Rating: 
Summary: WHAT IS THE ANIMATRIX?
Review: In BriefCombining styles of animation from CGI to anime, to traditional western animation, here nine short films expand the universe & mythology of The Matrix. Bringing together veteran talent from both Japan & America the Wachowski brothers hand picked and personally approved each story and variation on theme. With such legends as Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll), Peter Chung (Aeon Flux), Shinchiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop) and Andy Jones (Final Fantasy) displaying their wares the Animatrix has arrived. Review The Matrix on its original release changed the film industry forever, its influence could be seen in its contemporaries, parodies, TV shows and even nature documentaries. Yet the environment and famous fight scenes were primarily inspired by Japanese Anime; the animated form of Manga whose cult following in the western world cannot even mirror its mainstream success in its native homeland. Classic works in this medium such as Mamoru Oshii's Ghost In The Shell & Katshuhiro Otomo's Akira have often being cited by the brothers as a driving force in the creation of The Matrix. Therefore an Anime anthology seemed the perfect way in which to suggest the full richness of the world they had created and was an ideal way to explore background & sub-plots that until now had never been realised before. Most similar in style to the Oshii & Otomo's work is the brilliant The Second Renaissance by Mahiro Maeda that flows directly into the storyline of the recent feature films. Here with stunning passion Maeda tells the story, in far more detail than before, of how the machines & the humans destroyed one another resulting in a power-shift that would leave the world devastated. This is the closest that an anime has come to in leaving ones heart pounding with the same fear & sadness that Akira did many years ago. Each of the shorts that follow will leave many a spine tingling with anticipation for the next. Unexpectedly each short takes the viewer on a new tangent away from the source material and none of the work can be faulted in any way. Three worthy of higher praise are: Worlds Record, in which the world of an athletes existence is questioned in a visually shocking & invigorating manner. Here in the final race one can almost feel every foot fall shuddering through your body as the central character heads towards the finish line. Next up is the innovative Kid's Story where the entire reality & existence of the feature films are put into question as parallels are made between fantasy & the reality of a dysfunctional teenager who believes he is being called. The result is shocking and the most relevant to a contemporary audience that obsesses after a cheap thrill rather than content. Finally the Final Flight of the Osris is the culmination of work from the groundbreaking bankrupt studio that produced the Final Fantasy movie. Working off models that were produced for Fantasy, the perfectly named Final Flight will make you question just how long it will be before people are replaced, in films at least, as a superbly animated sequence goes as far as to rival the trilogy & set a new standard. Not only is it slick but scarily its rough & sensual enough to appear real. Like all of the work on offer here the Animatrix has taken us to the next level. The Verdict I can't remember when I last felt so blown away by any form of animation, let alone one that is premiering on the small screen. This is a collection of work to outshine all others & works perfectly in conjunction with the main movies that established this universe. The Animatrix will reign supreme for a long time to come as everything that follows will be judged against what this work has achieved.
Rating: 
Summary: amazing sci-fi stories
Review: Animatrix is a collection of short animations centered around the theme of humans and machines, possibility of a different world, etc. Having been a huge sci-fi fan, I enjoyed the animations tremendously. The stories provoked many questions in me, fancying my imagination.
Rating:
Summary: I'm glad I have this movie
Review: In my collection...I have several anime' films even though I am not a fan of the genre..this by far is the best...and one of the best movies I've seen..if you are a fan of the Matrix you would be missing out by overlooking this film..Animatrix can certainly hold it's own against any other film extant including the "live action" Matrix movies
Rating:
Summary: The BEST of the Matrix!!!!
Review: This DVD is the best matrix item out there, better than the movis better than the video game. Why? Becouse this goes everywere and
I mean EVERYWERE!!!!!!!! It tells about how the matrix was made,
it talks about how a world runner runs out of the matrix. My personal favorite was Dective story, wich is one of a kind.
If you were confused about what the matrix is from the first film this one helps you understand. Any fan of Japense animation
should see this.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: After watching the Animatrix, I was amazed at how good it was, but also what a powerful effect it had on me. I'm not ussualy a person who is affected a lot by violence in films or animation, but some of the stuff in this really disturbed me, more than stuff I had seen before. The best and also worst animation in the collection has to the The 2nd Rennaisance parts 1 and 2. Some of the scenes depicted in this come accross as serving no purpose except for the director to serve his total morbid and frankly sick imagination. Another thing that strikes me as a read the reviews is the amount of people saying how hard done by the machines were. The most distrubing single thing that happens to the machines is probably a female machine being torn up and shot by a group of human thugs, or some thousands of bodies being dumped, machines being run over or executed. For one, these are artificial beings, humans have more right to be on the earth than they do period. Secondly, it doesnt even come close to the acts the machines carry out on humans. Against humans we again see the thousands of skulls piled up, but how about a man being ripped out of his mech armour slowly and calculatedly by a sentinel with no mercy, or the tank crews having the turrets ripped off and then being killed? Oh, and then there's the terrible experiments the machines carry out on humans. However, there are some of flaws in this that make me worry less about it actually getting to the stage it does in the future. For one, if the machine city was nuked, there would not be 'no effect' as the 2nd r tries to say, superheat? electromagnetic pulse? War over. I also doubt that having the technology for much more effective weapons (as shown by the large stationary weapons placed on the battlefield) that the humans battle mechs would be equipped with woefuly inadequate machine guns. Overall though, this was a great DVD with the 2nd rennaissance being the highlight, although it can be hard to watch because of the overly vile violence. Another great one is Matriculated.
Rating:
Summary: Good Stuff
Review: I purchased the Animatrix fairly recently. I have to say, this is good stuff. Others might say the stories are weak believe me, they are not, in fact, they make a lot of sense and are very clever ideas especially on The Second Renaissance 1&2. It explains everything The Matrix left you hanging on. It goes deeper than reloaded could have and I will not comment on Revolutions not having seen it yet. If you did enjoy Reloaded and if you've seen and enjoyed Revolutions, you should enjoy this
Rating:
Summary: Good supplement to the Trilogy
Review: For those who enjoyed the Matrix trilogy and want still more, you are in luck. The Animatrix is a series of animated short films that all take place in the Matrix universe and are reasonably faithful to the movies. In total, there are nine films by eight different animators (one does a two-part story); each one is done in an anime style, so this is not your standard Disney stuff. As this is a mixed bag of animators, there is a mixed quality to the stories, although they are overall pretty good. Probably the shiniest gem in the whole bunch is the two-part story (The Second Renaissance) that gives a history of the man-machine confict and shows that fault can be definitely attributed to both sides. Unlike the Terminator films, which depict the computers as completely evil, the ones portrayed here are not nearly as malevolent. The other stories are pretty intriguing too for the most part. Some just look pretty without really being decent tales. Some of the more interesting include a tale involving a group of people trying to reform the machines and the off-beat way their plan backfires (Matriculated), a film noir detective story (Detective Story) and a look at a building where "errors" are occurring, and the strange physics that people encounter there (Beyond). Less satisfying are a couple stories about a teenager and an athlete (Kid's Story and World Record, respectively) who start noticing the line between Matrix and reality; these fit into the look-pretty-but-little-else category. If you are not a fan of the Matrix or are unfamiliar with the movies, this would not be a good viewing choice; there is an assumption that the viewer is knowledgeable of the films. If you are a Matrix fan, this is a nice supplemental feature that shouldn't disappoint.
Rating: 
Summary: dont buy this
Review: i have to admit that some of the different parts of the film were very cool, but its just plain dissapointing when they finish. there is only about 20 minutesin each of the films, so they have to wrap each one quite shortly. if they had spent the time to make lets say four 40 minute films instead of nine 20 minute ones, i would have been satisfied. the best one was the detective story.
Rating:
Summary: "Japanimation" done with Conviction and unlimited Resources.
Review: Nine short films that explains and digs in The Matrix Mythology. Six of them are outstanding (Final Flight of the Osiris, The second Renaissance Part I and II, Kid's Story, Program, and Beyond), one that is good (World Record), but not matching the storyline level of the best Animatrix, and two, that even though in their beautiful visuals, never achieves more beyond that (A Detectives Story, and Matriculated). I recommended to look at then as a whole, a full-length film divided in nine episodes, this because they are really part of single stage proposal, their goal is to make complete the whole picture, and so they do with a great effect. Fans of Japanimation will find it as a real piece of art, (visually it is, the quality and diversity of the animation is a strong element to take into consideration, always with the highly appealing Anime style), the ones that don't know the genre will find it breathtaking and refreshing, a real compelling view of The Matrix world and logic, here to make the Trilogy more accessible but maintaining its complex architecture of science fiction style.
The Wachowski Brothers enlisted an arsenal of first class Japanimation directors, and one from the computer animation world to bring to screen their innovative idea. Some of them where the main influence for The Matrix development, so in this cases, it became almost a matter of retribution, or an imposed tribute to then selves.
Final Flight of the Osiris (the first short in the package) made entirely of computer animation, is a prelude to The Matrix Reloaded. How the Osiris encounters with the Sentinel Army and the communication of this to Zion is the story. It can't be view along from the Trilogy because its intention is to illustrated (not tell) how the humans spotted this invasion, plus, it shows a quite sensual duel between its main characters before the tragedy (directed by Animation director of Final Fantasy, the Spirits Within, Andy Jones). Fast, accurate and captivating, a quick and sharp ride. The Second Renaissance Part I and II, shockingly narrates the facts of how the machines came to be the human predators. With a smart straight documentary style, the story captivates the scary sense of the first Matrix, only this time is more solid, the best of the Animatrix. Kid's Story, makes clear all about that none sense character appearing from no where in Reloaded, the graphic rough style is very much in the mood of this simple but emotional story, another piece that explains some facts of Reloaded. Program (written and directed by Ninja Scroll director), manipulates a computer training program to teach a lesson to one of its users, but the lesson is all about possible betrayal disguised in a couple's love, the lesson is hard to learning, shocking and sharp. Beyond, the most poetic and beautiful of the Animatrix (a real pain in the a... for the producers because of its director slow making), tells the original story of a bunch of kids that encounters a fluctuation in the Matrix, shaped in the form of a haunted house, along with the brooding music, is a delicate view in this cold artificial world, like a rose in a pond. This six shorts are captivating with a imaginative view and narration that quickly takes you directly into their stories, an achievement very difficult to obtain in short films, sum to this the great musical work from Don Davis (redeeming himself from his mediocre work in The Matrix), rising the emotional twists and still moments. World Record is a good effort, but the story is not clearly presented, making it a little confusing in its resolution, so the goal of the runner is missed in the way for glory, somewhere in the script. A Detective Story (as the rest of the Animatrix) surprises with its animation, but the story is both boring (specially when comparison it whit the previous seven shorts) and flat, do your business in the bathroom while this short is on, it is something like a Black Detective story, but without the charm of the genre it tries to emulate. Finally Matriculated is by far, the worst, annoying and pointless it tells an Alice in Wonder Land plot, only in abusing of it's own director work shipping of his animation, nothing more. The extras are more than interesting (specially, Scrolls to Screen; The History and Culture of Anime, documentary), and the quality of the sound sure makes the experience worth buying or renting it, definitively a far better choice to have instead of Reloaded and Revolutions.
Rating: 
Summary: Great concept, stunning visuals, stumbles in execution
Review: A logical progression, for the interim between the first and second movies, to collect a group of short films by some of the worlds most talented animators based on the world of the Matrix movies. Doing an animated film based on the world of the Matrix is like a cinematic blank check. The results range from overly-ambitious to interesting, but not fulfilling. First the good: Animation and visuals are stunning. Each story delivers the goods with brilliant colors, design and animation. In particular, the CGI movie "Final Flight of the Osiris" is impressive and could easily fool some people into believe it's live-action, if it weren't on an animated compilation. Each movie has its own unique feel, the characters look alive and full of personality. The Bad: Aren't so much bad as they are, disconcerting...in a way. I feel it's misleading that the first two(or three) movies deal directly with events and themes of the first Matrix movie. "Final Flight of the Osiris" is a short interim piece that ties the first movie to the second (Osiris is mentioned in M:Reloaded") and tells the story of the ship that discovered the machines' plans to drill into Zion. "The Second Renaissance (pts. 1&2) tells the story of how the Matrix came into being. Both of these movies are very well done, "Second Renaissance" is a nice background story.
From there, though, the films split off into their own direction. Most of them deal with those living in the Matrix and the haunting sense that their world is not real. Most of the films have a dark undertone to them. The exception being "Beyond", a relatively light-hearted story about kids playing around with a glitch in the Matrix. Some of the stories: "Matriculated" and "A Detective's Story" have potential, but fall short, either because of needless eye candy (the former) or not taking the story far enough (the latter). At times, the fact that the Matrix world is so flexible works against the coherence of the compilation. "Program" is basically using the Matrix as an excuse to have a big samurai battle. Once again, it's very well-executed, but you can't help but think at times "What's the point?" "World Record" is an interesting story, but it feels like it skips over its own point in a way (in addition, the dubbing seems kind of shaky on "World Record" and the animation of the coach[during his conversation with the runner]is so incredibly jerky its almost comical). "A Kid's Story" I liked, though it had a very natural, organic feel, which sort of clashed with the other stories "bio-technical" style. Overall, the Animatrix is a great collection of innovative, very well done, and visually-stunning films. However, the films lack cohesion and, at times, relevance to the Matrix world. It would have been nice of the stories were deeper, or tied themselves in more with the movies, but it would be difficult to things like that given that most of the films fall within 10 minutes. Aside: It would have been nice if they let Dan Hertzfeldt do a film for them.
|
