The Animatrix

What do get you get when you mix anime with The Matrix? Well, The Animatrix, a collection of nine animated shorts inspired by the Wachowski brothers' sci-fi action mega-hit franchise and released shortly after the theatrical debut of the second film in the trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded. Running from seven to 17 minutes each, with four of the segments written by the Wachowskis themselves, this compilation featuring top-notch Japanese animators gets off to a bang-up start with the jaw-dropping realism of "Final Flight of the Osiris" from the creators of Final Fantasy, a 10-minute piece in which a blindfolded man and woman engaged in a sensual practice swordfight are interrupted for a serious galactic battle against an army of robot sentinels. The next two episodes, "The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 & 2," directed by Mahiro Maeda, are the most meaty (and disturbing) in a narrative sense, chronicling the rise of sentient machines, the refusal of humans to acknowledge the machines' rights, and the subsequent fight for dominance between the two 'species.' In the last of the Wachowski-penned episodes, "Kid's Story," directed by Shinichurô Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop), a skateboarding student escapes Matrix agents in a suicidal fall. The other five episodes, while varying widely in narrative quality, are all nicely animated, particularly the pair from Yoshiaki Kawajiri--the classic anime-style "Program" (in which a kick-butt gal fights a samurai warrior in a simulation), and "World Record" (in which a record-holding sprinter glimpses the real world beyond the Matrix). Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, the DVD's extras include director commentaries on four of the shorts, as well as the informative 23-minute featurette Scrolls to Screen: The History and Culture of Anime. Recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)