Anthology of nine short anime films tied in to the 1999 blockbuster “The Matrix” and its sequels. “Final Flight of the Osiris”: The crew of the hovercraft Osiris attempt to warn their city of an imminent attack. “The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 & 2″: The story behind the war between man and the machines, how mankind scorched the sky, and the creation of the Matrix. “Kid’s Story”: A teenager is contacted by Neo, and manages to escape the Matrix. “Program”: Two warriors battle in a samurai training simulation when one decides to betray his crewmates and re-enter the Matrix. “World Record”: A champion sprinter manages to break free of the Matrix by sheer physical effort during a record attempt. “Beyond”: A young girl searching for her cat discovers a haunted house caused by a glitch in the system. “A Detective Story”: Private investigator Ash tracks a hacker named Trinity through the looking glass. “Matriculated”: A group of humans capture a machine scout and insert it into a ‘human matrix’.

The Animatrix (2003)
  • Rating: (31,832 votes)
  • Runtime:102 minutes
  • Directors: Peter Chung, Andrew R. Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takeshi Koike, Mahiro Maeda, Kôji Morimoto, Shinichirô Watanabe
  • Country:USA
  • Actors:
    Thadeus (voice)
    Akio Ohtsuka
    Michael Karl 'The Kid' Popper (segment "Kid's Story") (voice)
    Clayton Watson
    Jue (segment "Final Flight of the Osiris") / Manabu (segment "Beyond") (voice)
    Pamela Adlon
    Cis (segment "Program") / Yoko (segment "Beyond") (voice)
    Hedy Burress
    Clarence (voice) (as T.C. Carson)
    Terrence 'T.C.' Carson
    Alexa (segment "Matriculated") (voice)
    Melinda Clarke
    Rox (segment "Matriculated") (voice)
    Olivia d'Abo
    01 Versatran Spokesman (segment "The Second Renaissance, Part II") (voice)
    Dane A. Davis
    Additional Voices (voice)
    William R. Dean
    Teacher (segment "Kid's Story") (voice)
    John DeMita
  • Genres:Animation, Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
  • Producers:
    Michael Arias
    producer  
    Spencer Lamm
    producer  
    Phil Oosterhouse
    associate producer  
    Steve Richards
    co-producer  
    Joel Silver
    executive producer  
    Hiroaki Takeuchi
    segment producer  
    Eiko Tanaka
    segment producer  
    Andy Wachowski
    producer  
    Lana Wachowski
    producer (as Larry Wachowski) 
  • Plot: Anthology of nine short anime (Japanese animation) films tied in to the 1999 blockbuster "The Matrix" and its sequels. "Final Flight of the Osiris": The crew of the hovercraft Osiris attempt to warn their city of an imminent attack. "The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 & 2": The story behind the war between man and the machines, how mankind scorched the sky, and the creation of the Matrix. "Kid's Story": A teenager is contacted by Neo, and manages to escape the Matrix. "Program": Two warriors battle in a samurai training simulation when one decides to betray his crewmates and re-enter the Matrix. "World Record": A champion sprinter manages to break free of the Matrix by sheer physical effort during a record attempt. "Beyond": A young girl searching for her cat discovers a haunted house caused by a glitch in the system. "A Detective Story": Private investigator Ash tracks a hacker named Trinity through the looking glass. "Matriculated": A group of humans capture a machine scout and insert it into a 'human matrix'. Written by Alexander Lum
The Animatrix
  • User's comment:A Must for MATRIX Fans by brando647

    With the exception of the third film, I love the MATRIX trilogy so when this anthology was released I was excited at being able to delve deeper into the MATRIX universe. The collection contains nine shorts from acclaimed anime directors and animators. Some stories expand on existing plot points from the movie while others are merely a chance for a director to give us their own glimpse into the world of the MATRIX. Some of the shorts are downright amazing, both in content and visual quality, while others fail to really hold my attention. Still, there are no truly weak stories in this collection and each addition has something to admire about it.

    Some of the highlights of this anthology are "The Second Renaissance, Parts I and II", "Beyond", and "The Final Flight of the Osiris". Director Mahiro Maeda has created the best installments of the series with "The Second Renaissance", a glimpse into the Zion historical archives to view how the machines became sentient and their war with the humans. It fills in all the information gaps from before the first MATRIX film and the animation's realism gives the brutal violence an extra kick when you watch it. "Beyond", from director Koji Morimoto, was one of the more fun stories, with a young girl in search of her cat being led to a building where the Matrix has glitched and reality is warping. "The Final Flight of the Osiris" from Andy Jones is another bridging story, with the crew of the hovercraft Osiris discovering the sentinels in the process of digging to Zion and setting off the events of the MATRIX sequels. Jones, who was the animation director on FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN (2001) brings the same lifelike CG animation to the ANIMATRIX and I admit it looked amazing.

    I suppose I should also give an honorable mention to Peter Chung's "Matriculated", in which a group of humans have devised a process to give the machines a choice in joining their resistance, because of it's trippy, surely LSD-inspired animation style. For the majority of the piece, I had no clue what was transpiring but I just loved the tripped out visuals. The remaining films, while I was not as impressed, were still beautiful pieces. The collection gives you a wide variety of animation styles, ranging from the beautifully contrasted ("Program") to the bizarrely fluid ("World Record"), from multiple directors. If you've got the DVD, I also recommend the special features. Almost as entertaining as the films were the chance to listen to each director and learn what inspired their contributions and how their style is influenced in life.


  • Quotes: Mr. Popper: Neo, I knew you would save me. Neo: I didn't save you kid, you saved yourself. Dan: Free, Free.
  • Also known as: Animatrix (Argentina), Animatrix (Canada - DVD title, French title), Animatrix (Estonia - imdb display title), Animatrix (Finland), Animatrix (France), Animatrix (Germany), Animatrix (Italy - imdb display title), Animatrix (Poland - imdb display title), Animátrix (Hungary - imdb display title), The Animatrix (Greece - DVD title),

What do you think of this movie? Leave a comment.