Review of The Animatrix (2003) by Andreina V — 24 Jul 2010

I'm glad I watched the films in the order that they were placed as per the DVD's menu. The first couple of segments gave this cartoon its "mature" rating, what with the graphic depictions of the struggle between humans and robots (which was heartbreaking to watch, by the way) which were the least of my liking. This aside, I really liked the different styles of animation and the fleshing out of the story of the Matrix and all it entailed.

"Kid's story:" I can so totally imagine this interesting story to convince some dumbass teenager out there (the type who hide in their room and never take a bath and hate life) to kill themselves, and it would be all over the news about how something like this influenced him or her to do it. I don't care. This kind of plot, one which turns on its head at the very last second, made me want to sit somewhere and brood. About what, I'm not sure. I'm just happy that the kid got away... but sad that he has to wake up to a world that kind of sucks. After all, the sky is permanently dark. Not much worse you can get than that.

"Program,": I remember this to be the one with then-cutting edge 3-D graphics and the smoldering sexual innuendos, but I don't much remember the plot. Again, we revisit the idea that what happens in the matrix is some kind of test or ruse to mask real life. What does this say about my reality - and what will I wake up to when I have made all my decisions in the end?

"World Record": I liked the loose drawing style of this segment. I hadn't thought before of the idea that a person could wake up to reality by sheer physical force - it reminds me of I guess what people call "runner's high," when one gets a sudden adrenaline rush as they push themselves to the limit. Not many people would try to wake up that way, I can tell, but for this man there was no choice. The open-ended exit of this made me smile.

"Beyond:" My absolute favorite of the collection, about a warp in space that allows its inhabitants to levitate above the ground and do other strange bends in the laws of physics. This story, I feel, is one after my own heart because I remember the days when I played Pokemon Red and Blue - and discovered a glitch in the game that could grant me my wildest gaming dreams. It was exhilarating. It was very likely that Yoko, or main character, wanted something interesting to happen in those dog days of summer, the kind of days filled with droning cicadas and nothing to do. This house was the granting, of sorts, of her own dreams in that way. Buzzing and broken, it offers a strange alternative to the very fabric of normalcy - a delightfully psychological idea to mentally chew on.

I have to admit, though, that In real life that house would be so disturbing - I could imagine it "feeling" wrong before I would even step on the premises. The children that played there didn't look too normal, either, especially the little girl who I remember looking gray speaking quietly. She seemed like a ghost, a figment of imagination, or maybe even an incarnation of the house's malfunctioning matrix code, quietly playing by herself, without any mention of parents or creators.

The red door in the middle of the twitching hallway, though, was what disturbed me more than anything else: I compare it to the red pill in the first live-action movie. If she were to have gone into that doorway, she most likely would have woken up into the dark "real" world and had to face what lay there. Perhaps it was best that she turned away at the last minute, remaining in Matrix-Japan, completely unaware of what she had come so close to. I certainly wouldn't want to find myself in a cold, dark and depressing place that looked nothing like the relatively happy world I am accustomed to. It just wouldn't be worth it to me.

Ultimately, everything is reverted to "normal" via large machines that seem to suck out the bad programing (it all has to be a representation of the machines' updating/fixing the programming for that particular location's coordinate set in the virtual world) in a fashion similar to the way a hazmat crew would exhume a toxic chemical site. Yoko's disappointment at not being able to hover reminds me of the way I feel when I wake up from a good dream, or a great visit with a friend. The world just seems so dismal and practical after such a bright diversion.

Almost as disturbing as that door, there are the scenes of people at the crosswalks: hundreds of them, to no end, crossing to that haunting crosswalk song (I've heard it in Japan, it's a tune with similar connotations to the morbid English "ring around the rosies" jingle). Something about this suggests the passing of time, the endless nature of some things, giant patterns and entities composed of millions of tiny particles, or in this case, people. Time passes and things return to normal, but in a way, nothing can be normal anymore. Which is a damned good theme for a story.

"A Detective Story": reminded me of Cowboy Bebop. Poetic, but I couldn't relate to the story as well as I could with Beyond. I know that the woman is Trinity and the detective is, well, the detective, and I felt that this story somehow explained some part of the live-action Matrix, but I didn't remember it well enough to go "oh yeah!". Still, I liked this story too, for its edges and sleek style.

"Matriculated": I liked the reverse concept of a robot being introduced to a human matrix. The robot being at first a mindless follower/killer, turned into something quite human on the inside itself, was cute. But I distinctly remember this having a sad ending. So I did not like it as much as I could have.

-.

It's been a while since I've enjoyed good animation like this. I'm glad to have watched it, and depending on your personality, you may want to skip some stories and savor others. Either way, you'll be supplemented with different sides of the Matrix narrative as a whole, which is worth it.