The Meatrix
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Meatrix is a multiple award-winning short Adobe Flash film criticizing the methods of industrial agriculture. In a dark satire of The Matrix, Leo, a pig on a seemily bucolic family farm, is approached by Moopheus, an anthropomorphic bull. Moopheus shows Leo that the farm he has known is an illusion, and that he is really trapped in a horrific factory farm. The animated short aims to encourage consumers to purchase organic food products and free-range meats. The Meatrix has won a number of awards,[1] including a 2005 Webby and the Annecy 2004 Netsurfers Award for Short Films. The Meatrix was made by the green messaging firm Free Range Studios in 2003 as a commissioned project for GRACE, the GrassRoots Action Center for the Environment. The sequels, The Meatrix II: Revolting and The Meatrix II 1/2 were created and released in 2006.
[edit] Trivia
- Free Range Studios claims that over 15 million people have viewed The Meatrix. [2]
- The short has been dubbed into 7 other languages, including Swahili and Tibetan, and subtitled in 32 more, including Esperanto.[3]
- The names of the characters are a direct parody of the principal three characters in the Matrix trilogy. "Neo" becomes "Leo" - the agents also refer to him as Mr "Hamderson" instead of "Anderson" (the pig), "Morpheus" becomes "Moopheus" (the bull) and "Trinity" becomes "Chickity" (the hen).
- All three Meatrix shorts can be found as bonus material on the DVD for Fast Food Nation.
[edit] External links
- The Meatrix short film
- The Meatrix II: Revolting
- The Meatrix II 1/2
- Free Range Studios, the film's creator
- Sustainable Table and Free Range Graphics - the film's producers
