The Second Renaissance Part I (2003)

That was an excellent one.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Ever wonder exactly HOW the machines managed to seize the planet and enslave the human race? This Animatrix short details how humans created robots to do their worst jobs for them. Basically it's a metaphor for a third-world divide. But when a single robot rebels political opinion of the machines turns sour and they are banished to their city, where their economy thrives, turning the human world into the new third-world. Oh, the irony.It's a fascinating short and really makes you think if whether or not the soul is purely a biological thing, or if a sentient robot can earn one too, kinda like Bicentennial Man.

along with it's partner, this is the greatest piece of animation ever created. the images and styles are amazing, and match perfectly with the story which is a brilliantly realistic reinterpretation of our own world, where is has been, and where it could go. quite affecting and sometimes painful to watch, it it a masterpiece of the visual art.

This is the second part of 'The Animatrix', a collection of animated short movies that tell us a little more about the world of 'The Matrix'.In this one we learn how men and machines could not work and live together. It is a little history lesson in the world of 'The Matrix'. Not as good as the first part ('The Final Flight of the Osiris') but still pretty entertaining.

The "Second Renaissance" shorts, both part 1 and part 2, are, to me, the biggest disappointments of the Animatrix. They have the look and the feel of a history lesson, the kind of extended Prologue I was so glad to not have in the Matrix. Having Morpheus hint at the past in the original was so much more satisfying than seeing cartoon robot people in this history lesson.It is spiked with stunning imagery, though, and much of it disturbing. Seeing a living human head torn apart and the brain splatter out, or a robot girl being assaulted and kicked into bits, or the first humans being inserted into generators, not as infants, but as adult prisoners of war, fully alive and conscious and in great pain - yes, on the gore front, this short and its sequel deliver massively, perhaps even too much for comfort.But at the same time, they disappoint. Being shocking is fine - after all, they cause an emotion and that is the intention. But for a story taking itself so seriously, with religious imagery inserted throughout (apples of knowledge, apocalyptic riders, and more), watching cartoon robots erect a pyramid Egyptian style as slaves of humans just feels awkward and ridiculous. The Matric Universe thrives on its organic-looking machines, not on the ancient image of walking-talking robot people that would have been just as home in the minds of 1920s Science Fiction writers. And despite all the strong imagery, the shorts disappoint because they just give too much history detail. An unknown history hinted at is a brilliant thing in a Scifi movie like the Matrix. Being presented with a "Zion Archive" footage Animatrix movie, Morpheus suddenly appears a bit stupid for not knowing what other humans evidently know, and quite frankly, the traditional "man against machine" setting with a hint of politics and religion thrown in is just plain ridiculous.5/10 (for achieving to cause the desired effect, shock, with its imagery, but also for failing to contribute value to the Matrix Universe)