The Animatrix Movie Review

The Animatrix (2003)

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Written by: Lilly Wachowski & Lana Wachowski (screenplay "The Matrix"), Lilly Wachowski & Lana Wachowski ("The Final Flight of the Osiris", "The Second Renaissance Part I", "The Second Renaissance Part II", "Kid's Story"), Yoshiaki Kawajiri    ("Program", "World Record"), Kôji Morimoto ("Beyond"), Shin'ichirô Watanabe ("A Detective Story"), Peter Chung ("Matriculated")
Directed by: Peter Chung ("Matriculated"), Andrew R. Jones ("Final Flight of the Osiris"), Yoshiaki Kawajiri ("Program"),
Takeshi Koike ("World Record"), Mahiro Maeda (The Second Renaissance Part I", "The Second Renaissance Part II"), Kôji Morimoto ("Beyond"), Shin'ichirô Watanabe ("Kid's Story", "A Detective Story")
Starring: Kevin Michael Richardson, Pamela Adlon, John DiMaggio, Tom Kenny, Tara Strong, Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Phil LaMArr
Rated: NR (R)
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Plot
A collection of nine animated short films expanding the background of and tying into the movie The Matrix (1999),  including the original war between humanity and machines which led to the creation of the Matrix.

Verdict
These are great companion stories to The Matrix, but they also sufficiently stand on their own. This explores and expands upon the world, while also providing the origin. With nine different stories, the pacing remains brisk as they cover various genres, all relating in some form to the Matrix. Art styles across the stories vary, but the music is often familiar, borrowing from the movies.
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Review
The shorter length of the stories allows for maximum emotional impact. This deepens the story of the Matrix with thoughtful stories and expansions. This first shows how machines and AI rose to prominence with questions of sentience and what rights machines possess. The increasingly tense divide between machines, supporters, and adversaries created a rift. Machines still rose to power, creating fear in the humans still in power. Out of fear humans fought to maintain a control that was never in question and superiority. The peace was always broken by humans. That's the introduction to these segments. The rest show us life in, out, and around the Matrix far after the machine revolution.

These stories easily stand on their own where people in the Matrix are at least aware or have a sense they're in a simulation. This touches upon Neo and Trinity indirectly. All of the stories are connected by the Matrix and this does a great job of making this world so much bigger than what we've seen. It deals in typical dystopian stories, but the Matrix is a unique idea that unifies and enlivens the stories.