The Meatrix
Free Range Graphics
Creators: Louis Fox, Jonah Sachs
Length: 1 minute
Watch The Cartoon
The Meatrix is a cartoon produced thanks to the Free Range Flash Activism Grant offered by Free Range Graphics. Free Range Graphics invited non profit organizations to submit projects that would be animated. Billing itself, the most popular activist Flash cartoon ever, The Meatrix borrows themes from the Matrix film to expose the industrial farming and its consequences on animals and the environment.
In the cartoon, Leo, a pig standing for neophyte activist Neo, is reached by Moofius, a cow who looks very much like Morpheus. Moofius invites Leo to choose between a blue pill, where the idyllic reality of the farm where he lives will continue, or to choose the red pill and learn the truth. The story mixes very well concepts fighting oppression, but there aren’t enough live agents!
The animation is secondary to the story. There is an attempt to recreate some slow-motion action shots from the film, or to infuse it with the same mind-altering visuals, but most fail. For example, the shot where Leo goes from the idyllic farm to the factory one is a simple transition and lacks visual impacts. Nevertheless, the animators offer a well-shot piece of drama.
Hervé