THIS IS THE ONE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Now that ``The Matrix Reloaded'' disappointment factor has set in, people will probably be reluctant to shell out for the latest product from the Wachowski machine. Yet ``The Animatrix,'' which comes out in VHS and DVD formats today, should be a far more satisfying experience than the sequelitis-plagued movie sequel was for many.

At the very least, it's a better-realized artistic achievement. The Wachowski brothers commissioned seven of the world's top sci-fi animators - Japan's Mahiro Maeda, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takeshi Koike, Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop) and Koji Morimoto, and the United States' Peter Chung (TV's Aeon Flux) and Andy Jones, who worked on the ``Final Fantasy'' feature - to direct nine short cartoons set in the Matrix universe.

The resulting pieces come in a pleasing range of styles. Photorealistic CGI marks Jones' ``Final Flight of the Osiris,'' which provides a sexy narrative bridge between the first and second live-action movies. Maeda's two ``Second Renaissance'' mini-epics provide historical background to the men vs. machines conflict in a boldly comic-book, sometimes graphically grotesque presentation. Kawajiri's ``Program'' references a wide range of Japanese art from traditional watercolor to Samurai films to classic 2-D anime. Noirish shades of monochrome dominate Watanabe's ``Detective Story.'' And Chung's imaginatively hallucinogenic ``Matriculated'' gives us a sense of what things might look like from the viewpoint of a warbot humans have tried to reprogram.

The majority of the stories, four of which the Wachowskis scripted, are intimate tales of individuals discovering, or coping with the realization, that the life they thought they were leading is a computer-programmed illusion. Aside from permitting masters of anime and CGI to lavish their talents on a subject with few visual limitations, they also allow for the occasional flashes of character depth and emotional resonance that the sequel's overkilling action and long-winded philosophical dissertations crowded out.

The DVD includes a history of the anime genre, making-of features and Japanese audio commentaries with English subtitles.

``The Animatrix'' (Warner) lists for $24.98 on DVD and $19.98 on VHS.

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``The Animatrix''