Anime anthology: The Animatrix, an encyclopedia of anime styles, offers a unique new way to expand a franchise. (back drop).

Q Why did you decide to supplement The Matrix films with the nine short animations in The Animatrix rather than use more traditional approaches such as a television series?

A Television production by its very nature does not allow for the degree of handcrafted quality that the Wachowskis [Larry and Andy, directors of The Matrix and supervisors of The Animatrix] were after. The idea was to get their favorite directors doing "theatrical quality" shorts. In fact, that was one of the incentives to get the directors involved in the project. Also, the reason that we used animation at all was simply because the Wachowskis love it.

Q Why did you use so many different animators to expand The Matrix story?

A This animated omnibus, or anthology, is a common format in Japanese theatrical animation. There are some great titles--"Memories" and "Manie Manie," for example--that boast similarly varied formats, although I don't think anyone has taken the concept this far yet. In any case, this approach seemed like a natural choice. The Wachowskis had already been doing Matrix comic anthologies, and I don't think anyone had the patience to wait for a full-length animated Matrix feature.

Q How did you ensure that the shorts were complementary to the film series?

A One guiding principal was that all of the stories had to fit into the Matrix universe. And of course we had several stories originated by Andy and Larry (including "Kid's Story," "Final Flight," and "Second Renaissance") that were great templates for work that would follow. And certainly none of the directors wanted to do anything too similar to each other. In fact, there was definitely an element of competition to the work.

Q How will these animations generate revenue?