According to the Wachowski brothers, you won’t be able to fully understand the Matrix unless you see all three movies, play the “Enter The Matrix” videogame, and see “The Animatrix”. The second movie added very little to the Matrix universe, so I wasn’t expecting much from this collection of short films. Some great animation maybe, but nothing shocking… Well, I was wrong!

“The Animatrix” consists of nine short, animated movies with a total running time of about 90 minutes. All of them have a distinctly different animation style. From very slick “Final Fantasy”-type 3D animation to hand-drawn and pretty sketchy. Many also combine several techniques, making them all the more interesting. I didn’t like all of these styles, but some techniques worked really well and provided stunning images.

As far as the stories go, each of these movies explore the concept of the Matrix a little further. “The Second Renaissance” (parts 1 and 2) tell the story of how machines took over the world and formed the matrix. Very interesting stuff. There’s also one that explores how programming bugs would manifest themselves inside the Matrix. I don’t want to give anything away about the last one, “Matriculated”, but it’s great. They really pulled out all the stops here as far as animation goes, and the story is a real brain teaser.

In general most of these films explore details of the Matrix, whereas the live action movies have to focus on the world’s worst actor dodging or stopping bullets. But it’s these details that really broaden the concept and make it live. Add visuals that at times surpass the live action special effects extravaganza of the movie trilogy and you get one hell of a DVD.

I’ll rate this **** (out of 5). Anyone who like the original Matrix movie should see this.

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