User reviews

I've seen three of the Animatrix episodes, and this is my favorite of all of them. The Second Renaissance provided a flimsy back story to the already flimsy universe. Program was a stylistically impressive number, it just felt kind of silly. I guess what gives this one it's special touch is the direction from Shinichiro Watanabe, director of the incredibly popular (and for good reason) series Cowboy Bebop. It has some of the best elements of Bebop: slick, sci-fi adventure, a no-nonsense, slightly apathetic hero working for hire, a bounty-head (more or less), and a chase scene, all wrapped up in an excellent film-noir packaging. Watanabe's Tarantino-style slickness comes through here full throttle.

I love film noir. The aesthetic, the mystery, the cynicism; it all really appeals to me. In this Animatrix short Ash, a private detective is hired to find Trinity. All other PIs have failed to locate her, either winding up dead or crazy. But Ash perseveres and meets with Trinity on a lonely train, where the Agents are waiting to apprehend them.

Although featuring modern technology the rest of the animation design is of 1940s vintage. This is my absolute favorite look for movies. I wish my whole life was a film noir. If I could go into the Matrix I'd ask the Agents to make that wish come true. One of the better Animatrix shorts and a great short in its own right.

This is one of the anime films from The Animatrix collection, one of nine - the only one done in black and white, and the only one featuring Trinity. Richly textured and beautifully rendered in every way, and the animated version of Trinity definitely does her justice. If you're a fan of The Matrix, you will need to put this on your short list.

Wow, its been quite a while since I've watched anything so mysterious in the way it is portrayed.

A Detective Story uses old fashioned black and white images to portray a private investigator who dresses in an old fashioned trench coat and hat. The theme of this animation is reminiscent of that of Sam Spayed which was briefly mentioned by Ash.

Sick of spying on cheating house wives because of his clients, Ash was offered a chance to track down a "computer hacker" which he thought was a worthwhile chance for a four figure sum he could not turn down and the rest is history.

The ending was a little bit bland but still okay. For those out there who like old fashion stories this is the one for you.

Film noir meets anime... brilliant! This was one of the highlights of the surprisingly creative Animatrix shorts. This was one of my favorites if not my favorite (I also loved World Record). This is basically a reference to those classic film noir detective stories and movies of the 40s, except it's animated and involves the Matrix. But by being animated, it is able to take the extreme camera angles, the detective life style, the shadows, and everything film noir to an entirely new level. The Femme Fatale? Trinity. The detective in this story seems to be living in the 40s in his mind but stuck in a modern world, and everything becomes too much for him when his case suddenly involves science fiction and agents when a mysterious woman in black walks into his office...

My grade: 9/10

One of the 9 shorts of the Animatrix, this one tells the story about private detective Ash, who is hired to get a hold on Trinity, in his eyes just a computer hacker.

Ash seeks contact and finally finds Trinity, only to find out how things aren't really as they are.

The animation is stylish and one of the best of the series, atmosphere is good as well but something is lacking. Like the whole animatrix series is lacking. Still, it is one of the best of the bunch (after 'Osiris' and 'Beyond').

6/10.

The Animatrix: A Detective Story is very well planned and has a great storyline to go with it. Carrie-Anne Moss plays Trinity in this animated cartoon. I really like the 'Private Detective' ideas created by the Director.

The detective story is not typical for the Matrix Universe. It is a film-noir-esque private eye story, with a strong narrator and a very rich feel. Rich, in terms of its visual appeal. The snowing scenes, the grainyiness, it all stuns the eye.

But what about the story? It is interesting, even if it feels a little out of place. The agents hire a privat detective to track down Trinity. He finds out that they tried the approach before, but with hazardous consequences for the hired detectives. Still, he tries to locate her and eventually succeeds, through Alice in Wonderland references and hackers and chat rooms. Then things begin to get interesting...

All in all, this is a perfectly satisfying short animated movie.

8/10

I initially ran onto "Detective Story" over 10 years ago when it was first released online, and from my first view, I was captivated by it. The low-key, film-noir sense, images as simple and beautiful as the falling snow, plus the wonderful, dark soundtrack provided a strong backdrop to the story of Ash, the unaware detective, being used by the system, supposedly to clean house ... only Ash has more integrity than his cybernetic overseers have anticipated.

I honestly wish Ash could have been liberated. He would have been a better-than-average asset in the war against the machines ... and who knows? Maybe he did find his way out.

Finally, an Animatrix short that pays off the concept!

A Detective Story is a really fun and cool concepts that pays off on so many levels, but also falls short on others. Overall, you are given a fun detective noir inspired story that is really fun, but at the same time you have some issues with setting and humor. You are definitely getting an above average story, but nothing mind bending.

We follow a detective tasked with tracking down the hacker with the name of Trinity.

I really loved the idea here, having someone brute force the meeting with the outside world crew is so fun and goes against so many ideas and concepts we know about the Matrix universe in the best way possible. The idea that you can end up meeting a person like Trinity by following a few simple steps is fun and the main character is a fun one.

The problem for me is the setting. I have a theory about the Matrix personalizing the Matrix a bit for everyone but that doesn't make a lot of sense when you really think about it. This is set in the olden days, but we know the Matrix is created in a modern city image, so having someone in an older setting doesn't really fit the Matrix universe.

The story is rather simple but affective and it falls a bit short in terms of some corny moments. Overall, I´d say it works.

I don´t know if I like the art style that much. While it looks and feels unique, it at the same ties looks a bit too primitive and I don´t think it spoke to me that much.

As said, you are getting a decent story here and an overall entertaining short, but you are not getting anything out of this world.

This is the fifth part of 'The Animatrix', a collection of animated short movies that tell us a little more about the world of 'The Matrix'. This time they introduce Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) in a story about a detective who is hired to find her. With great black and white animation and an interesting story this is again a great animated short from 'The Animatrix'.

The eighth, and thus second-to-last short of the Animatrix ones, this is the only one quite like this. This takes two of the main types of filmed entertainment inspirations of The Matrix, and combines them unbelievably well. This is immensely faithful to the trilogy in that aspect, the tone. The animation is a gorgeous, breathtaking Animé. The style, which is omnipresent in this, is Noir. The plot is fitting, and the story-telling, as well, as the music, is spot-on. The sound in general is fantastic, and really helps solidify the mood and atmosphere, along with the drawings and designs. The voice acting is impeccable. This is one of only two where people also in the movies reprise their roles, and both have Anne-Moss, who is the only of them appearing in this. This is one of the best of the nine, and also one of my personal favorites. This is about ten minutes long. The pacing is perfect. It never slows down terribly much, but it's not overwhelming, either. The ending could not have been more appropriate for this. This shares a nine and a half-minutes long making of with Kid's Story, and it's well-done and informative. I recommend this warmly to any fan of the universe and the two genres that this is made up of. 8/10

This short film has the best aesthetic in the whole Animatrix. The art style and design is a very strong throwback to old film noir of the vintage era. It makes for a very interesting crossover of styles when we see hacking, Trinity and agents. It does raise some questions about the setting though. As cool as it looks, doesn't this clash with the setting of the rest of the series which is firmly Chicago in 1999? Continuity aside, A Detective Story is absolutely stunning and manages to fit a lot of engaging story in a short amount of time.

Ash is a private detective who is down on his luck. Tired of investigating cheating wives for suspicious husbands, he stares at his empty bank account and empty fridge and he decides that this business is not for him. It is then he gets a call and payment from a mysterious employer who asks him to find the hacker `Trinity'.

Opening with a great atmosphere of noir detective thrillers, this film continues in this vein until it turns into a confrontation on the train with some agents. Part of the series of animations making up the Matrix companion piece `The Animatrix', I saw this as a stand alone piece recently at a festival of shorts and animations and it stood out for me thanks to this same style. However the substance is also engaging even if it takes liberties at times, the length of time it takes the agents to come down the carriage for example, or the sudden semi-understanding that Ash seems to have near the end. Despite this, the plot still works pretty well - certainly enough to hold the style in check.

Visually, the short is great. It creates a sense of period that isn't undone by the agents, guns or Trinity. It feels like it was charcoal drawn (it wasn't) and it really feels moody and dark. Also, out of all the entries in the series, this is the one that gets the look and feel of the agents down best. The voice work is good as well with good input from Moss; who's incarnation here manages to look feminine - a feat she failed to accomplish in the last two of the films!

Overall this is a good film even if it loses it's way substance-wise at times. It is dark and brooding and has a conclusion that befits the look and feel of the film. All round one of the best of the series.

This is one of nine shorts on the anime disk, "The Animatrix." It is my favorite. The artwork is amazing. The black-and-white, somewhat grainy texture perfectly captures the mood that the segment is trying to portray. The story is tight, and the ending is true to film noir.

Overall, I gave The Animatrix a "7", but this particular segment deserves a "10."

A noir style matrix story?

I'm in.

I like this volume. It was also nice that the old fashion detective story and the black and white part of the episode were.

They did a good job, it was different.

Part of the "Animatrix" collection of animated shorts in a shared universe derived from "The Matrix" (1999), there are some good elements in the limited animation of this one, "A Detective Story." It's style is a black-and-white shaded noir, with a detective providing voiceover narration to Trinity's femme fatale. The main action scene takes place on a train, which is highly cinematic. Plus, there are blatant references to Lewis Carroll's Alice books, which is the reason I reviewed this short and not the others, as I've been seeking a bunch of movies to take inspiration from those texts since reading them. In this case, it follows the sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," with the mentions of Jabberwocky, the Red Queen, chess, the looking-glass alternate reality, and the train. There's also the cat named "Dinah." A major theme of the Alice books, too, is characters transforming and reappearing in another guise, which fits into the part played by the agents. Unfortunately, there isn't enough time in this to develop much of anything, and what it teases largely rests on clichés and conventions, with "The Matrix" as a framework and the noir style ripped straight from memories of Humphrey Bogart in the 1940s, including an office that could double for the one in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941). It was a promising lead, though.