Comments on: Comments on 19752

Post number 19752

mathowie — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 14:25:13 -0800

What is the AniMatrix? A direct-to-video release of 9 animated shorts (comic book style, pure CGI, etc) by 7 directors looks at possible visions of the world pre-Matrix. Looks like it could be an interesting collection.

By: ed

ed — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 14:53:11 -0800

More info here. Looks like the almost dead Square Pictures is involved, along with Akira/Robot Carnival animator Koji Morimoto, Madhouse, Macross Plus director Shinichiro Watanbe and Gonzo man Mahiro Maeda. They got the big guns for this sucker. Anime geeks rejoice.

By: Fofer

Fofer — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 14:54:44 -0800

Oh, so this has nothing to do with The Matwix?

By: kliuless

kliuless — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:03:11 -0800

chung chung chung chung chung chung chung! hooray :)

By: Stan Chin

Stan Chin — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:04:26 -0800

OT: That Matwix cartoon has to have the most horrible bugs bunny voice I have ever heard.

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:10:26 -0800

It ain't on Netflix yet, curses.

By: redshoes3

redshoes3 — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:11:01 -0800

//trying desperately to not drag thread off-topic, but needing to say something about the Matwix// Great, now I'm going to have nightmares about bright blue electric toothbrushes dripping foam rabidly for a year. Why do I think Chuck Jones would have loved "Bugs Bunny Bullet Time"? //back ot//

By: roel

roel — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:15:09 -0800

Looks like they are going for the brand (What is) The Matrix. If they can keep at on at least the level of part 1, i don't mind. ;)

By: disgruntled

disgruntled — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:24:21 -0800

Matrix is all style and no substance. Who would accept a plot where human beings are used as batteries with a kind of 'fusion' (there's the writer's loophole) to create a reproduction of 20th century L.A.? Great martial arts, special effects and leather pants, though.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:29:23 -0800

yes, the leather pants were quite something.

By: jazon

jazon — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:29:54 -0800

"the Matrix" the movie always seemed to be a small part of a larger story. Glad to see it's been opened up for others to explore and expand upon.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:30:50 -0800

but actualy it looked more like NYC, seattle or some other more 'dense' city then LA. It was filmed in Australia. Most movies do look like they are set in LA, and it's really kind of annoying.

By: El_Gray

El_Gray — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:31:52 -0800

YEAH! Ditto that enthusiasm, kliuless. For those of you who don't recognize the name, Peter Chung was the artist behind AEon Flux. Mr. Chung's segment should be very cool.

By: chrisgrau

chrisgrau — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:35:09 -0800

re: expansion -- there are already a ton of comic stories (some by relatively big names in the field) up on the official site, and they are all set "in the world of the matrix". a "philosophy and the matrix" section will also be launching soon, with essays from colin mcginn, kevin warwick, hubert dreyfus, david chalmers, and others.

By: disgruntled

disgruntled — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:42:35 -0800

I think it's supposed to be Los Angeles, I may be wrong but if memory serves me correctly, I remember one of the agents saying it was L.A., the height of human civilization. I would have liked the flick more if the Matrix looked (and felt) like Copenhagen.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 15:49:10 -0800

Who would accept a plot where human beings are used as batteries with a kind of 'fusion' (there's the writer's loophole) to create a reproduction of 20th century L.A.? There's a great deal of logic behind all that, disgruntled - y'see, the machines are like really energy efficient, enough where human foibles like having a sense of smell wouldn't create a performance lag. The machines could therefore use very little power to keep themselves going...and since they hate humans sooo much, they decide to get their revenge by using homo sapiens as their own personal version of a potato clock... ...Wait a minute...that almost sounded plausable. Never mind...

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 16:17:45 -0800

Actually, delmoi, my film teachers explained to me that most films are actually shot in Montreal and made to look like New York. They actually construct buildings that follow the stlye of NYC architecture to accomodate the high film funds the city gets from U.S. studios. (Speaking of constructing cities to feed off people's energy...)

By: UnReality

UnReality — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 16:40:12 -0800

Humans weren't being used to recreate the the 20th century. The 20th century was recreated so that humans could be used to provide power for the machines. I'll admit "The Matrix" isn't brilliant science fiction, and it's easy to dislike Keanu Reeves, but the film is a lot of fun. The animated stories look very interesting.

By: kindall

kindall — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 17:29:58 -0800

I remember one of the agents saying it was L.A., the height of human civilization. I seem to remember that it was never explicitly placed in any specific city, but I do know that all the street names they used are from Chicago.

By: quin

quin — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 18:36:14 -0800

i'm pleased to see more films starting to do this sort of thing, there are many times that i've enjoyed a movie and wanted to see more from that 'universe'. Not necessarily using the same characters or even following the same plot, but just making use of the same rules and technology. This was obviously done very well with both the Star Wars and Star Trek universes, and to a lesser extent (through comics and videogames) Predator and the Aliens franchises. Now if i can only convince some aspiring director that we need to further explore the Evil Dead universe, everything will be perfect.

By: blissbat

blissbat — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 18:39:29 -0800

The city isn't named. At least, not in the final version of the script.

By: bobo123

bobo123 — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 18:52:49 -0800

If you've ever seen FLCL, you'll know that the 'bullet time' effect looks awesome when it's emulated in cell animation, though I would assume it's labour intensive to do (while it's trivial in CG). They showed a little in the trailer, I hope there's plenty of it in the Animatrix.

By: skallas

skallas — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:08:55 -0800

kindall: I seem to remember that it was never explicitly placed in any specific city, but I do know that all the street names they used are from Chicago. Yeah, they're all Chicago streets and intersections and a lot of the conceptual art included Chicago landmarks, Chicago train stops, etc. The Wachowski brothers are Chicagoans. They probably went for a non-descript city because the end result doesn't look a lot like Chicago considering the movie was shot in Sydney. Why spend millions more in CGI and remote shoots just for geographic realism?

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 22:31:07 -0800

Macross Plus director Shinichiro Watanbe he also directed a little show/movie called cowboy bebop...

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 00:03:17 -0800

you'll know that the 'bullet time' effect looks awesome when it's emulated in cell animation, though I would assume it's labour intensive to do (while it's trivial in CG) not to say that this is the case with either flcl or animatrix, but cg can be cel shaded pretty convincingly nowadays. too lazy to dig up links, but iron giant comes to mind, disney's atlantis too.

By: owillis

owillis — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 01:46:07 -0800

Most movies do look like they are set in LA, and it's really kind of annoying. After living in LA for 3yrs, I keep seeing movies and going "Oh look, I was there Tuesday"

By: picea

picea — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 07:32:44 -0800

Agh. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Matrix, and I will likely enjoy this, but its half-assed, sci-fi lite world isn't worthy of the people who made Aeon Flux, Macross Plus and Robot Carnival. Do something original, guys! You could come up with better ideas in your sleep! Who would accept a plot where human beings are used as batteries with a kind of 'fusion' (there's the writer's loophole) to create a reproduction of 20th century L.A.? You know, I was fine with this, but if the machines were aware of the monkeys escaping from their tubes, why not just remove their hands and feet, paralyse them or give them lobotomies?

By: uftheory

uftheory — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 08:46:03 -0800

The Matwix was a really weird web Looney Tune -- the tone seemed anti-corporate.