Kid's Story

There's not much plot to this Animatrix short, but the movies overcompensated for that so it's good to have a Matrix story sold on imagery and feeling.

Remember the overeager kid from The Matrix Revolutions? This is the story of how he freed himself from un-real world and woke up. He feels alone and alienated, wondering why his dreams feel more real than his waking world.

Cowboy Beebop director Shinichirô Watanabe uses abstract, experimental animation deliver the story. It's rough and features many pencil strokes, but it's good. Not the best Animatrix short, but worth watching.

A teenager has dreams of falling that feel more real than his actual life. He turns to the internet for answers and receives some cryptic replies via his PC. In school his mobile phone rings despite being turned off, he answers to be told by Neo that `they know you know and are coming for you'. The kid looks out the window to see men in dark suits coming for him and immediately flees on his skateboard.

In Reloaded there is a scene where Neo and Trinty return to Zion and are greeted by an eager kid who offers to carry Neo's stuff because Neo `saved his life'. I didn't understand who this was when I saw the film and it add to the appearance of a film with lots of loose ends it doesn't tie up. Only later did I see this short and realise that the `loose end' was actually a connection to this short. This is an interesting way to build a wider world around a film but when watching Reloaded I only felt it weakened the actual film. Anyway – the short.

The film is stylish and interesting. Plot wise it is similar to the discovery of Neo in the first film but it is done on miniature here. The main attraction is the visual design. The skateboard escape is all blurs and speed while the falling is nicely done and beautifully animated. It may not win any points for having a gripping plot but visually it worked for me.

The novelty of having Reeves and Moss supply the voices to their characters is just that – a novelty, they only have a few lines and I wouldn't have known it was them but for the cast list.

Overall this is an stylish if wafer thin short that is interesting because it supports the Matrix Reloaded. Before I saw this I had taken this strand of the story to be another area left unanswered by the film, having seen this I understand what it was about and am only left in doubt about the wisdom of doing it this way.

The fourth of the Animatrix shorts, this is one of those of them that ties closely into the trilogy, specifically, the sequels. This provides the background for The Kid, seen in the second two movies, and he's genuinely not irritating in this(no, seriously). The concept is highly interesting, although, for obvious reasons, this should not be seen by anyone too likely to imitate it, anyone whose behavior is that easily influenced. The animation is well-done and quite interesting, with a style of limited motion in the drawings, and the camera being responsible for a lot of the movement, in a way that feels reminiscent of regular, live-action films. The atmosphere is impeccable, and the pace is spot-on throughout. The voice acting is great, Watson does well with what few lines he has, as do Anne-Moss and Reeves. The idea and execution of this are excellent, and this is a remarkable addition to the overall universe. This has a making of, shared with Detective Story, which is well-done and informative. It's 9 and a half minutes, same as the short itself. This has one disturbing aspect, nothing objectionable beyond that. I recommend this to any fan of The Matrix franchise and/or science fiction in general. 7/10

This animated short is genius, plain and simple. Personally, I find this to be one of the few anime cartoons that actually shows a high degree of talent, style, and originality. Honestly now, anime has become a copy of a copy, of a copy. But this, ladies and gentleman, pushes the limits of reality, looking quite real until they move at high speeds, where their bodies flow like wind and sway to whatever direction they moved. I really must say, I cannot find much wrong with this animation, even the voice acting was quite amazing (and I just loved it when the teacher said, "Mr. Popper").Just, I wish that a full animated English feature would be made in this art style, please, someone, anyone?

I don't know what is is but the whole short was very cool. One of my favorites. Even thought it had had-draw pictures that were all wavy and stuff is was still very fun to watch. Also the sound was too notch when he was falling through the sky and past the railing.