The Animatrix: Nine New Visions

By Dr. Theodore Mangrove

No Canoo Required
The Animatrix

I was recently treated to an advanced viewing of the Animatrix, a collection of nine animated episodes by seven visionary directors of the Japanese anime genre, inspired by the Matrix feature films. Befitting the hacker theme of the films, this pirate copy of the Animatrix came to me by way of some guy in Hong Kong who knew some guy in the United States who converted the DVD to Divx and then posted it on a server at which point it was downloaded by one of my students at a university somewhere in California and shown to me. I don’t think I broke any laws by seeing it, but I still expect some agents working for the Wachowski Brothers to come crashing through into the university computer lab to confiscate the computer where the file was downloaded.

The Animatrix is simply brilliant. The nine episodes are extremely diverse both in style as well as genre, yet they are all tied together by the meta-text of the Matrix Universe. And though they each employ different genres, they are all bound by the same vision of a post-apocalypse caused by human actions, and a world in which only the hackers and misfits living on the fringe of society can see the truth.

The episodes The Second Renaissance parts 1 and 2 are pseudo-documentaries detailing the downfall of human civilization, and the rise of the machines which created the Matrix to enslave humans. It combines both realism and cartoony visual styles as often seen in Japanese Anime as it details how humans “became the architects of their own demise” and refused to live in peace with the artificial intelligence they created. It also tells of how humans destroyed the world trying to destroy the machines, yet succeeded in only destroying themselves.

Program is rendered in the classic Japanese Anime style, combining realism with impressionism. It is a moralistic tale of a woman who must choose between right and wrong, although choosing right may result in her death. The fight scenes in a bamboo forest and on the tile rooftops of traditional houses are reminiscent of the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In the end, it is all just a training program, a simulated test of her morality.

Kids Story is a drama of teen angst and redemption. It has the look of painted video, reminiscent of the film Waking Life. It asks the questions which often plague teenagers, such as “Am I alone?” The answer lies in trusting one’s feelings, and explicitly not trusting authorities such as teachers or other adults. Our teenager skate boards his way to freedom, and manages to wake himself up from the Matrix.

World Record is a highly expressionist work. The characters are drawn in a highly stylized and emotionally eloquent manner, and time is treated with extreme subjectivity. The story details an athlete whose senses are so keen that he becomes aware of the Matrix, and almost wakes himself up before agents stop him.

Beyond is an piece that combines some of the painted video effect of Kids Story combined with graphical comic book elements and a punk-like feel to it. It’s a story of a haunted house, an area where the Matrix is malfunctioning and the laws of physics, gravity, causality, and space-time all all turned on their head. It’s an X-Files style conspiracy story, where the government moves in to cover up the truth. A girl and her inquisitive cat know something is going on, but they don’t know what.

Detective Story has the look and feel of an inky black-and-white noir crime drama. A detective must locate a hacker named Trinity, who apparently does not exist until she shows up on a train. As they are being chase by agents, he begins to figure out what is actually going on, but only after it is too late.

Matriculated is a retro-modernistic piece that turns into a surrealistic psychodrama. It details a group of renegade humans living on the surface of the post-apocolyptic Earth who jack themselves into a program with captured machines in order to convince the machines to join their side. The program they have created is a psychedelic dream-world of fractal colors and geometry, like a digital Magical Mystery Tour.

Final Flight of the Osiris is an example of digital hyperrealism, reminiscent of the film Final Fantasy. It demonstrates the rapid development towards fully digital actors who are almost indistinguishable from flesh-and-blood members of the Actors Guild. This is an erotic thriller which begins with a risque virtual sword fight, and ends with a frantic chase, both virtual and real.

The Animatrix will be available on DVD June 6th. In the meantime, you can see previews on the website (http://www.intothematrix.com/) or find yourself a hacked pirate copy on the internet.