The Second Renaissance Part I (2003)

Director:

Mahiro Maeda

Writers:

Andy Wachowski (written by) &
Larry Wachowski (written by)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Short

Plot:

A tour is taken into the Zion archives, where the history of the real world and the rise of the machines is shown to viewers.

Plot Keywords:

Crushed Head | Assembly Line | Blood Splatter | Helicopter | Skull Crushing

Cast

Dane A. Davis	...	01 Versatran Spokesman (voice) (as Dane Davis)
Debi Derryberry	...	Kid (voice)
Julia Fletcher	...	The Instructor (voice)
Dwight Schultz	...	(voice)
Jill Talley	...	Mother (voice)
James Arnold Taylor	...	(voice)

Also Known As:

The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance Part 1 (USA) (series title)
Animatrix: Toinen renessanssi osa I (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

9 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Finland:K-15

Company:

Studio 4°C

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Hard Problem: The Science Behind the Fiction (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

SUPERMOVES

Controversial, but excellent and entertaining

Being the second short on the Animatrix DVD, and like the rest, running at about 9 minutes in total, this contains a lot of story, and a lot of hints at the past story of man. As it contains so much material in such short time, it has a lot of transitions, and the director use most of these as subtle hints, metaphors, and hidden meanings, that often relate to the world as we know it, and/or the past. I've heard some complaints that this is "anti-human", or tries to direct hate towards man, for their "sins against machine". I don't think that's true; it merely uses the robots to show us, that as humans, we aren't particularly accepting or open-minded towards anyone different from ourselves. I think it did a great job of portraying that. The plot is good, it's the forerunner for the plot and story of the first Matrix film. The voice acting is fairly good, but the short doesn't utilize particularly much of it. It relies more on sounds and visuals, which is the point. Therefore, I can't comment on "characters", either, but I will say that I found it to be very well-written and the direction to be great. I never lost interest, despite it being somewhat short on action. The short is quite disturbing, and there are plenty of visuals that are quite grotesque, but it all works to make a point. some of the visuals were also quite impressive, despite it being 2D rather than 3D, and despite the animation style not being particularly unique. I recommend this to most fans of the Matrix theme, and most science fiction fans in general. 8/10