The Animatrix
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Movie Reviews of The Animatrix
Movie Review: Excellent companion DVD to "The Matrix" trilogy
Summary: 5 Stars
THE ANIMATRIX is a series of nine groundbreaking animated shorts designed as companion pieces to the MATRIX film trilogy, each about 5-10 minutes in length, the longest is about 20 minutes. This is also produced by the Wachowski Bros. and Joel Silver. The range of animation techniques on display here is simply astounding- which easily makes this a 5 star DVD, but THE ANIMATRIX will possibly hold the most appeal to MATRIX fanatics who know the movies inside and out (I'm not one of them so cut me a little slack, mmkay?). What I found most amusing is that the end credits to the films run twice as long as the shorts!The features are as follows, with my personal faves denoted by an asterisk:
1. FINAL FLIGHT OF THE OSIRIS (This was screened in NZ as a short film before DREAMCATCHER, which I haven't seen yet.)
2. THE SECOND RENAISSANCE PART 1.
3. THE SECOND RENAISSANCE PART 2. (Logically enough).
4. KID'S STORY*: Unlike the first three shorts, KID'S STORY actually has a good human interest plot at its core and absolutely brilliant animation. It's about Michael Copper, a geeky high school kid with an obsession with THE MATRIX movies, who finds himself the target of Agents. Best of all, regular schmucks like me can follow it with no problem. Woohoo!
5. PROGRAM*: I can't adequately put this one into words, but once you see it you'll understand why. (Yeah, because as I acknowleged in one of my earlier reviews, I'm an uncultured chump.) Anyway, this rocks. Take my word for it.
6. WORLD RECORD: In this anecdote, a World Class track sprinter tries to break his own record, but in the tradition of sci-fi wackiness this doesn't go according to plan. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that his coach looks like the World's worst (c)rapper Vanilla Ice. Mercifully, he doesn't start pumping his fist and chanting "Go White Boy Go White Boy Go!". Whew!
7. BEYOND*: A teenage girl searching for her missing cat traces her pet's whereabouts to a haunted house. There's loads of surprises and great visual FX in this short.
8. A DETECTIVE STORY*: Excellent black and white detective noir anime in which a Private Eye is hired by agents to capture Trinity. The only catch is the last Detective assigned the same case ended up going stark raving bonkers...
9. MATRICULATED*: Final short is the longest at 20 mins, but this one's a real stunner, which is why I won't spoil anything by summarising it.
All in all, THE ANIMATRIX is a dazzling showcase for a broad range of talented animators; though personally SPONGEBOB's still #1 in my book. It's just personal taste. Check it out.
Movie Review: Best Of The Matrix Movies By Far
Summary: 5 Stars
All three of the live-action "Matrix" films were at least good, but the best thing to ever come out of the Matrix concept is "The Animatrix", a collaborative effort by some of the best animation talents from America, Japan, and South Korea that presents a number of shorts taking place in the Matrix universe, some of them before the live-action movies and others concurrent with them, including some that fill in spaces between "The Matrix" and "The Matrix Reloaded".
This is an anime regardless of what part of the world it has its genesis in, and it's one of the greatest animes of all time. The individual tales are done in a widely contrasting array of animated styles, and represent a high point for science fiction as a whole. Taken in its entirety, "The Animatrix" is philosophical, awesome, sexy, thrilling, moving and frightening. "The Second Renaissance", Parts I & II, are especially noteworthy because they're the kind of story and the kind of angle that science fiction has needed to address for a long time. These segments tell the full origin of the world of the Matrix, from a point in the near future right through the final war, largely from the machines's point of view. If you've ever wondered why so many big SF action movies present a world in which mankind has created sentient machines, know they're sentient, continues to treat them like slaves, and yet we're Still supposed to view the machines as the bad guys when they strike back, then you're going to love the 'Second Renaissance' segments. Humanity's behavior in the early portions of the man-machine difficulties is terrifyingly believable.
Inside the Matrix System, "Beyond" is a huge standout, a gorgeously animated tale that moves from classic anime territory ( a girl searching for a cat in a haunted house) into dark Matrix territory, and in the devastated Earth outside the Matrix, the stunning 'Matriculated' is a powerful and amazingly imaginative new look at the world, the minds of the machine scouts, and the whole nature of perception, to name just a few of the angles in this one segment.
All of the stories feature excellent animation, some of them including some of the best astonishing visual images ever seen on film. To science fiction, "The Animatrix" is as essential as the likes of "Star Wars" or "Solaris", and to anime it's as essential as such greats as "Spirited Away" (although "Animatrix" isn't for young children) or "Princess Mononoke".
Movie Review: Enter the Animatrix
Summary: 5 Stars
I've seen a good chunk of this on the web and other places, and all I can say is WOW.What is the Animatrix? In a nutshell, it is a collection of short Matrix stories that are animated. And the cool thing about it is that they're all mostly animated in different ways. (A few are done in anime, another in full CG, some just plain old animation, and others a mix of 2 or a mix of three of the above.)
The DVD will have nine (9) episodes to watch. Here's a quick overview of the ones I know a lot about and/or have seen:
1) THE SECOND RENNAISANCE, PARTS 1 and 2: This is a 2-parter that fills is all of the backstory that happened before the first Matrix film. It chronciles how the machines were made, how they took control, the war between the humans and the machines, and the creation of the Matrix. (Made in plain animation)
2) PROGRAM: Most of this one is fashioned and made like an Akira Kurosawa film. It's basically a duel between two samuari-like warriors in a matrix program where the setting is ancient Japan. (Made in anime)
3) WORLD RECORD: This one is basically about an extremely fast runner that can "run out of the Matrix and in to the real world" just because of pure strength/speed.
4) DETECTIVE STORY: This story, animated in black and white, fills in the critical backstory of the Trinity character from the movies. Includes voice acting by actress Carrie-Anne Moss.
5) FINAL FLIGHT OF THE OSIRIS: Basically, this is a 9-minute completely CG animated story that serves as a prequel to "The Matrix Reloaded" and "Enter the Matrix (GAME)." It begins as a blindfold sword duel and then escalates in to a ship chase with sentinels. This one has great action and great plotting, as well as convincing animation (Think "Final Fantasy," except 10 times more realistic.) I saw this one in the theatre. WOW!!!
There are a few more, entitled KID'S STORY, MATRICULATED, and BEYOND.
JUDGING FROM THE TRAILER, MATRICULATED is an extremely wierd episode with a mix of CG animation and regular animation.
BEYOND follows a group of kids in to a "haunted" house. Agents find them and capture them because of they're too close to finding out something secret.
KID'S STORY is about a boy running from agents. (That's all I could gather from the trailer.)
For more information, watch the trailer on the web. Thanks for reading!
Movie Review: Now THIS is more like it!
Summary: 5 Stars
The idea of the Matrix is so full of potential and could be taken in so many, many directions. The movies decided to go in the direction of pretension but the Animatrix goes EVERYWHERE the movies don't. It is so far superior and well worth the time. It's a shame that most audiences don't consider Anime or any form of animation to be 'real' or something that they should take seriously (sadly even Matrix fans feel this way and won't watch it simply because it's animation) because they're missing out on something very special here.It's not original to review this DVD by going thru all the shorts so I'll just stick to what I like best (which is most of it). First of all, 'The Second Renaissance Parts 1 and 2' is absolutely VITAL as backstory to the first Matrix film. And it's a zillion times more interesting than the sequels in terms of drama, irony and subtext. 'The Final Flight of the Osiris' takes place before Reloaded and leads us into story of the machines beginning to drill down to Zion. And it's very cool. 'Detective' is a story of a private eye trying to find Trinity and discover what exactly the Matrix is. But Agent Smith comes after him to put a stop to that. It's in black and white and has a wonderful atmosphere of 1950's dime novel pulp fiction. 'Matriculated' is the story of a captured machine who is taught/hypnotized into feeling what it's like to be human. It's a very clever story that manages to provoke feeling for the characters (and even the captured machine), something the movies never did.
'Kid' is about the kid from Revolutions who takes over the Mech at the end and manages to open the doors to Zion. Apparently, before being freed, he was a schoolkid who met Neo online and wanted to 'wake up'.
But the best one is 'Beyond'. A magical tale with an atmosphere so solid that it's almost tangible. It's about a girl who goes looking for her cat in an old abandoned factory with some other kids. But in this factory the Matrix is having problems and 'reality' for the characters doesn't quite work properly. It's a very interesting tale that really makes you think.
There are numerous extras on this DVD, all of them more interesting that the other Matrix DVDs. All 9 of the shorts are presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound. It's truly for all fans and non-fans of the Matrix universe.
Movie Review: An amazing eye-opener
Summary: 5 Stars
The Animatrix was always something I intended to pick up, but after I had more cash. While I love the Matrix, the semi-disappointment of Matrix Reloaded and the over-barrage of media hype that came with it made me want to lay off anything Matrix-related for awhile. But when I found the Animatrix for an exceptionally low price, I decided to snatch it up now rather than pay more later. And I'm glad I did.I've browsed the other reviews here and a lot of anime/DVD sites, and can understand how the hardcore anime community might dislike the Animatrix. Some really bad dialogue seems to creep in now and then, and there are probably a lot more than the few anime cliches I picked up on (the feudal Japan training sim in the short "Program" is the most blatent one). However, this release still blew me away. For someone whose anime experience has been limited to watered-down American dubs like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Ultimate Muscle, the animation in these shorts is jaw-dropping. Mind-blowing. Certain art styles fans will like more than others, but all of them have the high detail of anime AND the fluidity of American animation. It's the best of both cultures, and like the old saying goes, "I never knew it could be this way." On a side note, also to be commended is "Final Flight of the Osiris", the non-anime short that uses the "Final Fantasy" CGI graphics. I never saw Final Fantasy, and while the animation here was incredible, it still looked CG to me. However, certain shots of the main character(the Asian girl) looked so real I'd have sworn she was a live actor. Kudos to Square for making me believe.
As for the quality of the actual stories, I agree with the majority in that the four outstanding ones are Osiris, Second Renaissance I and II, and Detective Story. The others are open to a bit more criticism, and will each have their share of supporters and detractors, but I enjoyed all of them, and find that all the shorts are worth owning. Some great supplements are included too, including commentaries and an informative documentary on the history of anime. Either way, there's enough good stuff here for all anime fans to justify adding it to their collection. And if you love the Matrix, but think of anime only in terms of Pokemon, then I highly recommend you snag this eye-opening disc; you'll never view anime the same way again.