Rating: 
Summary: World Record is Brilliant
Review: Takeshi Koike's World Record is the highlight of this disc and justifies the price in itself. This short marks Koike's directorial debut and features a stunning animation style that relies heavily on anatomical deformation and extreme perspective. The result is the most exciting new animation in a decade. This kid has a bright future. Other notable shorts are Kawajiri's masterfully directed Program, and Peter Cheung's mind bending Matriculated. Final Flight of the Osiris is horse dung. #3rd rate cg - who cares?
Rating:
Summary: Blows the movies away
Review: Even though it isn't live action, this collection of animated shorts expresses the vision and the issues of the matrix series far more clearly than the films. If you liked the first film, this DVD is a must.
Rating: 
Summary: The Animarketing
Review: Basically a disposable collection of short-stories somewhat related to the Matrix, this set of animation segments is uninteresting and empty. The animation is good for the most part, but the characters and storylines are far from engaging. This is just as useless and unecessary as the Matrix sequels, offering promising ideas yet failing to develop them properly. Aside from some impressive visuals and music, "The Animatrix" is nothing more than another product to seduce fanboys who still care about this disappointing trilogy. To the others (like me), this release is unconvincing and tiresome.Junk cinema.
Rating: 
Summary: Disjointed, but enjoyable
Review: A collection of nine short animated features set in the world of the Matrix films. They provide some backstory and texture to the trilogy, although most of the stories are completely separate from the action of the films. The animation is uniformly excellent, making it a pleasure to watch on that level alone. Many of the stories lack much in the way of substance, but because they are short and the animation is so good, I was not disturbed. "The Final Flight of the Osiris," which serves a direct prelude to the action of "Reloaded," is a highlight. There is nothing to the story-a session in the training simulator, followed by the discovery of the drilling machines beginning their journey to Zion and then a lot of fleeing and fighting. The computer animation, however, is absolutely stunning, so photo-realistic that there were a few moments when I wondered if they were mixing live action and animation. "World Record" raises the intriguing possibility that a pushing oneself to the limits of endurance could trigger a spontaneous awakening from stasis. "Beyond" presents a surreal glitch in the Matrix. "The Second Renaissance," which tells the story of how machines ascended and the Matrix came to be made, features some powerful and disturbing visuals, but seems very implausible. The films do not work together to become more than the sum of their parts, but they remain very entertaining nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: Rediculous
Review: I rented this thinking it would be awsome, it had like all these sites saying the animations was awsome. When i saw the first like minuit animation thing i thought, thats good. then the rest... ohhhh the rest... I literally shut off my VCR while watching like the 7th one. This was the most reduculous thing i have ever seen. No offense to those who like it. But i would STRONGLY not reccomend even wasting the 2 bucks to rent it at a video store.
Rating: 
Summary: Rent if you are curious - no need to buy
Review: I am a Matrix fanatic, but, after buying and watching this DVD, I was left feeling a little cheated. True, the films are visually beautiful, and they shed some (very little) insight into the Matrix (I II & III) story and characters, but I thought this DVD fell pretty flat as a whole package. The films are not very tied together (you can really tell there were different authors) and the stories are more like teasers. Save your money - rent this one if you are really curious!
Rating:
Summary: Matrix Fanboys Need Only Apply
Review: Okay, I didn't mind the first Matrix film, but hated the other two. I thought I might enjoy Animatrix, as I quite like anime and I hoped knowing more of the backstory would bring me a little closer to enjoying the live-action (if you can call it that, ahaha) trilogy.
Animatrix was an overall waste of my time (the first film 'Final Flight...' isn't even anime, and is basically a ridiculous attempt at non-pornographic pornography), 'A Detective Story' being the only real standout for me. 'The Second Renaissance' is kinda neat, but really it's nothing new if you know anything about anime film. There are interesting little bits every now and then, but you have to sit through the dross to get to them.
Mostly, it's very nice to look at, graphic and disturbing at times, but would probably be cooler to have playing mute on your bigscreen TV at a geek party with some Aphex Twin or ATR in the stereo.
I was disappointed (although not surprised) but I'm sure it's a necessity for the fanboy crowd. Everyone else, keep your money.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing material, Overrated
Review: Pros
-Contains stories about why and how the Matrix was created
-Some episodes have nice animation
-Matrix, geeks, and some anime fans will enjoy it Cons
-Most episodes have stupid looking animation
-Weird stories
-Slight nudity, even if it's a robot, and a lot of skimpy clothing (really PG-13?)
-Tried to be too symbolic and artistic Overall, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Just rent it if you really curious to see it.
Rating:
Summary: You don¿t know the whole story if you haven¿t seen this DVD.
Review: The Matrix had a lot of firsts in it. The first movie to use bullet time, the first movie to bring comic book and anime storytelling to live action, etc. On it's own The Matrix is a landmark film and had the Wachowski brothers left it at that, it would have been enough. Little did we know in 1999 (the year the Matrix was released) that the brothers had much more in store for us. While doing a press junket in Japan, the Wachowski brothers took the opportunity to meet some of the directors of their favorite anime series and movies. On the plane ride back they hatched the idea that they would go beyond just the next two films that were planned to finish the trilogy. They decided to include anime and video games as additional mediums to tell their story. To my knowledge, no director has ever done this and this marks yet another first in the history of film. The Animatrix is a collection of short stories all told through animation. Most of the directors come from Japanese animation, or anime as it is typically called. For many viewers, this was their first introduction to anime. Titles such as Cowboy BeBop, Ghost In The Shell and Blue Submarine No. 6 may be completely foreign to most American audiences, but with the Animatrix, they were being introduced to some of the best anime directors in the world. Of the 9 segments contained in the Animatrix, only 4 of them were actually written by the Wachowski brothers. The other six were written by the Directors themselves. That being said, the Brothers did produce all of the segments to ensure that they other writers stayed true to the mythos of The Matrix. What the Wachowski brothers didn't do however was direct any of the segments. They actually turned over the reigns to the anime directors themselves. Not many directors would have been this collaborative, but it just goes to show what huge fans of anime the two brothers are. Now you might be thinking, "Well, this is just a cartoon, so what does it really matter?" Given the fact that they didn't direct them and only wrote 4 of the 9 segments, the Animatrix, it might appear that this is just some marketing ploy, or some fanciful project that doesn't relate to The Matrix Trilogy at all. That is not the case. The Animatrix contains stories that not only relate to the Matrix, but actually include story arcs that tie directly into the movies. Besides the 9 segments themselves, the DVD is jam packed with bonus materials. There are director commentaries for 4 segments as well as a history of Anime and a "making-of" documentary as well. If you like bonus materials on a DVD, you won't be disappointed in this one. There is also a package that includes a soundtrack to the Animatrix as well. The soundtrack is very good an includes some great techno music. All in all, if you're a fan of the Matrix, then this is a must have in your collection. Even if you're not a huge fan of the Matrix it's still worth a watch. The fact that the story for the Matrix Saga weaves excellently through the Animatrix, you don't know the whole story if you haven't seen this DVD. There are references to it in both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. You're enjoyment of the movies will be that much more heightened as a result of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Range from great to terrible
Review: The Animatrix is a collection of 8 anime films ranging from 9-17 minutes in length based on the universe of the hit The Matrix. Last Flight of the Osirus - Doesn't add much to the Matrix storyline but is the most visually stunning piece of film I have ever seen. It is made by the creaters of Final Fantasy but with animation ever better. Thats awsome considering how photoreal Final Fantasy was. Again visually stunning. The Second Renesannes - God whoever made this must have a low opinion of the human race. It is animated very well done hand drawn. It is a historical documentary on the 200 year period between the events in the Matrix movies and modern times. It shows how the machine and human war started. It includes disturbing images of historical tragitys Vietnam, holocost, with humans slaughtering machines. It makes the war in the movies almost all the humans fault. Not just for creating the machines but it turns out those streams of murderous machines were once peaceful and racional before the humans stupidly attacked them. Disturbing, graphic, and thought provoking an interesting peice of information for Matrix fans. Kids Story - Heres where it gets lacking. Kids Story is mostly boring. It explains the story of that kid in Reloaded. I don't think anyone cared about his story. There is also little dialog. The animation is terrible fuzzy and bad. It looks like it was drawn by 5 year olds. At the end the kid commits suicide to get out of the Matrix. Not a positive message just a pretty forgetable segement. Program - I liked this segment more then most. It is done in a more typical anime then any other of the segments. It is a samerai fighting trainning program. Its a story of temptation a girl tempted to go back to the Matrix. To ignore reality or continue the war. It is a very intriging question that different individuals would make different descigns. Good segment World Record - God I hated this segement. Everything about it we are subjected to terrible overdone animation in slo-motion. Little dialog at all and what we have is crappy. We basically see a guy running and breaking free from the Matrix by running. Terrible horrible one of the worst peices of garbage ever made. Beyond - This segment deals with a glitch in the Matrix first seen in the first movie. It is a huge improvment over World Record and has Twilight zone feel to it. Whats cool is even if you have never seen The Matrix is still can work a bit. It has a look of many recent animes. Its easily the most family friendly of the series probably would only get a PG rating. It deals with kids playing in house full of Matrix glitches. The kids don't ask how they just have fun defying gravity and phsyics until the agents fix the glitch. Good in its own way but not great. Detective Story - This is done to look like an old detective movie but in a Matrix storyline. I wish they did it in color I don't like the black and white other then that I like its animation. Its looks more like American then Japanese hand drawn animation. It involves a dective who is called by a client (probably Smith) wanting him to find Trinty. He goes on case only to lose his life. It doesn't add much more to the Matrix story but it is different and pretty fun. Good segment. Matriculated - This is a combination of hand drawn and CGI animation. While the Matrix movies are machines plugging humans into a virtual world here we have humans plugging a machine into a virtual world to convince it to fight for them. There are a lot of bizzare images with a couple action sequences. Average really and confusing. That sums it up. All 8 are presented in 2.35 anamorphic widescreen and 5.1 sound and it looks and sounds very good. It has plenty of extras a making of for each segment. Overall a good DVD.
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