Forum - View topicComment on the Animatrix Review
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Madoka
Posts: 7 Location: Austin, TX |
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If the reviewer was watching the shorts in English, almost none of the lip synchs match because they were created to synch with the Japanese dialogue. (I haven't bought my copy of the DVD yet but I'm 99% sure that there's an option to turn on Japanese language with subtitles.) I remember I downloaded the Japanese version of Detective Story and the mouths and voices matched perfectly. Not a criticism or anything, just an observation. 
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Louie-kun
 Posts: 420 Location: I'm back. |
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Got the Animatrix dvd yesterday. The only short I didn't care for was the one done by Peter Chung. It was too long and didn't make much sense. Plus I don't care for the Aeon Flux style in anime. It was ok when Aeon Flux came out, but I can;t stand it now. Skip this short and watch the other eight. Well worth the $15.
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DevilMan
Posts: 57 Location: MN |
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I think people are going way too hard on the Animatrix. I mean, if you watch it once and never again, you can't fully appreciate it. If you actually took some time to understand Matriculated, you'd discover it's pretty good.
Also, I do think the Japanese dialogue is better. For instance, during the war sequence of The Second Renaissance Part 2, there are certain scenes where it looks like a camera is filming it live. In the Japanese version, you can actually hear the heavy breathes from the camera man. I don't, however, think the dub is terrible; it's just standard and I have nothing against it. As for everyone hating the styles of World Record, Program and Matriculated, I got news for you. The Animatrix is combination of DIFFERENT features from DIFFERENT directors. If every segment of the Animatrix had the same design, it would be boring. That's what seperates anime from american animation; there is a lot more variety. There is no one way to draw anime. |
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Ataru
 Posts: 2334 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
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Hmmm, I have to say "Matericulated" was the only work of Peter Chung's I have really enjoyed. What? It had a story.
 I loved the animation. Anyhoot, the only one I didn't like was "Kid's Story". I'm sorry, I just didn't like the animation. It's like watching an animated verison of courtroom drawing. Props to "The Second Renaissance" and the "Final Fight of the Osiris" (Which ties nicely to the game. Hmm, FFotO, then the game, and then Matrix 2.)
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Case
Posts: 1016 |
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Anyone else notice that the text on the computer screen in Kid Story was all in English? Will that make anywhere near the amount of sense to the Japanese that it does to us? :-\
Oh, and I didn't get the point of Matriculated either. It seemed to lighten up the generally dark tone of the rest of the disc just a bit, and I faintly detected a hint of a "man and machine have to learn to get along, or they will be eachother's downfall" kind of moral, but a whole lot of what went on seemed pretty random and pointless to me. Care to enlighten me to what I'm missing, DevilMan? :-\ |
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SpikeGriffith007
Posts: 30 Location: Virginia |
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I thought it was ok.
Renannsaice I and II were my faves and I see everyone liking Detective Story but eh it was ok. Overall I enjoyed the DVD as a whole cause it gave you a lot different looks at what the Matrix is, was, and how I was formed. |
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DevilMan
Posts: 57 Location: MN |
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Ok, let's start with Kid's Story. I found the animation in Kid's Story quite unique. If've seen this kind of animation used before in anime, but never so heavily detailed as this. I mean, hand drawn moving sketch art isn't just something that any animator can just whip up. And I'm sure the Japanese DVD will have Japanese subtitles for that part. Matriculated is kind of the anti-Matrix. In The Matrix, it's about humans living in a world created by machines. In Matriculated, it's about machines living in a world created by humans. The film isn't suppose to be heavily deep, it's just suppose to act like a dream. In a dream, you are not sure what is going on, but you go along with it anyway. Plus, it has some of the most stand-out CG of the films. |
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Neilworms
 Posts: 155 Location: Chicago IL |
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I think this is why the CG was the most stand-out, it's because Chung wanted it to be like a dream. If any of you have seen Spring and Chaos the same effect is used, sometimes CGI that really stands out is done on puropose as to make the world seem less real. If you listen to the interviews on the Animatrix, you'll find that many of the people were sick of doing typical anime style. Many of them wanted to do something different, the normal anime style is usually used for budget reasons, but in this case all of them could experiment with different styles. If animation were only one bland style of TV show, I could see why creative types would really like to break that norm. To make their expression much more varied. Sad thing is that many anime fans only like one style... they should be open to different styles... Also, don't blame Chung if you didn't like Reign, he didn't even write or direct it. Sadayuki Murai (Cowboy Bebop: "Pierre Le Fou", Perfect Blue) wrote it and one of Kawajiri's top animators (not the guy who did World Record) directed it. Chung just did the character designs, despite what Tokyopop wants you to think, he didn't play a main role in the TV show. Finally, watch the shorts in japanese that have japanese writing credits, all of these are much better done, particularly Detective story where the dialogue isn't nearly as cliche or as lamely tied to the movie. Surprisingly the dialogue in the best short (IMO) Beyond was dumbed down in the dub, so it really helps to get out the subtitles on all of the Japanese writtten shorts and I am surprised that Zac didn't do that, and it really affected my (and probably others) view of his review. |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Well, I normally detest dubs, but I really enjoyed the dub for Animatrix. If you think the acting is bad-- heh, isn't the acting bad for the Matrix movies anyway? Besides, it seemed natural, and if the Wachowskis had no beef with it, I'm sure it's fine. I sure didn't mind it, at least.
As for the shorts, I just really liked Detective Story for the way that it was drawn. The whole black and white thing with the splashes of color really appealed to me, and I found the style just really slick.
Probably. I would assume that the R2 release would have Japanese subtitles for it anyway. And besides, English is used online and on computers in Japan far more than you think. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Okay:
1. I realize they were going for different styles here. I didn't happen to like some of those styles. One of the downfalls of experimenting is the possibility of failure, which I think some of the aesthetic experimentation in Amimatrix results in, especially World Record. 2. I did indeed watch the Japanese version as well. I do not agree that Beyond was 'dumbed down' for the dub. I think that's exaggerating and would have been unfair to put in the review. I felt that the lip-synch in World Record was particularly bad, even allowing for the usual problems with synching that plague many anime series. 3. I thought, overall the dub was just fine. I had no problems with it. I agree that Matriculated has the most 'stand out CG', and I don't think that's a good thing. It stands out like a brand new car painted yellow with bright blue spots. It's ugly, akward, and fills up half of the short with pointless psychedelic imagery. The short also was not well written and did not have the kind of narrative flow required to really explain what was going on. I don't like it. It's a review, so I get to say what I do and do not like. For the record, I gave The Animatrix a positive review. Please do not overlook that. -Zac |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10474 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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This from someone who loves Utena? (Sorry, couldn't resist) Chris |
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ashram12
Posts: 86 |
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I don't own the Animatrix DVD, however I saw the four episodes on the Animatrix website. I have to say that I hated the "Second Renaissance" story. It's full of cliches and it doesn't make sense.
The idea of robot rising against their masters has been done many times before. It has completely lost its novelty. The short, as far as I can see, doesn't add any new elements in the mix, and it doesn't explain why the robots suddenly cared about their civil rights. Did they get an emotion chip? Funky programming? Then there's the war between the humans and the robots in which the humans cut off the robots main energy source: the sun. The humans don't seem to realize that by doing that, they're screwing their chances of survival as much as the robots (the ecosystem gradually dying out). Apart from offering a kind of "Genesis story" to the Matrix, I don't see what the appeal to this short is. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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"it doesn't explain why the robots suddenly cared about their civil rights. Did they get an emotion chip? Funky programming?"
Uh, did you watch it? Why did the Israelites rise up against the Egyptians? They had a leader. Why did the Robots rise up against their masters? They were outraged about the one that got executed for murdering his abusive master. They explain it. Why did the african-americans suddenly care about their civil rights? Well, Rosa Parks had a lot to do with it. Mayb e you should turn your brain on and watch it again and it'll 'make sense', dude. -Zac |
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LordByronius
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 861 Location: Philippe for America! He is five. |
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Damn, why is everybody so down on World Record? I loved the crazy camera angles and the angular, ugly design; true, it was not the most interesting nor well-made of the shorts, but I feel it's inclusion is just as welcome as any of the others.
Matriculated I still have mixed feelings about. Not because I don't like Peter Cheung's drawing style, which I do, but because some of the CGI in the short just looked awful. It was also far too long. And to the guy who said that "Anime has more variety than american animation": Please watch more american animation. No, the Cartoon Network does not count. |
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Lowen Na
 Posts: 61 |
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I have never agreed with a review more than I did with this one.
But, to be honest, I didn't even know that there was a Japanese Audio track. And I am supprised that for something like the Animatrix (which even though it was directed by Japanese Anime Directors, was primarely produced for a USA audiance), that you would want to watch it in anything but the English audio. Considering that many of the shorts were writen in english, it seems that watching it Japanese with English subs would be like running web sites trough bablefish to one langage and back again to try and read it. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get my point. |
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