I love the animation style and moody yet cool feel of Kid's Story. All of the human body movements look so beautifully realistic. Almost rotoscoped at times. It may be a tiny not relevant to the tiny plot thing, but a little detail that I really loved is the few seconds where the kid is eating his toast! It's such a charmingly ordinary mannerism in a situation which is far from that. There's not a whole lot to this short but it does add a touch of depth to the wide-eyed puppydog from the sequels, of which I much prefer to the arsy first one. I don't know if any Kid depthness was wanted, but it's still very interesting and one of the best Animatricees. I never found the character annoying, just weird. Unlike a few others, or so it would seem, I didn't find the leap of faith at the end to be grim. It was quite uplifting, to me. He's simultaneously ascending as he's descending. There's a quaint little paradox there. I thought it was a really powerful and well done concept. It brings to my mind the dream where you're falling and you wake up just as you land in your body. I don't get how the Kid could have left a body behind to be buried. Shouldn't he have just disappeared when he, "died?" And it contradicts the rule that says if you die in the Matrix it's for real. Of course, he may have been so focused on his belief that he was somehow able to transcend all that. It makes you wonder if anyone who commits suicide in the Matrix wakes up in the real world. Hmm...how terribly enthralling.

There's not much plot to this Animatrix short, but the movies overcompensated for that so it's good to have a Matrix story sold on imagery and feeling.Remember the overeager kid from The Matrix Revolutions? This is the story of how he freed himself from un-real world and woke up. He feels alone and alienated, wondering why his dreams feel more real than his waking world.Cowboy Beebop director Shinichirô Watanabe uses abstract, experimental animation deliver the story. It's rough and features many pencil strokes, but it's good. Not the best Animatrix short, but worth watching.

some have commented that this is plot-light, and in some ways it is, but it doesnt need a plot. this episode of the animatrix is pure philosophy and lead in to a great character in the films. the key to overcoming reality in the matrix is to unlearn everything you know. if you can learn that gravity is meaningless, then it is meaningless, our minds hold total power. and if we can make ourselves believe that death is not the end....well.. brilliant philosophy, amazing, unique animation. great stuff.

A teenager has dreams of falling that feel more real than his actual life. He turns to the internet for answers and receives some cryptic replies via his PC. In school his mobile phone rings despite being turned off, he answers to be told by Neo that `they know you know and are coming for you'. The kid looks out the window to see men in dark suits coming for him and immediately flees on his skateboard.In Reloaded there is a scene where Neo and Trinty return to Zion and are greeted by an eager kid who offers to carry Neo's stuff because Neo `saved his life'. I didn't understand who this was when I saw the film and it add to the appearance of a film with lots of loose ends it doesn't tie up. Only later did I see this short and realise that the `loose end' was actually a connection to this short. This is an interesting way to build a wider world around a film but when watching Reloaded I only felt it weakened the actual film. Anyway – the short.The film is stylish and interesting. Plot wise it is similar to the discovery of Neo in the first film but it is done on miniature here. The main attraction is the visual design. The skateboard escape is all blurs and speed while the falling is nicely done and beautifully animated. It may not win any points for having a gripping plot but visually it worked for me.The novelty of having Reeves and Moss supply the voices to their characters is just that – a novelty, they only have a few lines and I wouldn't have known it was them but for the cast list.Overall this is an stylish if wafer thin short that is interesting because it supports the Matrix Reloaded. Before I saw this I had taken this strand of the story to be another area left unanswered by the film, having seen this I understand what it was about and am only left in doubt about the wisdom of doing it this way.