll), Koji Morimoto (Robot Carnival), and Shinchiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop). Some of the films tie directly into the narrative of the live-action movies. Drawn in a style reminiscent of Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Mahiro Maeda's The Second Renaissance (Part I & Part II) depicts the human-machine wars that caused the enslavement of humanity and the creation of the Matrix. The duel between two flamboyantly costumed Kabuki warriors in Kawajiri's Program is an expanded version of the cybernetic training Neo (Keanu Reeves) undergoes in the first Matrix film. Watanabe evokes the look of old newspaper photographs in A Detective Story, which falls outside the storyline of the features. Fast-paced, violent and grim, The Animatrix is an uneven but intriguing compilation that represents a new level in the ongoing cross-pollination between Japanese animation and American live action. (Not rated, suitable for ages 16 and older: considerable violence, violence against women, grotesque imagery, brief nudity, alcohol use) --Charles Solomon

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