The Animatrix video

[Edwin]

I didn't notice a thread for this one, so I'm creating one. The dvd has been so hyped up, I doubt many people know that The Animatrix is also available on video. It may not have as many special features as it's compact counterpart but it still has all nine stories; the two most notable being Rennaisance pt one and two.
These two prequel the matrix's origin; how man creates machines to serve him, then betrays them and ends up in a battle royal for domination of the earth. The other seven are all separate stories involving the real world and the matrix.
The Wachowski brothers have put together a great animated anthology using some of the best talent in Japanese anime. There are some who won't enjoy the entire video but I thought all of these animated shorts were really good. Altogether, it's 110 minutes running time.

[The Delfonics]

I downloaded about 5 of these off the net and I saw one (Final Flight..) before Dreamcatcher. I want to buy this DVD cause from what ive seen they are pretty cool

Final Flight of the Osiris - 8/10
The rest of what Ive seen - 7/10

[Anonymooo]

A few words on The Animatrix: HOLY SHIT. To see so much talent come together in one place is nothing short of staggering. Nine animated shorts, blending CGI with the very best that anime has to offer, that detail the world of The Matrix, its history, and what leads up to the recently-released Matrix: Reloaded.

The Final Flight of the Osiris-:D
Directed by Andy Jones (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within)
While Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was something of a disappointment for me, I found the animation gorgeous. Finally, somebody decided to make a serious CGI movie. As much as I loved Toy Story, I wanted something with all the intensity and fervor that anime conveyed. The Final Flight of the Osiris is also done by the same Square Pictures animation team, a direct prequel to The Matrix: Reloaded that starts with a flat-out beautiful fight scene in The Construct. Never before have I seen so much intensity and passion in a fight told through facial and bodily expression alone, especially in an animated piece. One of the better ones of the bunch. 8/10

The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 and 2-:(
Directed by Mahiro Maeda (Blue Submarine No. 6)
Whoo... deep, depressing, and disturbing, all in one neat little two-episode package. Mahiro Maeda's take on the history of the war with the machines, along with the downfall of humanity, has more than enough raw brutality to make even the most hardened filmgoer turn away in shock and disgust. Yes, they're machines. Yes, they're brutal mofos. But I never expected them to be THAT brutal. Even the T-1000 wasn't this nasty. This segment unfolds like a documentary, often showing humans for what we can be--xenophobic, hateful, and sometimes just as heartless as the "soulless" machines that are supposed to be the bad guys. 8/10

Kid's Story-:eek:
Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop)
Probably the most "artsy" short of the nine, Kid's Story gives a little more backstory on Wurm, Neo's little fanboy from The Matrix: Reloaded. Give any work to an aging hipster like Watanabe, and it's bound to be impossibly well-done. As Wurm realizes that the world isn't quite as "real" as it really seems, objects seem to gain a skewed perspective, colors darken, or even go pastel, lines become scratchier, and Agents move with an almost eerie fluidity. However, it does end just a little too fast... 7/10

Program-:p
Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Jubei Ninpucho/Ninja Scroll)
http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Sbk/10/anime_gallery_program_6L.jpg
When I heard that Yoshiaki Kawajiri was going to do one of the Animatrix shorts, I nearly shat myself with joy. C'mon, we're talking about the guy who's revolutionized animated action maybe four times over, and his work just gets better and better. On the edge of my seat for this entire bushido-themed romp, I was captivated by how seamlessly Kawajiri blended his own lightning-fast animation style with just a little influence from the Wachowski Brothers. Damn, was this one freakin' awesome. 8.5/10

World Record-:)
Directed by Takeshi Koike (Street Fighter Alpha)
Also written by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, World Record focuses on a track champion who ends up nearly finding out what really is REAL by pushing his own personal limits. Koike's intense style of animation may not be for everyone, but it sure as hell did the thing for me. Jesus, the guy's lips jiggle when he runs, and the entire pacing of the short makes you feel every drop of sweat, every agonizing step he takes in the film's climactic race. The stylistic look of the Agents is another plus. 7.5/10

Beyond-;)
Directed by Koji Morimoto (Macross Plus)
Probably the most whimsical and carefree of the stories, this one follows a young Japanese girl searching for her cat and stumbling upon a house that just happens to be a glitch in the Matrix, a place generally known as the local haunted house, where kids engage in gravity-defying stunts and mind-bending games of catch. Clean-lined, paled, and pastel-colored animation adds to the dreamlike quality of this episode. Good stuff. 7.5/10

A Detective Story-:D
Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop)
http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Sbk/6/anime_gallery_detective_3L.jpg
My personal favorite is done in black-and-white, with the little things, like the appearance of computers as typewriters with screens, that add to the overall "classic" feel. It even features Trinity as the driving force of the story, and the detective tracking her down comes off as any other Sam Spade type... hard-boiled, liquored-up, with a fast trigger finger and an even faster wit. The action in this piece is short and sweet, but carries the usual snap that Watanabe's famous for. Check out Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, coming sometime in July, to see him really go to work. 9/10

Matriculated-:rolleyes:
Directed by Peter Chung (Aeon Flux)
I've never really been a big fan of Peter Chung's work. For some reason, his art just never caught on with me... maybe it's how everybody's just anorexically thin. Maybe it's for that same reason that I don't dig too much shoujo (girls') anime. However, his style actually works in this final episode, which focuses on humans turning captured machines to their cause. A trippy Matrix sequence in the MACHINE'S mind makes it even more artsy, but in the end, this is the short that just didn't get me going as much as the others did. 6.5/10

Overall-
Wow. For someone who loves anime as much as I do, I haven't watched much recently, and I certainly haven't been keeping up with many of the newer American releases, with the exception of my current addiction, GTO. The Animatrix gave me that same gut-sinking, jaw-dropping feeling I got when I first watched any of the "greats" of anime (Macross Plus, Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Akira, Cowboy Bebop, End of Evangelion)... and then some. Good Christ, was this amazing. Buy it now, schmoes! But then again, not everybody's an animation fan, and even less people enjoy anime, sadly enough. In any case, I give it a rock-solid 9/10.

By the way, the only anime to ever receive a 10/10 from me are the Macross Plus movie edition, The End of Evangelion, and Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door.