When I first heard the news of an animated series based on the world of
The Matrix I had a very sceptical reaction. Afterall some of the worst kids shows I've seen have been based on some of the most enjoyable Hollywood blockbusters. However the more I thought about it the more the idea started to make sense.
The Matrix (
at least the first one) is possibly the best live action interpretation of Japanese animation ever seen, and from the looks of the screen shots this series would follow the next logical step by producing a Japanese style animated series set in the world of
The Matrix. More than that The Wachowski Brothers had been making some pretty lofty promises that
The Animatrix would compliment the films and videogame in order to finally tell the entire story.
In my opinion the show succeeded at this. The first short worked to bridge the gap between the first 2 films and the game, and the rest (
while a few fall short of greatness work as a series of slick stories that explore the depths of thee matrix in a far more satisfying way than the sequels would do.
1)
The Final Flight Of The Osiris - You may be familiar with this episode as it was shown in theatres before the Steven King adaption Dreamcatcher. Final Flight Of The Osiris is a fantastic opening to the world of The Animatrix. Visually stunning, it represents the next step in CGI animation after the Final Fantasy movie from the same makers. You will literally be awestruck as you see these visuals though, with nothing at all being neglected. It opens with 2 characters training in a sword fight inside the training simulation, and as they fight they literally fight each others clothes off. Just to show off the muscle details, of course. Anyway this part looks simply stunning and when they leave the simulation and you see how detailed the metal work is you're jaw will hit the floor again, the sentinels really looked like they did in the films. However Final Flight Of The Osiris was not just a visual experience. Out of all The Animatrix shorts this one had the best soundtrack that built up the tension, and brought out the horror of the sentinels in the same way as the original movie did. Plus out of all the Animatrix shorts this one had some of the best characters, due to the fact that they show emotion but their emotion is not exaggerated. Final Flight Of The Osiris is one of the most exciting Animatrix shorts.
4.5/5.
2)
The Second Renaissance part 1 -The 2 Second Renaissance shorts are joint as the best Animatrix shorts available. They are the ones that, more than the rest, develop the world of the Matrix beyond the films. It's visual style is a combination of traditional cell shading and CGI and it does have a very Ghost In The Shell look to it's animation. It has no characters persay, but is more of a documentary into the history of The Matrix, and shows why it all happened. Using some absolutely shocking imagery the director shows how the machines were treated badly by humans, and visually makes similarities between the eventual fate of the machines and the Nazi holocaust. It also has a great soundtrack but the truly great thing about this short is how it makes you question everything you thought you knew about the machines evil.
5/5 3)
The Second Renaissance part 2 - Visually it uses the same style as part 1 but if that was told from the machines viewpoint, this is very much the humans viewpoint. After the humans black out the sky we see visions of the machines marching on us that are designed to be terrifying hellish images. One moment involving a robotic horseman riding over a flaming field is particularly chilling, until eventually it shows the same images from the first part but this time happening to humans instead of Machines. That's the great thing about these 2 shorts is that by telling them from opposite sides of the war they raise questions about who is good and who is evil, but leave them up to the individual to decide. Something The Matrix has never been good at before now.
5/5 4)
Kids Story - The weakest of the good Animatrix short, Kids story is responsible for introducing everyone to that annoying kid from The Matrix Reloaded. It has a very interesting visual style which makes it a fascinating watch for the most part. It uses sketches for it's animation that just seem to fit in the story of a teenager and even help to give the feelings he has about unreality. However when the action kicks in this animation, while stylish, starts to look terrible. Unfortunately the story is what let's this one down as it's very much in the vein of The Matrix, in that it features a boy typing things like "
Someone tell me why it feels more real when I'm dreaming" into his computer. Most kids would know the answer is drugs and alcohol but this kid decides to type it into his computer and shows no concern over the cryptic response that he gets. I'm hoping that this kid will have an important part in the third film because otherwise the ending really doesn't make sense and the whole episode will be pointless.
3/5 5)
Program - Program is one of the most visually interesting episodes of The Animatrix. The use of Black in a lot of the stems really helps to support the traditional Japanese colors of this samurai episode. It starts with a fantastic action sequence the likes of which none of the episodes can touch, in terms of uniqueness. However when the story kicks in it starts to falter. It has the same problem as the Cypher part of the plot in the original film. It has the potential to raise some amazing questions about the benefits of escaping The Matrix but ultimately decides the answer for you. The character who wants to be returned to The Matrix is not really given any human emotions except that he claims he loves the girl, and spends the whole episode trying to kill her. This fixation with anyone who wants to be plugged back into The Matrix being psychotic prevents people from asking these questions, and the twist at the end destroys any shred of dignity the theory may have had. I don't like that because I'm one of those who would rather live in the dream.
3/5 6)
World Record - This is the worst of The Animatrix shorts. I just doesn't lead anywhere. The animation style is very similar to the deformed style used in the Spawn animations and it just looks plain ugly. The characters have no real strengths and the story doesn't add anything satisfying to The Matrix. From what I could make out it was saying that the runner was so determined to beat his own record that he was able to run right out of The Matrix. Either that or he ran so fast he beat The matrix. Either way the idea was done better in Kids story, and had more relevance to the films. The ending was ambiguous though which was a good thing, and maybe the character will have a part to play in the next film.
2/5 7)
Beyond - This is an extremely good entry into the mythology of The Matrix. It deals with the subject of malfunctioning programs in the matrix causing supernatural occurrences, and so for anyone who saw it the second films plot wont seem quite so left field. However this episode deals with it in a much more satisfying way than the film did. It's not an over the top action sequence but rather a more personal human affair. It features a young woman looking for her cat, who is told by a group of youths that the cat is at the haunted house. She follows them there, where she discovers the laws of physics no longer apply and that they can do almost anything. The emotions these characters display are the most restrained emotions outside of The Final Flight Of The Osiris, and the characters never feel like they're over the top.
4/5 8)
Detective Story - This is the best chapter of The Animatrix as far as visuals are concerned. It uses Black And White animation in order to give it a tense, film noire feel. It works surprisingly well in the confines of The Matrix too, as the character is hired to find a hacker named Trinity. The whole episode is told through a narrator just like the classic detective stories and even features a satisfying ending. You do wonder why Trinity would have used a train for the meeting when she knew the guy would be being tracked, and so a public place with no easy means of escape wasn't a wise move, yet we all make mistakes and what the agents do in this is exactly what people wanted them to do with Neo in the film.
5/5 9)
Matriculated - The final episode of The animatrix is a natural end to the series, because it offers a possible solution for the Matrix problem. However despite that interesting idea I must say that I didn't really like this episode. Visually the real world shots are OK but inside the Matrix everything gets a little to trippy for my tastes. The bright colors are just too much, especially as it comes right after the terminally dark and Bleak detective story. I didn't like the characters much either as they were unlikable and their solution was to trick the machines. They didn't want to make peace, nor did they want to reprogram the machines, they just wanted to convince the machines to accept peace in order to enslave them again. That's not my problem though because I don't mind seeing the machine as the victim again, my problem is that the machines don't look right. The Second Renaissance set up that the machines became sentinels in order to be nothing like humans, yet these runners seem somehow more human. They haven't been mentioned anywhere else in the Matrix universe and so feel out of place now that they've just been introduced as normal machines. Inside The Matrix I also picked up on a strange preoccupation with sex in this episode that was somehow supposed to help convince the robot. It didn't make sense to me.
2.5/5 The Disk It's a decent disk. Extras include commentaries on Both second Renaissance, Program, and World Record. Subtitles are used to fix the language barrier and they offer some technical details into why the directors chose to do their films the way the did. There's some more details to be found in the documentaries Scrolls to screen, a history of anime, and a documentary on each of the shorts profiling different things including the films that influenced each episode. There's a trailer for the Enter The Matrix game as well as some DVD ROM exclusive material.
How does the DVD look? The Animatrix has some of the best picture quality I've seen yet. Animations have always benefited from the clarity of DVD and this is no exception. The Second Renaissance will absolutely blow you away.
How does the DVD sound? Like the Video the sound is amazing. Those who've only seen some of the films in Quicktime will be amazed at how much more emotional and exciting this is in 5.1.
Overall The Animatrix offers a fascinating view into the world of The Matrix outside of the films. It's been given a good but unspectacular disk, yet is still an essential purchase for fans of the mythology of the films.
See Also The Matrix Reloaded Enter The Matrix
