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Monday, March 21. 2005
A Review of The Animatrix
I'll start this article with a brief rant. Bah, the horde invaded the house yesterday again! That's three days in a row now. I'll talk about the horde on another day.
Anyways, this last week, Teletoon was showing The Animatrix at 10pm every night. It looks like they're re-running The Animatrix again this week at the same time. The Animatrix is a collection of short animated films that is based in The Matrix universe. Each short film was produced by a different animation company. It provides some interesting history about the Matrix, and some other background information. I remember a lot of hype was brewing around The Animatrix as it was released around the same time as The Matrix Reloaded. They chose an interesting way of promoting The Animatrix, they made the first four episodes available on the Internet for free. (Click on the link to find the free episodes, viewer discretion advised for kids.)
I'm going to do a short review of each individual episode of The Animatrix, as they're all stand alone short movies. Don't worry, the review is spoiler free.
Anyways, this last week, Teletoon was showing The Animatrix at 10pm every night. It looks like they're re-running The Animatrix again this week at the same time. The Animatrix is a collection of short animated films that is based in The Matrix universe. Each short film was produced by a different animation company. It provides some interesting history about the Matrix, and some other background information. I remember a lot of hype was brewing around The Animatrix as it was released around the same time as The Matrix Reloaded. They chose an interesting way of promoting The Animatrix, they made the first four episodes available on the Internet for free. (Click on the link to find the free episodes, viewer discretion advised for kids.)
I'm going to do a short review of each individual episode of The Animatrix, as they're all stand alone short movies. Don't worry, the review is spoiler free.
The Flight of The Osiris - This is the first episode of The Animatrix. It was produced by SquareSoft USA, makers of the Final Fantasy movies. This studio specializes in computer generated graphics for movies. When I saw this clip, my jaws dropped as the computer graphics were amazing. At times, you forget that these aren't real actors on the screen. This episode also provides an important part to the overall Matrix storyline, as it takes place right before The Matrix Reloaded. They did a very good job capturing the entire Matrix look and feel, and they set the bar very very high for all the other episodes in The Animatrix. 10/10.
The Second Renaissance Part 1 & 2 - (Available for free) I was very mixed about this one. As a whole, it provided lots of information about the history of The Matrix, and what caused humanity to be enslaved by the machines. This episode's animation style was Japanese, or anime. Following the tradition of anime, there was quite a few disturbing images of violence, and senseless nudity. These were things that I didn't need to see. I felt that this didn't live up to the spirit of The Matrix because of the violence. If you recall from the Matrix trilogy, there really isn't a lot of bloodshed or brutal violence. There were also some logic holes in their story. They talk about how humans used nuclear weapons against the machines, but the machines were immune to the heat and radiation generated by the nukes. That's good and all, but last time I checked, nuclear weapons produces an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which takes out machines. In The Matrix films, they always talk about EMPs being the humans' only defence against machines. In either case.... I'm mixed, it provides important information, but it's also disturbing to watch. 6/10? 7/10?
A Kid's Story - My first impression of this clip was, wow this is a pretty poorly drawn cartoon. It has an okay storyline if you can get over the abstract drawings. It does provide an interesting tidbit of information about "The Kid" from The Matrix Reloaded. 3/10.
Program (Available for free) - Have you noticed that the score has been slowly decreasing from the first episode? This is another anime style episode that takes place inside a simulation program. Far more tasteful than The Second Renaissance. 6/10.
Detective Story (Available for free) - I can't quite describe the style that this episode was presented, but it was very different. I really liked the style though. You'll have to see it. The overall look and feel isn't like The Matrix, but it worked for some reason. The story is about a private eye detective trying to track down a hacker. 8/10.
World Record - This was another episode that had a wierd style of animation, but the storyline made up for it. I found that this episode provided another interesting perspective of The Matrix. The story revolves around a guy who was able to break out of The Matrix without taking a red pill. The concept was kinda cool. 8/10.
Marticulated - What the heck was this?! This was essentially a 10 minute acid trip for machines?! What does marticulated even mean?! 1/10.
Beyond - Another anime style short movie with suprisingly no violence or nudity. The story revolves around these children playing in a "haunted" area, when in fact, it is an area of the Matrix that has a glitch in it. So, they're able to bend the rules of reality. It didn't really further the world of the Matrix for me though. 5/10.
So there you have it. My overall feeling about The Animatrix is that the overall experience is subpar to the other Matrix films. As you can see from above, I didn't like more than half of them. A lot of subtle things such as intriguing quotes, subtle references to religion, and obscure visual puzzles were all missing from this. A lot of the episodes were just too wierd and out there. The only one that was onpar with the films is The Flight of The Osiris. I wish they got SquareSoft to do the entire Animatrix. Actually, the only thing that did stack up with the films was the soundtrack, The Animatrix did have a fairly good soundtrack.
Again, I found a few episodes somewhat disturbing. I felt this didn't reflect the style in which the other Matrix films had... ie relatively low graphic violence. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not some crazy nut that demands everything be PG-13, and I'm not an anti-violence activist. Anyways, I'm sure the hardcore fans of the Matrix franchise will probably get some value out of The Animatrix.
As for me, I'm hoping to glean more insight about the Matrix by playing the Enter The Matrix game. It contains an extra 30 minutes of video footage that complements The Matrix Reloaded. I'll start this game after this term is over.
There's also a Matrix massive multiplayer online game coming out soon too. It's called The Matrix Online. That would be something scary to be addicted to. Why be a hacker in real life, when you can pretend to be a hacker in a game?!
The Second Renaissance Part 1 & 2 - (Available for free) I was very mixed about this one. As a whole, it provided lots of information about the history of The Matrix, and what caused humanity to be enslaved by the machines. This episode's animation style was Japanese, or anime. Following the tradition of anime, there was quite a few disturbing images of violence, and senseless nudity. These were things that I didn't need to see. I felt that this didn't live up to the spirit of The Matrix because of the violence. If you recall from the Matrix trilogy, there really isn't a lot of bloodshed or brutal violence. There were also some logic holes in their story. They talk about how humans used nuclear weapons against the machines, but the machines were immune to the heat and radiation generated by the nukes. That's good and all, but last time I checked, nuclear weapons produces an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which takes out machines. In The Matrix films, they always talk about EMPs being the humans' only defence against machines. In either case.... I'm mixed, it provides important information, but it's also disturbing to watch. 6/10? 7/10?
A Kid's Story - My first impression of this clip was, wow this is a pretty poorly drawn cartoon. It has an okay storyline if you can get over the abstract drawings. It does provide an interesting tidbit of information about "The Kid" from The Matrix Reloaded. 3/10.
Program (Available for free) - Have you noticed that the score has been slowly decreasing from the first episode? This is another anime style episode that takes place inside a simulation program. Far more tasteful than The Second Renaissance. 6/10.
Detective Story (Available for free) - I can't quite describe the style that this episode was presented, but it was very different. I really liked the style though. You'll have to see it. The overall look and feel isn't like The Matrix, but it worked for some reason. The story is about a private eye detective trying to track down a hacker. 8/10.
World Record - This was another episode that had a wierd style of animation, but the storyline made up for it. I found that this episode provided another interesting perspective of The Matrix. The story revolves around a guy who was able to break out of The Matrix without taking a red pill. The concept was kinda cool. 8/10.
Marticulated - What the heck was this?! This was essentially a 10 minute acid trip for machines?! What does marticulated even mean?! 1/10.
Beyond - Another anime style short movie with suprisingly no violence or nudity. The story revolves around these children playing in a "haunted" area, when in fact, it is an area of the Matrix that has a glitch in it. So, they're able to bend the rules of reality. It didn't really further the world of the Matrix for me though. 5/10.
So there you have it. My overall feeling about The Animatrix is that the overall experience is subpar to the other Matrix films. As you can see from above, I didn't like more than half of them. A lot of subtle things such as intriguing quotes, subtle references to religion, and obscure visual puzzles were all missing from this. A lot of the episodes were just too wierd and out there. The only one that was onpar with the films is The Flight of The Osiris. I wish they got SquareSoft to do the entire Animatrix. Actually, the only thing that did stack up with the films was the soundtrack, The Animatrix did have a fairly good soundtrack.
Again, I found a few episodes somewhat disturbing. I felt this didn't reflect the style in which the other Matrix films had... ie relatively low graphic violence. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not some crazy nut that demands everything be PG-13, and I'm not an anti-violence activist. Anyways, I'm sure the hardcore fans of the Matrix franchise will probably get some value out of The Animatrix.
As for me, I'm hoping to glean more insight about the Matrix by playing the Enter The Matrix game. It contains an extra 30 minutes of video footage that complements The Matrix Reloaded. I'll start this game after this term is over.
There's also a Matrix massive multiplayer online game coming out soon too. It's called The Matrix Online. That would be something scary to be addicted to. Why be a hacker in real life, when you can pretend to be a hacker in a game?!
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--Angela Lee Duckworth