What is The Animatrix? If you have to ask, you’re probably not ready to know yet, but here goes anyway: a made-in-Japan Heavy Metal wired into The Matrix’s mind-altered universe, The Animatrix is a series of nine animated short films designed to give the 1999 movie’s huge fan base a quick fix of their favorite red pill between heavier feature-film doses.
But unlike most straight-to-video tie-ins (like the rash of inferior “sequels” Disney has been crapping out with alarming regularity), The Animatrix isn’t merely knocked-off “further adventures” filler with cheaper productions values and low-rent voices. Spearheaded by Matrix writer-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski, the animated anthology boasts voice cameos by Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, and artwork by some of the biggest names in Japanese anime.
(2.5/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM?
Final Flight of the Osiris
by Andy Jones; written by The Wachowski Brothers
(3.5/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
The crew of the Osiris takes a wrong turn down an uncharted tunnel, and end up discovering the machines massing for an assault on the human city of Zion. Pursued by dozens of robotic Sentinels, they race for their lives while one of them undertakes a risky trip into the Matrix to warn Zion about the impending attack before it’s too late.
RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
Take the red pill and enter the Animatrix, baby! Tying the first two feature films together in a neat, self-contained short story, this first entry in the series is in many ways the best. Director Andy Jones was animation director of 2001’s computer-animated Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Osiris features the same jaw-dropping CG virtuosity. Never have human bodies been so gorgeously rendered, especially in the erotically charged blindfold sword duel at the beginning.
WHAT IS THE FILM?
The Second Renaissance,
by Mahiro Maeda; written by The Wachowski Brothers
(2.5/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
Actually, Renaissance is two films—or at least two parts. The first part is heavy on exposition; the second is heavy on explosions. Both parts deal with the history of mankind’s subjugation by the machine society, and subsequent fate as Matrix-sedated living batteries.
RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
Take the red one, but make sure you don’t throw it up later. Renaissance starts with the implausible but entertaining tale of how we created slave robots in our own image to do our bidding. The robots in Part I have a retro-futuristic look not unlike that of 1999’s The Iron Giant, and the plot’s exotic sci-fi trappings bring to mind the best aspects of Heavy Metal. But then things turn ugly, as a revolution-minded robot butler rises up against his masters, and the machines end up in a segregated homeland called Zero-One. From there, Part II takes on a far more violent, apocalyptic tone (right down to the most arresting bit of visual symbolism in either part, a robotic Horseman of the Apocalypse riding roughshod over a blasted wasteland). Unfortunately, the level of gratuitous imagery also rises, bringing to mind the worst aspects of Heavy Metal.
WHAT IS THE FILM?
Kid’s Story,
by Shinichirô Watanabe; written by The Wachowski Brothers
(2.5/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
The Matrix meets Waking Life in this tale of “self-substantiation.” If you’ve seen Reloaded, you might remember thinking, “What’s the kid’s story?” Hence the title of this entry, in which the titular kid’s recurring dream of falling leads him to ask questions—the kind of self-aware questions that make Agents come calling.
RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
Take the red, but only for the clever link to the film and even more clever bookended story structure. On the blue side, the action—rendered in an intentionally raw but ultimately unattractive hand-drawn style—panders a bit too much to the sk8er-boi demographic.
WHAT IS THE FILM?
Program,
written and directed Yoshiaki Kawajiri
(2.5/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
Two apparent lovers—a masked, black-clad samurai and a beautiful woman in white—battle each other on the rooftops of what looks like a feudal Japanese village. When she tries to exit the program, he tells her that he’s trapped her inside, that he’s tired of the real world, and that he wants her to join him back in the ignorant bliss of the Matrix—for good.
RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
The Matrix meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Not a chance. Take the blue pill and skip this eminently forgettable entry entirely. Essentially a single lackluster fight scene with a weak twist tacked on at the end, Program is devoid of meaningful characterization, and conspicuously short on the creative action one might have expected from the writer-director of 1995’s Ninja Scroll.
WHAT IS THE FILM?
World Record,
by Takeshi Koike; written by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
(3.5/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
While attempting to set a new 100-metre world record, an elite sprinter breaks through the pain barrier—and catches a transcendental glimpse of the world outside the Matrix.
RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
Take the red pill and prepare yourself for something different. Reteaming Yoshiaki Kawajiri with fellow Ninja Scroll alumnus Takeshi Koike yields a winning combination of concept and unique visual style. The distorted exaggerations of the sprinter’s body create an almost expressionistic visual metaphor for a man who runs to grasp at freedom.
WHAT IS THE FILM?
Beyond,
written and directed by Koji Morimoto
(2.5/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
Trying to find her lost cat, a young girl ventures into what the neighborhood kids call the “haunted house,” and finds a seemingly magical place where the laws of nature don’t apply. But this undocumented feature of the Matrix is really a bug, and Tech Support is on the way.
RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
After the harder-edged material that precedes it, this offbeat, fanciful little entry might throw you. Less dependent on the Matrix idea for its theme, Beyond is essentially a tale of how humorless grownups squash children’s playful imaginations, but with Agents and faceless men in contamination suits subbing in for the grownups. It’s an original concept, and the traditional anime style fits nicely with the whimsical story; but tone-wise, Beyond is a square peg that doesn’t quite fit in the Matrix universe’s round hole.
WHAT IS THE FILM?
A Detective Story,
written and directed by Shinichirô Watanabe
(3/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
A cynical, pill-popping private eye is hired to find a notorious computer hacker… named Trinity.
RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
This hard-boiled entry goes for the look and feel of classic film noir, right down to the impressively stylish animation – -a grainy black-and-white technique that looks like moving charcoal sketches. Though the story itself never rises above the level of amusing Raymond Chandler impression, that gritty animation is impossible not to love. Besides, you have to give writer-director Shinichirô Watanabe credit for turning leather-clad heroine Trinity into a bona fide femme fatale.
WHAT IS THE FILM?
Matriculated,
written and directed by Peter Chung
(1/4)
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?
A human-hunting machine is captured by a small enclave of humans, who then attempt to reprogram it to defend them.
RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?
The notion that a machine has to be willing to be reprogrammed is thought-provoking, but that’s all this dull entry has going for it. The psychedelic colors and surreal style might bring back the odd fond memory of old-school CG showcases like 1992’s Beyond the Mind’s Eye; unfortunately, with Osiris on hand to point out how far things have come since then, this clunky relic belongs on a back shelf next to unrented copies of that other 1992 computer-animation classic, The Lawnmower Man.
Nor does the cross-promotional synergy end there. The Animatrix is only part of a much larger project, a sort of multimedia shock and awe campaign that incorporates not only the feature film trilogy (including the recently released The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, due in November), but also a computer game (fittingly called Enter the Matrix), the Matrix website (with its unconventional “philosophy section”), and even an extensive series of comic books.
Apart from acknowledging some of the Wachowskis’ bigger influences, the idea behind The Animatrix makes sense. Like the virtual-reality Matrix itself, the world of animation is one in which anything can happen, the animator’s ability to bend real-world rules limited only by his imagination. The individual films in the anthology certainly provide examples of creative variety. Several of the shorts relate directly to events and characters in the films. While they’re not essential to understanding the films’ brain-bending storyline, they do expand and to a certain degree enhance the films by filling in gaps in the backstory, fleshing out the roles of minor characters—or, in one notable case, directly linking the plot of Reloaded to the first film. Others—especially the ones not written by the Wachowski brothers—are more like high-profile fan fiction, using the Matrix mythos as more of a narrative reference point.
The result is an interesting variety of subjects, styles, and tones, some of which work better than others (see individual reviews below). But considering that nearly all of the nine shorts are worth watching (including at least two that even the non-Matriculated can appreciate as examples of animation at its finest), The Animatrix is a pleasant surprise. It may not be the action-flick epiphany The Matrix was, but it will give you some of that same feeling of having your expectations exceeded.