Back in October, I mentioned an upcoming DVD release called ‘Animatrix’ — a series of short animated films set in the universe of The Matrix. It turns out that of the nine shorts that will be on the disc, four are going to be released to the web, and the first has just been posted.
Very interesting stuff, as it turns out. Well animated, and at least in this epsisode, fleshing out the back-story of the universe, taking a look at the creation of the machines and beginnings of their rise to power. In fact, I think that one of the sequences in the short — a robot on trial for the murder of it’s owner — reminded me of one of Asimov’s robot stories, though I can’t bring to mind exactly which one. Or I could be remembering something else, which is entirely possible. In any case, I’ll definitely be picking up the DVD when it finally hits the streets.
(Via /.)
It wasn’t I, Robot, was it?
Actually, while it does bear overtones of one/some of the Asimov stories (it may be ‘I, Robot’, though I’ll need to dig through my book boxes to confirm that), I think what I was actually remembering was this online comic from the Matrix Comics section of the movie site.
Incidentally, if you enjoy the film and haven’t yet poked around the site, it’s worth spending some time on. Lots of work is being put into fleshing out the Matrix universe, through the online comics and the philosophy section. Neat stuff, with some real thought behind it, and it’s interesting to watch them explore what can be done with a movie beyond just the two hours or so of screen time.