Reviews

Other chapters that project a strong vision are unsurprisingly the ones that stick as close to the source material as possible. The abstract sketchiness of World Record, in which an athlete 'wakes up' during a race, or, more notably, A Detective's Story, where a Sam Spade-style P.I attempts to track down Trinity, are just too arty and cold to gel with the rest of pack.

However, the idea was always to sprinkle each piece with a different flavour and even the lesser entries carry plenty of interesting ideas. The haunted house approach of Koji Morimoto's Beyond is a good example of an animator bringing something fresh to the table. A glitch in the Matrix causes some kids to believe a house is haunted and they spend a summer's afternoon exploiting the warped reality of its grounds before a clean up crew arrive to fix it and ruin their fun.

Bah, animaed agents! Nothing a good eraser can't deal with.

Kid's Story, as with The Second Renaissance Parts 1 & 2 and The Final Flight of the Osiris, is written by the Wachowskis themselves and gives a back story to the annoying kid tailing after Neo in The Matrix Reloaded. Said kid is given anonymous confirmation via his computer that the world isn't real (just like Neo in The Matrix) and is chased around his school by Agents who want to silence him. The story is slight - and some might say redundant - but Shinichiro Watanabe's animation is beautifully old-school with a slight modern twist.

The Final Flight of the Osiris was the only chapter to get a theatrical release (in front of flop Stephen King horror Dreamcatcher), but it's also the only one to be made in the Beowulf/Polar Express form of motion-captured CGI. The story directly links The Matrix to The Matrix Reloaded by showing the Osiris' discovery of the sentinels digging to Zion and its doomed attempt to flee them.

Strange, many people left the cinema after Matrix Reloaded making that same gesture.

The Animatrix has helped pave the way for new animators while other DVD spin-offs like Tales From The Black Freighter (from Watchmen) and Dark Fury (from The Chronicles of Riddick) are becoming more and more common. The Animatrix is a mixed bag, then, but definitely one you should view on Blu-ray if you can.

DVD/Blu-ray Special Features:

(Matrix Trilogy Box Set)

Scrolls To Screen: The History & Culture of Anime

Making of Featurette