Animatrix 9: "Matriculated"

[Ben]

This one was the only short I really didn't like. Interesting idea, but I've never been fond of Peter Chung's work, and I felt alienated by the visual work. The character designs are distracting instead of contributing to the story, as were the psychadelic dream sequences.

 

[Conekiller]

This was, surprisingly, my favorite of the shorts.

I loved the idea of reforming the machines, and giving them a choice as opposed to merely re-programming them (goes thru alot more trouble than it might be worth , but ethics are ethics) It was also the "cleanes" looking short. I don't know how to describe it otherwise, the colors and backgroiunds and stuff just seemed......clearer than in the other shorts.

LOVE the mecha designs. the main robot reminded me of #Johnny5.

I really hope we'll see this idea come forth in Revolutions. we'll have sentient machines willingly fighting on Zion's side. the movie reviewers would alk at it tho ("when did the humas start using captured machines anyway") theat's the only drawback of trying to tell a multi-media story ( Movies, Anime, Video games. this is like .hack all over again)

 

[Ben]

This was, surprisingly, my favorite of the shorts.

I loved the idea of reforming the machines, and giving them a choice as opposed to merely re-programming them (goes thru alot more trouble than it might be worth , but ethics are ethics) It was also the "cleanes" looking short. I don't know how to describe it otherwise, the colors and backgroiunds and stuff just seemed......clearer than in the other shorts.

I would say Final Flight is cleaner, but it makes sense that those two are the "cleanest," since they're the two that take place overwhelmingly in the real world. The other shorts are all mostly inside the matrix, even Second Renaissance is, in Maeda's words, a "mythology" told by a computer.

 

[Conekiller]

I would say Final Flight is cleaner, but it makes sense that those two are the "cleanest," since they're the two that take place overwhelmingly in the real world. The other shorts are all mostly inside the matrix, even Second Renaissance is, in Maeda's words, a "mythology" told by a computer.

No, I was looking for little details like how the guns were put together (I'm studying Computer animation, I like to see how things are built ) but for the most part everything was dark (like it was supposed to be, of course) and usually there were very little light sources. In Matriculated you could get a clear view of pretty much everyhting.

 

[Catlover]

This one has a interresting story, but I hated the art (like said above it was clean). The dream sequence was pointless, and could have been shortened down. I really didn't enjoy this one. I'll give this one a C.

 

[Conekiller]

the whole point of the dream sequence was to show the machine that humans aren't evil and are his friends, thus reforming him without re-programming him

 

[wonderfly]

Question about the ending:

In the final shot before the episode fades to black, is that the same robot looking down on the burnt out base that was inside hooking up with the woman in virtual reality? And did the woman shriek and run from the robot in the virtual reality because she was...I don't know...stuck in virtual reality now with him? Or did she die?

I really liked this episode...

 

[Mynd Hed]

This one really didn't seem to do too much for me. Unlike a lot of folks, I have no grudge against Peter Chung's peculiar brand of character design, nor do I have any particular love for it-- to me, it's just kind of there, not better or worse than more standard character designs, not something to dwell upon, just different.

What this one lacked, to me, wasn't anything in the visuals department, but rather an engaging story. We have a good concept-- humans attempting to convert machines by appealing to them directly rather than reprogramming them-- but they didn't really go anywhere with it. It seemed like they felt like they could take the easy way out and throw a bunch of random eye candy at the audience and expect them to fill in the meaning themselves, and I don't feel like it worked out very well.

Seriously, if you had to sum up the theme of this short, what would it be? "The moral of this story is that the only way to turn a bad machine into a good machine is to give it a tab of virtual acid. Oh, and if it works, the machine's lights will go from red to green, so that you can tell that it's good now instead of evil."

Deep. Real deep.

(-:

Overall Grade: C-

 

[wonderfly]

Yeah, I agree somewhat MynHead...I think it's a great concept, but the execution of the plot could have used a little work. Overall, though, I still think it's going to end up as one of my favorites on this DVD...

 

[Chris Wood]

This was pretty interesting, but the end of the story was rather stupid. The humans are putting all this effort into reprogramming robots at this very expensive-looking facility, and yet have absolutely terrible security????? How pointless.

Also I was a little unclear as to what happens with the heroine at the end. Does the robot try to revive her, but fail because she is frightened of him?

 

[Lachesis]

Also I was a little unclear as to what happens with the heroine at the end. Does the robot try to revive her, but fail because she is frightened of him?

I got the feeling that the dreamworld was a robot paradise, but not really meant for human beings, so the woman rejected it. Either that or she was dying in reality and the dreamworld died with her.

I'd say this was the best designed and overall best looking of the shorts, with a decent plot and some good ideas. It just didn't connect with me on any emotional level. The robot acted more human than any of the actual humans. Still very good, and I liked the ending.

 

[Dr Kain]

This one was a pretty cool ep, had great animation, nice idea, but the ending was a little abrupt. If it just had been 1 min longer, it could've made a difference. I'm wondering, did the girl die, or did she wake up and run away from the bot?

 

[1_Otaku]

This was the only story I didn't like. I just didn't appeal to me the way the other shorts did.

 

[David Lucas]

Ya know, Peter Chung's CHARACTER design has never phased me.

It's everything else he makes that screws me up. Aeon Flux was just plain weird, and Matriculated is no different.

Flat out, I didn't like it at all. Me and my roommates all watched it together after like 3 weeks of non-stop Matrix, (ETM, Reloaded, The Original, and now Animatrix) and here's what happened after it was over.

We all looked at each other, we all shrugged, I got up and turned the PS2 off, and one of them said, "I think that last one "Matrix-ed" me out, that was too weird even for me.", to which we all concurred.

Definitely my least favorite out of all of them. I still say Peter Chung's lil robots are scarier than anything the Wachowski's could come up with. Chung and Jhonen Vasquez should team up, it'd be a cartoon I guarantee you some parent would think is for kids and that kid will seriously never sleep for as long as he lives.

 

[shogunthethird]

Peter Chung and Johnen Vasquez *BAAAAD mental image of Johnny the Homicidal maniac dressed like Alexander from "Reign"* oh great, there went my lunch!

 

[KarlOlson]

Alexander the Homicidal Maniac? Sounds plausible.

Anyway, it was a very beautiful short. A fairly seemless blend of standard and CG. The end with the robot is basically the payoff though, or else it'd be pretty useless.

8.9/10.

 

[Sketch]

Clever, creepy, omonis, and masively hard on the eyes. I've never much liked Chung's work as far as humans go, but this one was actually pretty okay on the eyes. The bring colors and psychotic junk was just too much though. The ending was sad and eerie, but what'll ya do... this is Peter Chung.

 

[KarlOlson]

Clever, creepy, omonis, and masively hard on the eyes. I've never much liked Chung's work as far as humans go, but this one was actually pretty okay on the eyes. The bring colors and psychotic junk was just too much though. The ending was sad and eerie, but what'll ya do... this is Peter Chung.

yeah, I get the distinct feeling that too many years of working on stuff like Rugrats and TMNT drove him up the wall. The interview with him on the animatrix certainly gave impression. something about his character design stemming out of having worked on short characters for too long.

 

[Kaiser0120]

This one confused me and abused me. I know people don't like Peter Chung's designs, but those didn't hurt this much. Other than the main girls hips going EVERYWHERE. It was incredibly fluent, nicely put together, the story is very intruiging, the animation was nice on the eyes, the mechs were incredible... Other than the VERY creepy ending, the confusing story and the near siezure I got by lookin' at all them funky colors, I liked this one.

Rating: 4 out of 4 Chibi Sephiroths.

 

[Dr Kain]

Hey, I love Reign. It is one of the coolest series to come out this yr.