The Animatrix ( * * )
What is the Animatrix? The last thing I'm gonna review from a deader-than-dead franchise...
The Acting: It's animated, so the acting is more animated than in the movies, both literally and figuratively. Some of the cast--Keanu and Carrie Anne-Moss--return for bland voice work.
The Story: I don't generally like anthologies, and this is no exception. About half of the shorts are good, particularly "The Second Renaissance" Parts 1 and 2 by the director of Blue Submarine No. 6. They're darker than Heavy Metal and The Lion King combined. Two of the shorts were directed by Shinichirô Watanabe, director of the excellent Cowboy Bebop series, and they are unfortunately utterly forgettable.
The Direction: "Matriculated" by Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) is more colorful and beautifully animated than any Disney film of the last fifteen years. But to quote Venture Brothers, "World Record" which is about an olympic runner and looks like it was concepted by Rob Liefeld at age 9, looks like "a dried out turd on a bad stretch of road." "Beyond" has a cute anime chick in her underwear, but the whole fucking thing gets waaaay too preachy and or/self importantly esoteric. Yeah, I said it.
Overall: Every town has two malls, a good mall and the other mall. It's the animation equivalent of going to "the other mall" and it leaves the same bad aftertaste in your mouth. Never eat at the other mall.
Tredekka Rules:
The Acting: It's animated, so the acting is more animated than in the movies, both literally and figuratively. Some of the cast--Keanu and Carrie Anne-Moss--return for bland voice work.
The Story: I don't generally like anthologies, and this is no exception. About half of the shorts are good, particularly "The Second Renaissance" Parts 1 and 2 by the director of Blue Submarine No. 6. They're darker than Heavy Metal and The Lion King combined. Two of the shorts were directed by Shinichirô Watanabe, director of the excellent Cowboy Bebop series, and they are unfortunately utterly forgettable.
The Direction: "Matriculated" by Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) is more colorful and beautifully animated than any Disney film of the last fifteen years. But to quote Venture Brothers, "World Record" which is about an olympic runner and looks like it was concepted by Rob Liefeld at age 9, looks like "a dried out turd on a bad stretch of road." "Beyond" has a cute anime chick in her underwear, but the whole fucking thing gets waaaay too preachy and or/self importantly esoteric. Yeah, I said it.
Overall: Every town has two malls, a good mall and the other mall. It's the animation equivalent of going to "the other mall" and it leaves the same bad aftertaste in your mouth. Never eat at the other mall.
Tredekka Rules:
- Rule 11: Giant Robots Make Good Cinema--+1 star to the big pyramid robot who deals out death in The Second Renaissance Part 2.
- Rule 12: Dodged The Pretentious Bullet Award--Well, some did, some definitely didn't. But those that didn't made me think, some interesting things could be done with this material. Just not in a Matrix movie. +1 star.
- Rule 26: All Prequels Suck, -1 star
- Rule 30: Any Animated Film Gets A Pity Star for the Effort, +1 star
Tredekka Score: ( * * )
posted by Tredekka at 8:23 AM
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