The Animatrix: Beyond

Beyond will probably score high in almost everybody's list of the Animatrix shorts, and I am one of them. It tells the story of a haunted house (a glitch in the matrix), in which a group of kids play with gravity and such.

A good story well told and well animated, it is one of the highlights of the Animatrix. It's actually an addition to the movies, which should have been the case for all of them. Instead, we got silly shorts like Matriculated and Program. So, if you only have time for a couple of the nine, check out this one as well as the first 'Last flight of the Osiris', and leave the rest of them.

7/10.

It is interesting that no one mentions that this part is actually connecting the matrix universe to the Stalker movie from Tarkovsky. There are visual references and the whole idea of the zone of strange things makes sure for me that the creators kept that movie in mind. Maybe the reason is that the two audiences are quite different: Matrix-buffs and fans of classic russian movies do not overlap. However, this background information makes the part more interesting, and not necessarily as a backstory of the Matrix-universe (where all interpretations are aimed). This is my favorite, technically it is beautiful, and compositionally it is very oeconomical.

Most everyone I've talked to feels this was by far the most moving of the Animatrix shorts. I wholeheartedly agree, but I wasn't sure why at first. I think I've figured it out.

We all have those beautiful moments in life that surprise us, overwhelm us, and then just disappear. The problem is that we as humans can't really communicate experiences with each other. The best we can usually do is vaguely explain the circumstances of an experience and hope to trigger memories of that experience in someone else. It still only works if the person has already had the experience. If someone tells me about their first love, I can only understand it by remembering how I felt during mine. If someone explains what it's like to be abused as a child, I really can't relate no matter how well it's described.

There is, however, a good trick that can be used to convey feelings. Use a fictional but literal description that should provoke the same feeling. For example, to describe heartbreak, I may say it felt like someone ripped my heart out and kicked it into a trash can. Hopefully, you can imagine this literally happening to you and end up with the same feeling as I have.

This is what "Beyond" does. It describes what it feels like to experience beautiful human moments without requiring very specific empathy. Sometimes, with the way they make us feel, the moments we experience might as well be glitches in a perfectly running computer program that we bumble into and are deleted from under us just as quickly. Even an alien who only vaguely feels awe and wonder at the possibility of physics breaking down elegantly for a short time could understand the excitement, awe, and sadness that a human feels every few years, if one is so lucky.

Coming in at about 13 minutes, this, the seventh of the Animatrix short is the longest of them all. The pacing is mostly good, and in spite of sometimes being laid-back, it's never boring. The animation is great, a nice mix of 2D Animé style and gorgeous 3D CGI elements. The many surreal visuals are beautifully realized. The writer and director behind this has a vivid imagination, however, this is not for everyone. It deals with the idea of glitches in the programming, and how they are perceived or treated by those who discover them. The themes explored aren't bad. The concept doesn't go as far as it arguably could, but I understand that the Wachowski's requested that it go no further than it does. The sounds and music are well-done. Voice acting has fine performances. The characters are credibly written and portrayed. This doesn't directly relate to the films, other than taking place in the same world as they do. It has a making of, on the DVD, which runs at about nine minutes, and is interesting and worth watching. I recommend this to fans of the Matrix universe and/or science fiction. 7/10

This short is in many ways the opposite of "World Record". Where that film is based on an clever concept and idea, and totally wasted its potential, "Beyond" is based on a simple concept, and takes it, well, beyond what I expected (pardon the pun). World Record uses cold and surreal animation to tell a fairly real story. Beyond uses warm and traditional animation to tell a somewhat surreal and bizarre story.

In short, it is a work of contradictions. The story - and there isn't all that much of it, to be honest - is about a group of kids who find a haunted house (a glitch in the matrix) and accept it as perfectly natural part of their world, they enjoy the enchanted surroundings with the childhood innocence that they still possess.

I can only recommend this short movie - after "Kid's Story" it is perhaps the best of the Animatrix quickies. Fun, and enchanting.