what can't you figure out? it explores other aspects of the Matrix world, and "Beyond" is absolutley beautiful.

Osiris ties in directly with the films, bridging between Matrix and Reloaded. the most accessible and visually realistic and the one for people who just want a direct tie-in with the films.

Renaissance 1 & 2 tell you how the Matrix came about and the war with the machines, so it's fairly straightforward. I love the imagery and the poignancy and of course it answers many questions that arise out of the films.

Kid's Story, well he's the Kid who follows Neo around and does the "Neo, i believe" bit in revolutions. He woke up out of the Matrix by himself. interesting visual style, almost Fururist ion the way it breaks up motion. i hate the Kid and wish he'd been shot by the Agents, but it does explain why he worships Neo so much and of course without him Zion would probably not have been saved.

Program is about two former lovers who are part of the Zion resistance, one of them betrays his crew to go back to the Matrix, their fight is a sim of 16th century Japan. but as you know it's just a test anyway! Done by Yoshiaki Kawajiri who did Ninja Scroll and it looks very similar, and is the most truly anime.

World Record, again someone who wakes up from the Matrix himself through sheer willpower and determination in extreme exertion. This is meant to show that the "human spirit" can't be contained forever by the machines because humans are by definition unpredictable. great story, don't like the animation style, too comic-book for me.

Beyond is by far the best imho, it's about how the Matrix can go wrong and is an explanation of ghosts and stuff. Remember how the Orifice tells Neo about vampires and stuff in reloaded? same sort of the thing. if the girl had gone through the dorr with the voices she'd have been out of the Matrix, but she was totally conditioned to be in the world she knew, so it was all nothing more than a weird but beautiful memory. it was the first one to be commissioned by the producers and it took the longest and was the last to finished, i think Morimoto
handed it in right on the deadline and he still wasn't satisfied with it. i think it's perfection.

Detective Story is a Trinity adventure from the point of view of a film noir detective. i like it a lot. Shows how the machine use humans against humans without those humans even knowing. that's how convincing the world of the Matrix is to the people that are in it. personally i love it, I really like film noir esp. Philip Marlowe style detective stories. Nice to have a Trinity story that doesn't involve Neo.

Matriculated, my least favourite although a good idea. The machine is led through a series of illusions and distorted realities that radically change its perception of what it is itself and what world its in. It eventually sees itself as the same as the humans its chasing and is in effect brainwashed and reprogrammed. After the humans are all killed, it takes the place of the girl it becomes friends with and you see it standing guard by the seashore. the question is, as self-aware machine, is it making a choice or is it simply being brainwashed? does it develop a morality or is it simply responding to new input? in truth its the deepest and most complex of all the stories, but its the least accessible because of the animation style, which I dislike, and it was done last and in a rush, i think Peter Chung had like just a few eeks to knock it out, and it shows.

the Animatrix project was intended to return the ideas of the Matrix back to the anime roots of the Matrix. The Wachowskis have alwasy been very open about their influence in this matter and if you watch Ghost in the Shell, Akira and the Invisibles you'll see whole scenes that were lifted from those films and redone in the Matrix films, as well as the whole concept of being "jacked in" which an incredibly common theme in anime.

The directors of the various films are all well-renowned animators and have all got top notch work under their belts. they were chosen to produce radically different visions, given a lot of freedom to interpret the Matrix world as they saw fit and have wildly different visual styles. Osiris was done by the Final Fantasy team and if you like the Matrix as an action film then this is the one for you as it is the most photoo-realistic. However if its the concept of the Matrix and what its like for the people who have to live in it, then the others are more approriate.

check out the "Visions" section on the DvD for an explanation of what theyre doing in each film and how it realtes to the trilogy.

imho Animatrix is superior to the actual films and Beyond alone makes the DvD an essential purchase, Koji Morimoto is an incredible animator.

hope that helps you, ff! Our resident Matrix experts Eraser, Arch and FF will be able to go a lot deeper for you.



Edited by - Tawakalna on 1/10/2004 7:26:22 AM

no one gets Matriculated, and no one likes it either.

Beyond is by FAR the best IMO and i think i say it alot, i'm not copying Taw, i got into a fight with a girl about Beyond cause she sucks and doesnt see how good it is so i called her a cheap whore and it got a little hazy when her BF came over...

...aaaanyway. So what (other than Matriculated) dont you get?

people who aren't particularly into anime struggle with Animatrix, even if they like Matrix. A lot have said exactly what ff said, they like Osiris and Renaissance 1 & 2, but the rest just passes them by. I guess it was just made for us, Arch!

i like the one with the 'haunted' house

yeah, thats "Beyond". its pretty sweet. Plus the girl is a hottie, but then so was Jue in Osiris. NICE ASS!!!


"ive got an attitude of everything i've ever wanted"

I like the one with "Operation Dark Storm". It's sweet .

would they really have lost so much if the people co-operated with the machines?

you mean in 1st and 2nd Renaissance? I think we discussed this point back in the Matrix Revolutions threads

<checks>

yes we did.

blergh, why do i always miss these things

because youre too busy posting semi-amusing news items, my lad!

the point being, they were only machines. Would you co-operate with your vacuum cleaner or microwave? thats all they were to humans in this story, things, tools. their intelligence was nothing more than an an adjunct to help them do their design tasks more efficiently. of course as you saw not all humans agreed with the way the machines were treated but the anti-machine backlash from the authorities was such as to convince the machines that all humans were their enemies. Eventually however a sort of rough justice was reached in the form of the Matrix where most humans live out their lives blissfully ignorant of the truth while in reality serving a very simple but fundamental service to the machines. A perfect irony in the reversal of roles, the machines being better and more attentive masters than the humans ever were, but just as exploitative. And of course, in the end of revolutions, there's no mass liberation of mankind. Only those humans who become aware of the Matrix get to leave, the vast majority have to stay and continue as they ahve done, as, literally, battery fodder.

lots of historical analogies to be made too and not just the obvious visual ones.



Edited by - Tawakalna on 1/10/2004 6:06:09 PM

god your so deep. although i like knowing a shag load about the matrix, alot of the paralells to mythology and literature elude me, so the most i can say in a matrix conversation is "APUs PWN!"

so, er, yeah. shove THAT up ya pipe and smoke it.

I've had the Animatrix for sometime now. My faves are Final Flight, Second Renesonce 1 & 2, and Program.

I tried watching Matriclated whall stoned, but I didn't get anything from it. But they are all generaly well done.

Life: No one gets out alive.

I thought I understood the Matrix pretty well, but Arch, FF, Kumari & 'Raser made me totally alter my take on it.

I totally love the opening sequences of Program, that's why i love anime, incredible shots of samurai, and ninjas, and flaming arrows.

aother nice touch - the portrayal of Agents in World Record as vampires, a very telling insight into what the matrix is all about especially as the Athlete is just seeing the truth for the first time. That awkeneing scene has all the power of neo's awakening in the Matrix first film, which was the most gob-smacking jaw-dropping moment for me (spoilt only by it being Keanu because I think he's total cr*p as an actor)

lots of people think that the final scenes of 2nd Renaissance pt2 with the destryoed city are lifted from the WTC events, but they're not. That sequence was matted months before, but after 9/11 there was serious debate whether to include it or not, for the obvious reasons. I'm glad they left it, the Animatrix is a fine piece of art and art shouldn't be compromised because of current popular feeling (although if I was a New Yorker I might well feel differently about that)

interesting to see how the clanky retro looking technology of Zion gets utilised in Detective Story rather than sleek modern puter designs, helps to give it that seedy mid 40s look. Matrix has provided the most distinct visual iconography in s/f film since Alien and SW. Even the APUs in Revolutions look like they're cobbled together out of rusty spare parts, rather than the advanced battle mechs of 2nd Renaissance.

as to mythology, i'm sure i cant be the only one who spotted the symbolism of the ship names and the actions they undertook. Nebuchadnezzar was a proud king who went mad and was reduced to wandering about lost, naked like a beast - Morpheus is so sure of himself and then all his certainty is taken away and he's lost. Osiris was a god who brought knowledge to mankind and was torn apart by his enemeies and his pieces scattered - the Osiris delivers warning of the attack on Zion but is ripped apart by the Sentinels. Icarus flew too near the sun and crashed and burnt - Neo and Trinity do the same in Niobe's ship, they have to fly up to escape the Sentinels and see the Sun above the Dark Storm clouds for the first time but the ship can't take it. In fact almost all the names in the Matrix have a symbolic significance to the plot

btw ff here ya go Matrix thread


Edited by - Tawakalna on 1/11/2004 3:51:09 AM

@Taw: Niobe's ship is the Logos, just a heads up (facts and figures is where i shine ).
I think the Icarus reference is that the Icarus was too close to another ship and was destroyed by its EMP. although its a bit stretching