Title: The Animatrix

Genre: Sci-fi

Creators: The Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix concept), see review for those who created shorts

Distributor: Warner Bros./Village Roadshow

Released: 2003

Rating: none, merits R for sexual situations and violence

Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Summary: The Animatrix is a collection of nine anime shorts, all done by different anime directors, which tie-in to the Matrix trilogy. Because each one is different, I’ve decided to give a look at each of them. I’ve also given my rating for each one, four stars being the best and one star being the worst.

♦ “Final Flight of the Osiris”—On the Osiris, two passengers do a sparring program, but are interrupted by the evil machines. Very cool CG here, making it hard to tell it’s animated. Reminds me of Tekken. Director: Andy Jones and the Squaresoft team. Rating: ****

♦ “Second Renaissance Part 1”—A prologue to the Matrix that shows how the machines began their uprising against humanity. This is one of the creepiest ones in the set. Director: Mahiro Maeda Rating: ****

♦ “Second Renaissance Part 2”—In the conclusion to “Second Renaissance”, the machines complete their uprising and humanity loses—for now. Director: Mahiro Maeda Rating: ***1/2

♦ “Kid’s Story”—The origin of Kid, a character introduced in Matrix Reloaded. Kid realizes that his world is an illusion and is chased by Agents. Pretty cool animation. Nice way to tie-in to the movies by focusing on such a minor character. Director: Shinichiro Watanabe Rating: ***

♦ “Program”—A sparring program reminiscent of Princess Mononke is a background for betrayal. Or is it? Nice visuals here. Director: Yoshiyuki Kawajiri Rating: ***1/2

♦ “World Record”—A track athlete uses drugs for solace and learns the truth about his reality. Pretty sad, this one is the worst in the set. Loved the ending, though. Director: Takeshi Koike Rating: *

♦ “Beyond”—A girl searches for a missing cat in a haunted house. Über-weird. Nice animation, but this one seems to require loads of drugs to understand. Director: Koji Morimoto Rating: **

♦ “A Detective Story”—A detective is assigned to track down Trinity. Done entirely in black and white, this one has a film noir feel to it, fitting the story very well. Like the first movie, this one has loads of Alice in Wonderland references. Director: Shinichiro Watanabe Rating: **1/2

♦ “Matriculated”—One of the machines rebels against the system. Like all of this animator’s work, this one is exquisitely detailed. Pretty low on dialogue. I like to call it “Aeon Flux enters The Matrix”.  Director: Peter Chung Rating: ***1/2

The Good: If you liked The Matrix movies, I’d recommend giving this a try. It might even make you want to check out the other stuff these people have done. It’s a good bookend to the series. It’s also a great way to introduce newbies to anime, since a few of the animators are fan-favorites.

The Bad: Some of the shorts are better than others. If you’ve never watched a single Matrix movie, you’ll be lost by the time you start, so don’t watch this without having watched at least the first one.

Offensive Material: Most of the shorts are pretty graphic. The “Second Renaissance” shorts are very scary—even though robots are being destroyed, they look so human you almost forget they’re not, especially when a female android is beaten and stripped of clothing to reveal its artificial skin, all while crying “I’m real!” (Actually, the only one with almost no violence at all is “Beyond”) “Final Flight of the Osiris” has some brief sexual moments. “Second Renaissance Part 2” opens with a line sure to tick off the Bible-thumpers, “In the beginning, man created light...” My Review: 3.0 Age Rating: C (Teens only) Note: This set of shorts was edited by the Wachowski Brothers, the creators of The Matrix, which is why I used their name in the creator credit. Andy Jones worked with the animators at Squaresoft, the makers of the Final Fantasy games. Mahiro Maeda also worked on Last Exile, Gate Keepers 21, Final Fantasy Unlimited, and Blue Submarine No. 6. Shinichiro Watanabe’s credits include Cowboy Bebop and Macross Plus. Peter Chung created Aeon Flux and Reign the Conqueror. Yoshiyuki Kawajiri is part of the Madhouse Animation studio, which created Ninja Scroll. Takeshi Koike also worked on Ninja Scroll and Wicked City. Koji Morimoto has done lots of shorts for anthologies, including Robot Carnival and the upcoming Memories collection.