This is an anthology of nine animated shorts in the world of the Matrix.

Final Flight of the Osiris It's photo-realistic animation. The crew of the helipod Osiris try to warn of an imminent attack. The animation is similar to Final Fantasy from 2 years earlier. This is like a deleted section from the movie.

The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 & 2 Robots starts off as obedient servants. They start asking for their rights and is put down. They gather in the Middle East and build Nation 01 for machines. They become successful trading with the human world which starts to slide economically. They blockade Nation 01 and eventual war ensues. Mankind blocks out the sky which is the machine's main energy source. Machines enslaves humanity as their new power source. This is a nightmarish vision of the world. It's very compelling up until blocking out the sky. The short has to fit the movies whether it makes sense or not. It's still a powerful story.

Kid's Story Popper is a high school kid who senses something wrong with the world. He is recruited by Neo and escape the Matrix. This is the most obvious material for a Matrix short and there is nothing surprising about it.

Program Two fighters battle in a simulated samurai world. Duo betrays his crew to the machines to go back into the Matrix. The other fighter refuses. The twist ending takes away much of the power of the story.

World Record American Dan Davis loses his sprint world record due to a positive dope test after breaking the 9 second mark. He returns to break it again and finds himself breaking more than the milestone mark. I really like the image of his muscles snapping but there isn't much else in this one.

Beyond There's a glitch in the Matrix and strange anomalies are occurring at an abandoned house. A young girl looking for her cat Yuki finds the house with a bunch of neighborhood kids. This is my favorite short. It's imaginative and fun.

A Detective Story Private investigator Ash is low on money. He's hired to track down a hacker named Trinity. I don't particularly like the black and white animation. It's got the dot matrix like an old newspaper cartoon. The story is a bit old. The style probably leaves it feeling tired.

Matriculated A group of humans scour the desolate wasteland. They capture a machine scout runner. Instead of reprogramming it into a slave, they try to make it join them by choice.

1) This is one of several animated short films that are based on the Wachowskis' "Matrix" movie. However, I have to say neither the characters nor the action made this really look like it belongs to the series except the fight in the first 2-3 minutes maybe. This lack of Matrix connection is not necessarily a criticism on these 10 minutes as the animation is fine and the story isn't bad either. The action didn't do much for me though, so I wouldn't recommend it. But then again, I am not a great Matrix fan anyway, at least this is a common denominator.

2) This 9-minute short film from 12 years ago is part of the Animatrix series and also the first half of a two-part movie. Men become more and more angry at machines when these become more and more intelligent. The consequence is a bloody battle, especially for the machines. They leave and settle elsewhere, but decide to give mankind another chance as they return to the United Nations in a peaceful attempt, not be the last time they show up there. This was written by the Wachowski brothers (and sisters) and the director also worked on Tarantino's "Kill Bill" for example. Sounds like a good premise, but sadly, I was not really impressed by this one here. Lets hope that the second part turns out better.

3) These 9 minutes continue where "The Second Renaissance Part 1" left off. Unfortunately it is equally forgettable just like the first part. Men rejected machines' peaceful attempt to return, so a war is unavoidable. And of course there can only be one possible outcome to that. So men want to destroy the sky? Another brilliant idea. NOT. I have to say I was never too big on "The Matrix", but these animated short films are even worse. And they almost have no reference to the films anymore at all. Not recommended.

4) One of the most popular segments of the Animatrix and this may be due to the fact that several actors from the live action movies do voice acting in here. The protagonist is a boy who manages to get out of the Matrix. There are quite a few parallels here between Neo very early in the first Matrix film and our hero here. I do not think the 15 minutes stated here are correct, this was certainly closer, maybe around 9 minutes. I enjoyed watching this one because it actually had a real connection to the live action "Matrix" films unlike most of the others. One of my favorites from the series and I recommend it.

5) "Program", a sequence from the Animatrix, was directed and written by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. It is an animated short film, obviously, and runs for roughly seven minutes. There was nothing truly outstanding here, but it wasn't bad either. It is all about the battle between the Cis and her frenemy Duo. He tries to convince her to get back to the Matrix and just live there like everybody else instead of constantly fighting against it. Pay attention to how Cis is depicted in white and Duo in black. First he tries to convince her with words, then with swords. Of course, she refuses to and in the end, good defeats evil. Or did it really? Solid short film, recommended.

6) The concept of sports in the matrix is actually a pretty interesting one in the face of achievements that you could describe as out of this world. Unfortunately, the only fairly interesting thing I took from these 9 minutes is basically the relationship between world records in the real world we live in and in the Matrix universe. This is not among my 3 favorite segments from the Animatrix, but also not among my least favorites. I am not familiar with the director or writer here, but it looks like they frequently work together. Anyway, I hope for them that this may be their most known achievement, but not their best.

7) "Beyond" is one of the weaker segments of the "Animatrix" in my opinion. This is one of the longest episodes of the Animatrix. A girl's cat runs away and when she heads out to get her back the finds much more than just a lost kitten. I did not like the way the girl was animated at all. The rest was okay in terms of looks. The scene with the cat looking right at us before we see the mouse is a nice way from the director of playing with our brains. Not enough though to let me recommend it. One of the weaker Animatrix segments.

8) I am okay with the Matrix and Film Noir, but not a great fan like some are. So I was very positively surprised that I managed to appreciate this Animatrix segment. It's probably in my top3 favorites and the reason may be that it was nice to see an actual character from "The Matrix" in one of these. It's not the only segment directed by Shinichirô Watanabe (also co-writer),but it's certainly his superior effort. The story was pretty good and the voice actor of the private eye also did a fairly decent job here. A pretty enjoyable and atmospheric watch of over 10 minutes I must say. Recommended.

9) "Matriculated" is the last segment from the "Animatrix" movie. It is the longest at roughly 15 minutes and in my opinion, unfortunately, it is also the worst. I wish writer and director Peter Chung could have stayed a bit closer to the Wachowski movie. Also, it's not real anime anymore, but the style is not the problem. The problem is that there's no really fascinating story in here as there is in some of the other segments. I was a bit disappointed with this one as I hoped they could go out on a high note. Sadly, they did not. Not recommended.

Animatrix is composed of nine excellent episodes, each of them of running time of about ten (10) minutes, showing parts of the concept and universe of 'Matrix'. There are at least three films that are outstanding: the first one ("Final Flight of the Osiris"),which uses the same technique as 'Final Fantasy', and the second and third movies ('The Second Renaissance I & II"),where the war between humans and the machines is explained in details. I watched this series of short movies two days ago, but I intended to see them again and again, to catch more details, especially in the extras of the DVD. The fans of Sci-Fi in general (and 'Matrix') and animes will love this DVD. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Animatrix"