Animatrix is simply a masterpiece with its 9 short episodes going deeper into the matrix universe and shows what the matrix is supposed to be and what really happened betwen man and machine. The big difference between these episodes and Matrix the movie is Animatrix is a totally animated piece (hence the name).
Short is really short which both is positive and negative in my opinion. A few episodes are simply amazing both visually and story-wise while others lack in story but presents a very interesting animation technique and some episodes are lacking both. This is just a very individual comment since I know lots of people will enjoy episodes I don't and vice versa. Personal preferences will decide which ones you'll like.
I have four major favorites:
- Final Flight of Osiris just because its so damn well-made.
- Program because it involes some very cool animations.
- Beyond because the story is somewhat really neat.
- The Second Renaissance part 1 because this is what our world will turn into if we don't realise technology is here to help us and not the other way around.
- The Second Renaissance part 2 beacuse it shows how dead we are. :-)