The Animatrix

Rating:
Summary: Animatrix was Bad
Review: I found the Animatrix really disappointing. Part One and Two of "The Second Renaissance" was just awful! These two animations tell the story of how mankind was conquered by the machines. There MAJOR flaws from beginning to end. For example, the narration mentions that the humans dropped nuclear weapons on the machine city with no effect because radiation has no effect on a machine. Yet, every nuclear bomb creates an EMP blast that kills all electrical equipment...something that they use in The Matrix movies...duh. Another example is that the machine run on solar power. What do humans do? Black out the sky. Hmmm, let's not bomb the solar panels first, right? Finally, my favorite example: the machines build their nation in the "Cradle of Civilization." They build their city in the Middle East...and as we all know, the Middle East is just FULL of peace and love and EVERYONE is open to EVERYONE their. A machine city smack in the Middle East would last as long as a snowball. Just utter stupidity!

There are plenty more stupid moments that just do not seem possible. I mean, they are utterly ridiculous. I expected better from the Warchowski Brothers.

Rating:
Summary: Whoa!
Review: Instead of reviewing the entire thing I'll just review the actual movies(mostly).

Final Flight of the Osiris-
This short was made by the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within people and is just gorgeous. The opening fight sequence was pretty much unessecary but fun enough that you don't care anyway. The story is basically about...well the final flight of the Osiris, and how they discover the army digging to Zion. It is also one of the two shorts that actually relate directly to the movie The Matrix: Reloaded.

The Second Renaissance Parts I & II-
This short shows the rise of the machines and the fall of humanity. The war and everything that led up to it. Second Renaissance has plenty of CG parts which is to be expected from the people who brought you Blue Submarine No. 6. Although this time the CG and drawn animation actually blend well together. A thing that contradicts the movies in this is that it says everything is from the Zion database but in the first film they said they didn't know who struck first but Second Renaissanc says who did. Maybe they actually found out who knows. Anyway this is another one of the great films that you'll watch over and over and over and...

Kid's Story-
This is the only other film that relates to The Matrix Reloaded directly but you have to see the movie and pay attention to know how. Anywho this film is made by the Cowboy Bebop crew and has a new type of animation on it's side. The animation is made to look like the artists original sketch just with color but the thing is it takes twice as many cels to do it so don't say they were lazy. Overall another great film.

Program-
Thi is probably the most traditionally anime of the bunch. Created by the Ninja Scroll people this film is about a woman in a simulation who is forced to fight against her friend who is trying to go back to live in The Matrix. This one is very cool. The fighting is great and everything.

World Record-
This one was written by the guy behind Ninja Scroll, but was animated by Madhouse. The animation is...odd, but creative at the same time. Unfortunately it's not that great. In fact I think it really [bad] especially the agents and the way they look. This will be one you won't care about but for maybe one minute so you can know what's happening.

Beyond-
This is about a girl who is trying to find her pet cat who wanders off into a haunted house. The haunted house is actually a glitch in the Matrix. The girl and some other kids go to the house and play because of all the weird things they can do like throwing a glass bottle to the ground and when it hits it breaks but freezes before hitting the ground and then fixes itself and comes back. An interesting short and worth your time

A Detective Story-
This is a cool film brought to you by the Cowboy Bebop people. The film is about a private detective who's promises to get out of the business if the next person that calls is a suspicious husband. Well the next person instead is a program(obviously) who wants him to find a hacker that goes by the alias Trinity. When he asks who he'll be working for he doesn;t recieve an answer and is about to hang up when he is given $800,000 which is put into his bank account and so it begins. A great film that you and everyone else should like.

Matriculated-
I'm not even going to waste my time explaining it's TERRIBLE!

Well that's all but make sure you check out the special features they're actually pretty awesome compared to other anime DVD's

Rating:
Summary: The best 'straight to video/dvd' compilation yet
Review: *No Spoilers*
To get started, movies I like are a little 'different' from your average Joe. I like DVD's like Fight Club, Se7en, Pulp Fiction, Who framed Roger Rabbit, Family Guy, and El Mariachi. I like anime as much as the next guy (Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Ninja Scroll), but I don't actually 'own' any of those yet. So why did I bother with this one?
Let's be honest, compilations rarely work, or if they do, they come out 'okay'. Take 'Four Rooms' for example, the first 'episode' [stinks], the second was alright, and the last two directed by Robert Rodriguez then Quentin Tarantino ROCKED. Looking at The Animatrix, reviews told me that it was either hit or miss as well. Well, I can tell you that this dvd is definitely a 'hit' and not the ladder. Looking at what reviewers said, its apparent that they think 'World Record' is the weakest of the nine. Well...no its not, in fact, my friends and I were pulled into its unique storyline and the way it was animated. All of these were unique and great in their own way, and if I had to pick favorates I'd have to say FINAL FLIGHT OF THE OSIRIS, THE SECOND RENAISSANCE PARTS 1 AND 2, and KIDS STORY because of their tie ins with the trilogy as well as being particularly great, and DETECTIVE STORY and MATRICULATED (the Aeon Flux guy does a great job here, it's the last of the nine and is the longest and most 'out there').
I should also add that when I first saw RELOADED at the movie theater I didn't like it as the air conditioner was out and everyone just wanted to go home. I suggest giving it another shot, as I saw the movie at IMAX for a second viewing and I have to say it was great. You don't have to have liked any of the previous movies to appreciate The Animatrix, though.
For a final note, do what I did and get the two disk version of this movie. The soundtrack to this movie makes excellent background music for your room, computer, etc. Also despite what (ahem) some reviewers have said about you not being able to play all of the episodes at once, they are blind for not seeing the 'play all' feature at the bottom of the screen. No the credits do not play inbetween episodes, they all play at the end.

(I just want to say that this DVD looks cool playing on any TV in your house, no matter where its at.)

I hope this review was helpful, as I've seen a lot of...shall we say...unaccurate ones, so I hope this helps clear the fog.

Rating:
Summary: THE animatrix a view into THE MATRIX
Review: The animatrix is a collection of short stories that deal with the martix. Very simple explanation, but there is a lot of content that deals with the movies. I read about a hundred reviews befor i droped [$$] on some anime movies. After i got it i saw it was woth the money. There are almost as many exras as there were actual anime. You can do what you want but i really enjoyed the animatrix.

Rating:
Summary: a bit disappointing
Review: I was eager to buy this dvd and was immediately disappointed when I viewed it. The animation is superb with a few exceptions such as "World Record" which I just found annoying to look at. (what exactly happened there anyway?) But the stories are much too short. Before you can even get a feel for where you are you're pulled out. Perfect examples of this are "Final Flight of the Osiris" which was beautifully done, and "Detective Story" which could have explained itself better. All in all the material feels truncated and the viewer is left feeling slightly ripped off. It was a great idea to delve deeper into the world of the matrix this way..but in my opinion it could have been so much better.

Rating:
Summary: Anime+Matrix
Review: Exactly what the title says. You won't regret buying this for the price it's asking for.
The commentary and the extra features where much more interesting than the actural movies itself. It covers some of the history and origins behind anime and their further developments into the future.

Rating:
Summary: fills in some gaps, and the first (15 min) story is solid
Review: The rest are kinda junky though. Cartoons and par Anime. Though they do fill in several holes of the story:

The first AI servant to react violently (by killing his masters) is put on trial for all the world to see and convicted, setting off the Andro-cide apocalypse. Where all artificial workers are laid waste and bulldozed into mass graves. Some AI's escape and form a new country. Attempts are made to join the U.N., and the humans try to nuke'em, then blanket the sky so they can't get solar energy.

So, a few holes are filled in, and again the first one is true eye candy. A ship and crew go to the surface and see the machines digging with an army of sentinels, lying in wait. Our main character is trying to get a message to Zion before the ship gets squished. A really cool short story, probably alone worth it.

One story in particular was really violent probably not for kids under 8. People screaming bloody murder as their bodies are ripped apart by the ruthless machines.

Rating:
Summary: Good, not Great Anime.
Review: I felt this would be the end-all and be-all of anime, I should have been a little more realistic. The stop-and-go nature of all the films can be annoying and there are big gaps in between features. Most are disconnected from films and only two are a continuation. I suppose my favourite was 'Matriculated', it's the most appealing to me, visually. The plot ideas are mildly cool, these are mostly about projecting big ideas onscreen through animation. The main feature lasts about an hour and twenty minutes, the rest is unentertaining but deep background or ads for other Matrix products.

It would definitely make a better rental than 20 dollar purchase. None of the shorts were given enough time to really flesh out many ideas, there are advantages to this, but you can't get attached to any characters or ideas much, and it doesn't flatter their hard work. I felt that the Second Renaissance 1-2 compiled a backhistory of the Matrix very nicely, but maybe some of that should have been explained better in the films, instead of Lock getting a stupid bracelet from his girlfriend to represent 'faith'.

Rating:
Summary: Animatrix is a failure
Review: I thought "The Animatrix" would be better, since it's a Matrix movie! Only 3 out of the 9 mini-movies were good. Only the first one has real Computer Animation and for some of the mini-movies some of the animation isn't even colored in. If you're gonna watch this, just watch the first 3 mini-movies and then just watch the real "Matrix" with Keanu Reeves. I would have expected better of Andy and Larry Wachowski. They shouldn't even had wasted their time making a "Animatrix".

Rating:
Summary: Animatrix is a failure
Review: I thought "The Animatrix" would be better, since it's a Matrix movie! Only 3 out of the 9 mini-movies were good. Only the first on has real Computer Animation and some of the animation isn't even colored in. If you're gonna watch this, just watch the first 3 mini-movies and then just watch the real "Matrix" with Keanu Reeves. I would have expected better of Andy and Larry Wachowski.