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There is Some Fact in your Fiction... I am relatively new to the Matrix, having seen the original movie for the first time in the spring of 2003. However, I've come around since then, and seem to be one of the few people who actually enjoyed Reloaded. When I found out about this DVD, I thought "Matrix + Anime? Sweet!" In reality, the Animatrix is a collaborative effort between Japanese directors and American animators. Perhaps as a consequence, this disc is a bit of a mixed bag. The content consists of 9 shorts. With the exception of one two part segment, each one is directed by a different director, features a visual different take on the Matrix universe, and may or may not have anything to do with the movies. Each segment is about 10 minutes long, and I found the first 3 to be the most interesting. The first short is a CG lead up to Reloaded, and details how Zion came to be aware of the Machines' plan to dig down to them. This one is especially noteworthy. Made by the same team behind the Final Fantasy movie, the CG here is incredible. There were several times where I had to look really closely to decide if I was watching CG or live action. Great stuff! The next two make up that 2-parter I told you about earlier, and tell of humanity's fall and the rise of the machines. These use a combination of fairly slick CG and hand-drawn art (think Futurama) .The remaining 6 shorts range from flat out bizarre to mildly entertaining...I got a kick out of the "SK8 OR DIE!!!" segment (I think the star of that one was the geeky guy that followed Neo around in Reloaded, but I'm not sure). The Animatrix comes with a Japanese audio track, but I hardly see the point of selecting it, as all of these segments were pretty clearly designed for an English dialogue and an American audience. The extras are fairly extensive, and include a number of very interesting interviews. However, overall I couldn't escape the feeling that this disc was little more than a giant advertisement for Reloaded. Part of the problem is that 10 minutes is really too short to develop some of the plotlines properly. That 2 part segment I keep coming back to? There was easily enough material in those 20 minutes alone for a two hour movie. Within the time constraints, the Japanese and American artists did some amazing work, but none of it is overly engaging. Even more so than many of the Reloaded sequences, parts of the Animatrix came off as nothing more than slick eye-candy. Overall, I see the Animatrix as an interesting experiment in cross-promotion that sheds some light on the Matrix universe, but lacking as a stand-alone anime title. Matrix fans like myself will probably find the first short and the interviews worth the price of admission, but more casual fans of the movies or anime fans who could care less about the Matrix universe should steer clear. By: Andy Rucker |
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