🎬 #170 Interpretations.
I revisited a short film series that I watched when I was a teenager, and really, I was surprised by how much I still enjoyed it. Not surprised, that's not really the right phrase, but maybe I enjoyed how much it's held up. It really inspired me to think about how the first two short films, in particular, would be brought to life in a live action feature film. It's really inspiring to see how different minds and different imaginations interpret the same core world and tell their own unique story in their own style within that world. Apologies that it's only ‘one film’ this week, but I really hope you enjoy diving into this series of short films.
Happy viewing,
Bry
FILM: THE ANIMATRIX
2003 [multiple anthology] Dir Mahiro Maeda / Andy Jones / Shinichiro Watanabe / Yoshiaki Kawajiri / Takeshi Koike / Koji Morimoto / Peter Chung
1 hr 42 mins total
This is a collection of short films set within the universe of The Matrix. It's a multi-style anthology, with different directors expressing themselves through their own unique takes on The Matrix. Each one is very different from the next. The Second Renaissance (Part One and Part Two) are my favourites in the series. These two together look at a world transitioning from human-dominated to machine-dominated. It's the most detailed look at the war on the machines that we've seen in the Matrix story so far.
A lot of incredible Japanese filmmakers, such as the directors behind Cowboy Bebop and Ninja Scroll contributed to the anthology. Each short was developed concurrently and then released to set up The Matrix Reloaded. Each short pushes what we know about the world of the Matrix in new directions. Some give us a look into the background. Some play with the concepts at the center of the films and the philosophies explored in the films. Each is created in its own style with only a few of them overlapping in terms of ‘look’ because they’re helmed by the same filmmaker.
What I really enjoyed about the series is that it reminded me of back when I was a kid. They would release toys for different franchises, so for example, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise, they would release the hero set of characters in the style depicted in the comics or in the show, but then they would do these variations of them. So there might be ones that look slightly more mechanized or in a slightly different costume or have a slightly different feel or build or look.
And that's what this film series reminded me of - it's different filmmakers interpreting stories within The Matrix, so you can really see how different people have taken the mythology and run with it, very much in their own way.
*Available for a small rental fee on Apple and Amazon in the US, and Apple and Sky Store in the UK.
Fact: The final short film in the series features the sound effect known as the Wilhelm Scream, which is a really famous sound effect of a scream that's been used in countless films, games, and TV shows.