The concept: Nine animated short
films created by Japan's leading anime writers and directors. Each
movie is either based on or inspired by Larry and Andy Wachowski's
1999 movie The Matrix.
Review: The Matrix trilogy will be
known as one of the greatest science-fiction epics of all time.
The millennium generation's answer to the Star Wars (the first trilogy…yes,
the one with Mark Hamill). And just as Star Wars produced ancillary
projects (Saturday morning television shows, books, etc.), The Matrix
has spawned its first seed, a collection of short amine films based
on the trilogy, The Animatrix.
Each short film is a masterpiece, a beautifully
unique melding of computer animation and good-old-fashioned-two-dimensional-line-art,
each creating an original world for its story. The only exception
to this formula is "Final Flight of the Orisis," only
because it's completed CG. But we'll come back to "Orisis"
a little later.
The other eight films create the perfect
primer for anime novices, showing a true range of anime as an art
form and erasing the notion that anime only means "Yu-Gi-Oh!"
or "Dragonball Z." For anime fans, The Animatrix is another
chance to see some great work from some of today's best creators.
"Renaissance" Machine
Mahiro Maeda of "Blue Submarine No.
6" fame creates the most powerful and breathtaking of these
pieces with "The Second Renaissance," a two-part film
that explains the rise of the machine world, its takeover of man
and the creation of the matrix.
Both parts of "Renaissance" constantly
mix the beauty of a futuristic, technologically advanced utopia
with the brutal, destructive nature of man. An android, built with
a human female body, is tossed into the street by a group of guys
and beaten to death with a sledgehammer. Another robot has its CPU
blasted out of its skull, Vietnam-style. Later, robots pull soldiers
out of exo-suits, leaving behind their arms and legs. Skulls are
exposed, with metal prongs poking and prodding brain tissue to understand
emotions. The war scenes in part two of "Renaissance"
look like outtakes from Saving Private Ryan, but it's so brutally
honest and visually daring that you cannot turn away.
Shinichiro Watanabe, creator of Cowboy Bebop,
directs two short pieces as well. "A Detective Story"
is classic Watanabe as it plays with the film-noir tones and jazzy
flair that Watanabe immortalized with Bebop. The story, about a
detective unknowingly hired by agents to find a hacker, is a little
light, but it gives Watanabe the perfect excuse to create a black-and-white,
1930's-style Chicago filled with 'L' trains, rotary-dial phones,
old-ribbon typewriters, revolvers, trench coats and fedoras.
"Kid's Story," written by the
Wachowskis and directed by Watanabe, is the back-story of a new
character found in The Matrix Reloaded. The beauty of this film
is in the visuals. The cels were hand-drawn over actual film that
Watanabe shot of a California high school student going about his
regular routine.
The Annotated Matrix
"Beyond," "Matriculated"
and "World Record" are the most original of the short
films, each extrapolating on concepts about the Matrix that fans
only caught glimpses of in the first movie. "Beyond" by
Koji Morimoto tells the story of a group of kids who discover a
glitch in the Matrix in the form of a "haunted house."
Inside the house, pre-programmed concepts of time, space, gravity,
even weather have crashed. While agents scramble to get the glitch
under control, the children begin to explore and even control the
Matrix in ways only freed minds have exhibited (Neo, Trinity, Morpheus).
Beautifully animated, the film also captures aspects of modern-day
Japanese neighborhoods, down to "Tohryanse," an old Japanese
folk tune that plays at stoplights and crosswalks in Japan.
Peter Chung, creator the "Aeon Flux,"
brought his talent to The Animatrix in "Matriculated."
Almost completely paradoxical to the Matrix mythos, "Matriculated"
is the story of a machine that is reprogrammed and rehabilitated
to sympathize with the Zionists by entering a psychedelic, organic
"human" matrix. The most stunning part of the film is
the human matrix itself. It's unlike anything we've seen in this
world before; it's emotion-based rather than reality-based, flowing
and swaying like an ocean at times, other times drawing upon human
history/culture (i.e. the "Looney Tunes" moment). If humanity
ever had the chance to build it's own Matrix, this is it. As for
the rest, eh. The rest is typical Chung, nothing you can't see in
Aeon Flux or Reign: The Conqueror.
Written by Ninja Scroll creator Yoshiaki
Kawajiri, "World Record" takes a more romantic, empathic
look at freeing the enslaved minds of the Matrix. The main character,
Dan, pushes himself so hard that he not only breaks the 100-meter
world record, but, for a moment, pulls his physical body free from
the Matrix only to be caught within moments and reinstalled. The
film, directed by newcomer Takeshi Koike, breaks away from the traditional
look of anime, opting more for a stylish exaggeration along the
lines of Chung, at least in terms of anatomy. Koike also uses time
very creatively. He slows down and speeds up the action on everything,
from Dan's muscles to the runners sprinting, creating a syncopated
pulse to the film, a visual rhythm. Koike then breaks down that
rhythm with a dramatic snap of tendons in one of Dan's legs, jolting
the audience and pulling it into the second half of the story.
Where "World Record" is perhaps
the most "non-anime" of the films, Kawajiri's second contribution
to the collection, "Program," is the most traditional
anime. It's as signature to Kawajiri as "A Detective Story"
is to Watanabe. With a look reminiscent of feudal Japan, "Program,"
depicts a battle between two characters, both "meta-"physical
and emotional, during a training program. Probably my least favorite,
it's still a compelling story. But what I've grown to love about
both The Matrix and The Animatrix is their ability to explore new
visual methodology in their respective genres. It's a personal preference.
"Program" was a bit too traditional for me.
O Captain! My Captain!
And back to "Orisis." It's the
best. Period. The others poke and prod, swing you this way and that,
expand your understanding of the Matrix's in-versus-out, Jungian-Hegelian
theory and that's all fine and dandy. But "Orisis," written
by the Wachowskis, is six minutes long. And in those six minutes
is some of the best visual storytelling I've ever seen. Within the
first three minutes, "Orisis" establishes a sexy, romantic
and believable relationship between it's two leads, Thaddeus and
Joanne (during a sword fight with no dialogue, of all setups), an
explosive battle sequence and sets up the entire premise of The
Matrix Reloaded. All in six minutes. It is the perfect introduction.
Visually, it's superb, with CG production and animation by Square
USA, the same folks who bought us Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within.
Unfortunately, the Orisis' heroic send-off was also the "Final
Flight of Square USA" as the company's film side closed down
due to Spirit's enormous budget and subsequent horrible box-office
take.
Also noteworthy are the DVD extras, which
include a behind-the-scenes look at all the films. There's also
a huge feature on Enter the Matrix the video game, which includes
an hour of unseen footage that ties right into Reloaded.
For Matrix fans, this is a must-have. For
anime (and therefore Matrix) fans, this is a must-have. For anime
or Matrix fans with significant others who have no clue about anime
or the Matrix, this is a must-have. For me, this review is a must-sleep.
Damn, this was tiring. I'm going to bed.
--
Glenn Jeffers is the creator/writer of FLICK (as previously seen
in Digital Webbing Presents #5) and THE GIG (seen in Digital Webbing
Presents #9-11).
Any publishers that would like Glenn
Jeffers to do a review, please feel free to contact
him here or you can contact Ed Dukeshire on the contact
page.
The
Animatrix
