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Title: What is the Animatrix?
Reviewer: Ernest Lilley
Date: 03/24/03 Rating:
MSRP $49.99 / Amazon Price: $49.99
Official Website: www.intothematrix.com/
Studio:WB / Official Matrix Website / IMDb / Specs

Summary: This Friday, 3/28/03, moviegoers attending the premier of Dreamcatcher will find out what the animatrix is when they watch anime short: "The Final Flight of the Osiris".

The Matrix Reloaded won't premier until May 15th, but Warner Brothers has been putting together a direct to DVD anime spin-off that they've started releasing already. The studio has tapped seven anime directors to produce nine short stories in or the world of the Matrix.  Two of the shorts have already been pre-released on the DVD's website, www.intothematrix.com and two more are due in the next two months. One more short, The Final Flight of the Osiris premiers this Friday, but won't be available on the website. The episode was directed by Andy Jones (VI), who directed the animation sequences for Titanic and Godzilla as well as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001). Largely backstory to the movies, they're well done, though the creation storyline may not show us as heroic as Neo, Trinity and Morpheus.

• "Matriculated" Peter Chung 
• "The Final Flight of the Osiris" Andy Jones (VI) 
• "Program"  Yoshiaki Kawajiri
• "World Record" Takeshi Koike 
• "The Second Renaissance Part 1", "The Second Renaissance Part 2") Mahiro Maeda
• "Beyond" Kouji Morimoto
• "Kid's Story", "Detective Story" Shinichirô Watanabe

• Springing forth from the world of THE MATRIX, THE ANIMATRIX DVD presents nine original short animated stories directed by preeminent anime directors.
• The directors are: Andy Jones (Final Flight of The Osiris), Mahiro Maeda (The Second Renaissance: Parts 1 and 2), Shinichiro Watanabe (Kid's Story, Detective Story), Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Program), Takeshi Koike (World Record), Koji Morimoto (Beyond), Peter Chung (Matriculated).
• Four of the nine episodes were written by Larry and Andy Wachowski, and all of the episodes are grounded in the world of the THE MATRIX.
• DVD Special Features:
  * "Scrolls to Screen: The History and Culture of Anime” documentary
  * 7 featurettes with director profiles, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of each of the films
  * 4 audio commentaries
  * “Enter the Matrix” videogame trailer
  * Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio
  * Widescreen Format [16x9 2.35:1]
  * Languages: English, Japanese
  * Subtitles: English, French, Spanish