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Old July 8th, 2004 #2
Bragi
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Default Bonus Data from the Director Part 1

BONUS DATA: The Second Renaissance, Part I and II, by Mahiro Maeda

(Transcribed by Tara Carreon)

PART I

The introduction symbolizes ...
... a gate leading to visual archives.
When I designed this, and it reflects my tastes ...
... I had a vision of Mandala in my mind.
Mandala is meant to be something that includes everything.
I thought that it fits to the idea of this place where the knowledge is stored.
I also created characters ...
... based on traditional Japanese Buddhist pictures.
When we go through this three-dimensional Mandala grid ...
... we enter the past when humans dominated the world.
That's what I wanted to show in the introduction.
These characters representing the human beings of the past ...
... give us the impression that they were flourishing ...
... but at the same time they were decadent.
I had images of Babylon in the myth ...
... or the Roman Empire in my mind ...
... when I created this scene.
I'm not sure I conveyed my intention well in this scene.
I have to wait for our viewers' judgment.
Here you see some maid robots and ... They're coming up.
And these right here, the construction robots ...
... these are humanoid servants for humans ...
... who are built to support the society's infrastructure.
Independently-operating robots.
These characters are based on the original idea ...
... created by a production designer of The Matrix.
It was a design made for the comic and I was asked to use that design.
And I mentioned Babylon before ...
These machines ...
... by taking over labor, manual labor, in place of humans ...
... enables them to do much larger projects.
And to symbolize that, I created these ancient-looking, pyramid-like structures ...
... to show that they are creating these types of mega-structures.
This is one of our little jokes.
The construction site laborer is taking a lunch break.
You can see that he has connectors attached to his chest.
He is charging, getting energy from his lunchbox, or battery box.
And he's using a TV set that is attached to his battery box ...
... to watch a televised court trial.
And in this trial ...
... the first android to commit murder ...
... is being tried.
And here the images taken by the security camera at the house, the murder scene ...
... are being shown in fast-forward.
This sequence was also basically drawn to follow the comic.
It's a little grotesque ...
... but the theme of The Matrix ...
... is a fictitious world, a collective human illusion.
So going into the images inside the brain ...
... is a motif that is repeatedly expressed.
This is the Washington, D.C., of the future.
The area around the White House is preserved, like a historic park ...
... and in contrast, it is surrounded by skyscrapers.
This is the battle between those who want to boycott the robots ...
... and those who want to protect them.
And these images here ...
... are actions that humans have taken in the past, like this.
I think all of you know what this represents.
Like a compilation, or a reproduction, or caricature ...
... of the violent actions humans have taken in the past ...
... to remind everyone again of these things.
We were somewhat hesitant about some of these scenes ...
... but it was because these scenes were daring that we put them in.
This violence wasn't meant to be enjoyed ...
... but rather convey the hurtfulness of it.
This too. This is not the past, the present, nor the future ...
... and there is no specific religious or geographical setting ...
... but this shows that many people have done these things.
In Bosnia, in Rwanda, in Beijing ...
... in South America, these tragedies have been repeated.
So we combined the robots with the history of The Matrix ...
... and exhibited them. I don't think this is necessarily enjoyable to watch ...
... but I feel that the theme of this film is to clearly express these ideas.
Again, this too is grotesque ...
... but it was our intention not to run away from these things.
This vision also repeatedly occurs ...
... this Earth, or globe, or the image of the world ...
That in itself ...
... like the Matrix, a type of physiognomy ...
I wanted to express the difference between the world that we perceive ...
... and the world that actually exists through the artwork.
The robots' country is called Zero-One.
A lot of thought was put into this vision.
What would a country where machines make machines be like?
Now that the machines ...
... have been formally kicked out by the humans ...
... they created their own country in a compromise ...
... and became very successful.
And basically ...
... there was a story setting that these machines run on solar energy ...
... so the buildings and structures that they make ...
... we decided that they would learn from nature.
Trees, coral reefs. We used those images in creating the structures.
These newsreels ...
... kind of reflect the events of the present day.
Sort of an -- Irony would be too strong a word.
I think it's an eerie synchronization with the events happening in the world today.
Here comes a fly ...
... to sit on the chamber wall of the United Nations.
Zero-One, being where it should be, is still crushed ...
It is a bit greedy.
This is the United Nations Security Council Chamber.
We wanted the mural to be accurate, but there was a lack of resources ...
... so we had to do a lot of searching.
And these are the robot ambassadors.
They imitated the look of a human male and female and wore clothes accordingly.
The robots did this to be friendly, out of respect for humans ...
... but the humans find it indecent and appalling.
Again, this was drawn in a cynical way.
And the fruit of knowledge, the apple they held in their hand, rots ...
... and becomes a human brain ...
... and culture, as an extension of the body, fills the world ...
... and humans cease all negotiations with the robots.
They closed themselves into their own world.
We tried to show that symbolically in the ending.