Shorts: “Final Flight Of The Osiris”, “The Second Renaissance, Parts I And II”, “Kid’s Story”, “Program”, “World Record”, “Beyond”, “A Detective Story”, “Matriculated”
Featuring The Voices Of: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Clayton Watson, and Dwight Schultz
Writers: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, Yoshihaki Kawajiri, Koji Morimoto, Shinichiro Watanabe, and Peter Chung
Directors: Andy Jones, Mahiro Maeda, Shinichiro Watanabe, Takeshi Koike, Koji Morimoto, and Peter Chung
Feature length: 101 minutes
Extras:
Making Of Documentary, History And Culture Of Anime Featurette, Select
Director’s Commentary, Director and Animation Producer Profiles
Languages: English and Japanese Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles: English Captions and Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging: Single Disc Digipack Within A Deluxe Cardboard Slipcase
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year of Theatrical Release: 2003/DVD Release: 2004
Theatrical Distributor: Warner Brothers
Home Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA Rating: PG-13 For “Final Flight Of The Osiris”/Not Rated For The Rest
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
“The Animatrix” is a feature length anime anthology that serves as a prequel to “The Matrix,” and prelude to “The Matrix Reloaded,” and a companion to the entire “Matrix Trilogy.” The nine films that comprise “The Animatrix” are nothing less that state of the art animation combined with computer-generated imagery. A few of the short films have appeared online while the first film on the DVD “Final Flight Of The Osiris” was released theatrically accompanying prints of “Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher.” “The Animatrix” not only provided a base to introduce certain storylines and characters, but the dialogue and imagery within “The Animatrix” resonates beautifully with “The Matrix” and “The Matrix Reloaded.”
Four of the films were written by the Wachowski brothers and have the most direct links to the feature films themselves. The “Final Flight Of The Osiris” is a prelude to “The Matrix Reloaded” and sets the initial plot of the film going. “Kid’s Story” introduces viewers to a character known only as “The Kid,” (Clayton Watson) who has role to play in both “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions.” “The Second Renaissance, Parts I And II” is a prequel to “The Matrix” that sets up exactly how and why the war with the machines occurred and humanity’s ultimate downfall along with the creation of the Matrix.
The other five films are stories that take place within the universe of “The Matrix” with different tales that often end quite solemnly. All of the films look terrific on this DVD with an excellent anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio presentation. The soundtrack is terrifically mixed and very discrete to take full advantage of home theater sound systems with a choice of English or Japanese Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks. English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as English, French and Spanish Language Subtitles are also encoded onto the dual layered DVD as options.
There is Director commentary tracks with Mahiro Maeda for “The Second Renaissance, Parts I And II,” Yoshiaki Kawajiri for “Program,” and Takeshi Koike for “World Record.” These commentaries are in Japanese with English Language Subtitles, but are very interesting and I am not one who enjoys having to read subtitles so believe me when I note that they are worth reading. They can be viewed collectively as one reel (42:30) or one at a time. The same holds true for the animated shorts as well as the making of documentaries, which collectively equal 55 minutes and 13 seconds. They can be found under the submenu “Execution.” From Scroll To Screen” (22:22) is an excellent featurette detailing the history of anime with various interview clips from noted experts and animators as well as other leaders in the field.
Bios
for the Directors and Animation Producers are provided. Windows based PC users
with a DVD-ROM drive gain access to exclusive web elements. The menus are
beautifully animated and easy to navigate. “The Animatrix” is nothing short
of outstanding and is now available as a part of “The Ultimate Matrix
Collection” DVD box set courtesy of Warner Home Video. Click here to read the
fifth and final part of my review of “The Ultimate Matrix Collection.”
©
Copyright 2004 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Click Here To Read Part Five, Which Concludes My Review Of "The Ultimate Matrix Collection."
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