CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews The fourth of the Animatrix shorts, this is one of those of them that ties closely into the trilogy, specifically, the sequels. This provides the background for The Kid, seen in the second two movies, and he's genuinely not irritating in this(no, seriously). The concept is highly interesting, although, for obvious reasons, this should not be seen by anyone too likely to imitate it, anyone whose behavior is that easily influenced. The animation is well-done and quite interesting, with a style of limited motion in the drawings, and the camera being responsible for a lot of the movement, in a way that feels reminiscent of regular, live-action films. The atmosphere is impeccable, and the pace is spot-on throughout. The voice acting is great, Watson does well with what few lines he has, as do Anne-Moss and Reeves. The idea and execution of this are excellent, and this is a remarkable addition to the overall universe. This has a making of, shared with Detective Story, which is well-done and informative. It's 9 and a half minutes, same as the short itself. This has one disturbing aspect, nothing objectionable beyond that. I recommend this to any fan of The Matrix franchise and/or science fiction in general. 7/10

Polaris_DiB This is a bizarre one. The animation, especially of the fall, is intensely surreal though not necessarily to a dream-like effect. It's hard in some places to get one's bearings while viewing the movie, but that's kind of the point and a lot of the character design and movement is purposefully chaotic and fractured.It's been a while since I watched the Matrix sequels, but I'm pretty sure "Popper" is the kid who appears as Neo's little fanboy in the movies. If that's the case, it's neat to see his story, and bizarre to think about how it may have come to place. On the other hand, I can't help but get giggles thinking that some extreme Matrix fans with no sense of reality could use this story as direction and try to jump off of high buildings to escape the virtual world. On a more serious note, I'm glad that hasn't happened, because it's not like we need another reason to blame movies for stupid people's actions.Enough of what isn't. What is is that this animation is a really neat speculation on alternative ways people can come to escape The Matrix, alongside of the other short featured in somewhat of the same style, "The World Record." --PolarisDiB --PolarisDiB

aptrapani This animated short is genius, plain and simple. Personally, I find this to be one of the few anime cartoons that actually shows a high degree of talent, style, and originality. Honestly now, anime has become a copy of a copy, of a copy. But this, ladies and gentleman, pushes the limits of reality, looking quite real until they move at high speeds, where their bodies flow like wind and sway to whatever direction they moved. I really must say, I cannot find much wrong with this animation, even the voice acting was quite amazing (and I just loved it when the teacher said, "Mr. Popper").Just, I wish that a full animated English feature would be made in this art style, please, someone, anyone?

TheOtherFool If the original Matrix got any criticism at all it was because of it's violence. After the shooting at Littleton, things only got worse (but then again, who wasn't blamed?). Kid's Story, one of the 9 animatrices, to me is more dangerous though.We follow the likes of 'the kid', who finds out the truth about The Matrix (via Neo). He escapes his classroom like Neo his booth, but finds too many agents in his way, so he... jumps...The next scene is at the funeral of the boy, and I was just thinking what a great self-reflecting movie this was (don't believe anything in the movies?), but in the end we find out the matrix really does exist and the boy is still alive in the real world.Sure it's just a cartoon, but committing suicide to escape from the so called real world... edgy... 5/10.