Après des mois de retard, j'ai continué et fini de traduire la source d'inspiration de COde Lyoko : Matrix !
Introduction + Disclaimer
Spoiler
This file is a part of the files' sequence of Codelyoko.fr aiming to offer the most possible complete list of the sources of inspiration.You can find the other files of codelyoko.fr by following these links :
Philip K. Dick – The Renault Factory – The Lakanal School – Tron – Not quite human
This file is a hybrid file.
It belongs to the website Lyokodreamer and specifically to its writer : Pendragon. After our friendly meeting at the preview of the season 4 in Paris, we planned to swap two files. With the updates of the season 4, this project was delayed. Unfortunately, the website of Lyokodreamers is today and at the moment stopped in its development. However, Pendragon gently authorized me to use the file and to add the modifications I found useful.
So I took off some parts that seemed superfluous and I reorganized and completed others !
The big modifications the file undergoes are understable by its objective. Pendragon wanted to reveal the similarities between Matrix and Code Lyoko. As for me, the file is concentrated on the explanation of Matrix as a source of inspiration for the Code Lyoko Universe. So I developped some key parts whereas I totally deleted others parts which were a matter of anecdotic resemblance.
With my best regards to Pendragon,
thanks to this file wouldn't be here today.
I-Résumé et concept
Spoiler
Matrix : summary and concept
To permit you to get absorbed more fastly headlong in this file, here is a summary of the epic of Neo, Morpheus and Trinity :
During many centuries, the Mens improved all the different technologies about the robotic. Around 2199, they pushed the artificial intelligence so far that the machines gained the ability to think. Dependant of the solar energy, they finnaly become out-of-control, looking for survive and a war stroke against humans. To deactivate forever, the humans worked to the deletion of their only power source, the sun. The chemists managed to veil all the terrestrial stratosphere with a permanent cloud, blocking out the light beams. They thought they could be free of the machines…
«Welcome … to the desert of the real.»
«We don't know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky.»
However, contrary to all expectations, these ones found another power source. They became aware of all the electric power of the humans. Thanks to a vast virtual network, called the Matrix, they sink the humanity into an artificial sleep. There are huge culture fields. Every man is born industrially. His/her body is now pierced of many holes, which allow the machines draw energy from them.
«We are grown.»
To make it simple, the machines found the way to change their creators into giant batteries.When someone dies, his/her body is liquefied, to feed the living.
«…to change a human being into this…»
In the virtual universe, called the Matrix, , everyone evolves according to a predefinied life. The most tiny detail is programmed, from the taste of a food, to the color of a pigeon's feathers. Everything is just computer coding. Th humans think living in the reality, matching to our time's reality, without suspecting that they acutally are at artificial intelligences' mercy.
However, there is, in this world of darkness, the last bastion of a free humanity. This refuge has te name of Zion, and is located in the heart of the Earth, safe from the machines. Ships are sent in huge canals which criss-cross the planet to send humans back to the reality. Their mission is to go and get the «asleep» in the matrix. In sort of sewers, they must face dreaded «sentinels» robots, which have the only goal to destroy us.
The sentinels… Robots programmed to exterminate the human race
To go in the Matrix, the rebels connect to the posterior part of their skull a cable which permits them to «virtualize». Once in the nework, they are tracked down by control programs : the Agents. These ones make sure that the matrix goes smoothly, and are endowed with supernatural powers.
The agents… Omnipresent in the Matrix
In the virtual word, all the rebels have extraordinary powers, like the ability to move quickly, or the incredible martial arts tricks they can do.
They follow the advices of a program : the Oracle, which has the use of a guide. It's by this way that Morpheus and Trinity found Neo :the one who masters the universe of the matrix. This one will be led to meet the designe of the matrix : the Architect.
A little programmer, who will be assigned to the fate of the humanity…
The fate of two worlds will greatly speed up. To exterminate the human race, thousands and thousands of sentinels are sent to the doors of Zion. The hope of the humanity will rest on the shoulders of a young ex-programmer : Neo.
II-Les ressemblance scénaristiques
Spoiler
The plot similarities
Two virtual worlds linked to a earth world
Towards the context, the american trilogy show us a devastated earth of around 2199, contrary to Code Lyoko, which show us a earth as we know it, in our time : the 2000's. Each one of the scripts includes a close link between virtual and reality.
The concept of digital world imposes as a basic leitmotiv and is the key of the success of the two works, the keystone of the script.
Let's begin with the differences.
Lyoko is a virtual world generated by a computer. To go there, the body has to be split, the mind changed into virtual datas and then it is transmitted to a virtual body the computer creates.
We are conscious to be in this world. Lyoko wants to duplicate the Earth but isn't accomplished on this side. The Sectors vaguely remind some areas of our world but nothing more.
Then, the feelings aren't total. We only have two senses : the sight and the hearing and we shoudn't feel the pain.
We can't be on Lyoko and in the real world at the same time !
The Matrix is generated by the machines. The whys isn't enormously detailed in the trilogy. However the access to this one is less brutal then the access to Lyoko, although a tiny bit barbaric ! The people who are in the Matrix all are humans from the real world. Their brain is plugged to a cable which sends their mind in the Matrix.
The humans are physically in the real world but their soul enters the Matrix ! The Matrix doesn't really exist strictly speaking, it is an illusion :A group fantasy which every connected human is subdued.
In Code Lyoko, the body is splitted then recreated in the real world – In Matrix, we connect his/her mind to the phantasmagorical common space which is the Matrix.
If Lyoko looks like a video game … The Matrix is an illusion aiming to persuade the sleeping and plugged humans that they are in the real world.
Let's go over to the ressemblances !
At first, Lyoko and the Matrix represent two virtual universes managed by data-processing… where we can be numerized, or should I say, be «virtualized». However, as I explained above, the concepts are different on both sides.
Second important point : The digital worlds are equipped with a universe in 3 dimensions. Important common point : These two worlds are flexible by the entity who controls them. For Matrix, it is the machines. For Code Lyoko, it is at the same time Jeremy, XANA or Hopper.
For here, third element : In the two worlds, an «evil» entity has henchmen, at its disposal, and which are in charge of preventing the heroes to frustrate their plans. In Matrix, it is the «agents», powerful non-humans programs which can appear anywhere in the Matrix. In Code Lyoko, it is XANA's monsters.
Finally, the heroes have special powers in the virtual world.
The powers are partially innate… : Neo has powers linked to his status of «The One» ; From their part, the Lyoko-warriors has powers since their virtualizations (Aelita always had her Creativity)
…and partially acquired : programmed by a operator ! In Code Lyoko, we all know that Jeremy programmed Aelita's wings or deleted by mistake Odd's predictions. In the Matrix, the heroes can «download» skills like martial arts or the ability to pilot a helicopter.
Let's note at last, that the intentions aren't the same about the message that the two works want to transmit about the virtual.
In Matrix, real and virtual are only one. Note as an example that Neo, the One, keeps his supernatural powers in the real world, as Yumi in Garage Kids. He has a double vision and can destroy the Sentinels (robots).
We can so easily see, that the link combining reality and fiction is showed as transparent in Matrix : the two worlds overlap.
In Code Lyoko, the distinction is voluntarily clearer ! It is one of the divergence zones that the scenaristic team of Moonscoop highlighted. In fact, the series target the young from 6 to 12, although the Lyoko-fans communities tend towards the majority are more and more present. Whatever, the cartoon doesn't have for only goal to entertain, but also to educate.
Jerome Mouscadet, the director of the series, clearly affirmed their intention, to him and to the ex writing director, Sophie Decroisette, about the separation of the imaginary. He attemps that the children keep their feet on the ground. We mustn't confuse reality and dream, concrete and imaginary.
«We wanted to make the children understand, that there's the real world on one side, and on the other side the imaginary. And that they are totally different.»
Jerome Mouscadet, during the preview showing of the series 4 of July, 2007, 5th.
And the difference is clearly marked at the visual level : in Matrix, the virtual world is a copy of the world in where we live (lived). In Code Lyoko, Lyoko looks like a video game ! We know that it is unreal and even if some of us dream of going there, nobody would live there : Only two senses, landscapes fastly … repetitive !
The fight between the mankind and the machine
A great classic of the science-fiction !
In each of the universes of the two series, the plot spins its web around a same recurrent theme : the fight between the Man and the machine. A theme often used, trying to predict what tomorrow saves for us, according to the look of an author, each time different.
Code Lyoko is based on a fight between teenagers and an artificial intelligence : XANA.
The objectives of XANA evolve but always include a conflict against the human race.
In Matrix, it's the free mankind against the machines.
Two evident similarities points between the «bad guys» of each work :
Initially, XANA had the project to exterminate the mankind. In Matrix, the objective of the machines is to exterminate the free mankind, it means the core of human beings who aren't held in captivity by the machines.
After it ran away in the Network and learnt some lessons thanks to the returns to the past, XANA changes its objective : It wants to dominate the mankind, thanks to an army of robots, that it creates with the Replikas. On this point, it looks like the machines of Matrix which want to rule the humans for extracting their energy.
Different robots, but a same goal : Subdue the humans
At last, the last point of comparison but not the least : The genesis of these two beautiful stories.
The scenario strictly follows the same line : The Man creates the machine. The Machine overtakes the Man. The Man tries to turn off the Machine. The Machine tries to destroy the Man.
For more informations about the similarities between the two eminences grises of the Matrix and Lyoko... Lower in the file (Lien vers Les Personnages)
A small group whose depends the fate of the mankind
In every good movie and in every good series, there is an inevitable common point : Heroes.
It's for making easier likening the viewer to a precise character, apparently … (Yeah ! Yeah !)
In both cases, the fate of the mankind is assigned to a small group.
The main characters in Matrix are Morpheus, Neo and Trinity.
In Code Lyoko, the famous band of : Jeremy, Odd, Yumi, Aelita, Ulrich.
In both cases, these hordes of individuals have similarities.
They are linked by friendly relations, or even loving, exceeding the strict frame of their professionnal mission of savior of the mankind. Let's look into the «human» case at length…
The weak sentimental humans… against the perfect rational machine
From here, their too much human feelings often become in a first time a trouble for their mission ! In Matrix, Neo makes the choice to save Trinity instead of doing his rôle of the One : At the time of reaching the source which could have saved the Mankind, he prefers to save his beloved. In Code Lyoko, the friendly of loving quarrels of the heroes regularly put them in critical and dangerous situations because the sentimental overtook the rational.
Nevertheless, this established fact is in reality just a snare and it's there that we find a crucial point of which Code Lyoko got inspired from Matrix. It is the humanity of the heroes, with their strengths and their weaknesses it has that allows them to defeat the machines !
I explain : In Code Lyoko, certainly Ulrich's rants put the whole group in danger, certainly XANA played with the feelings of the heroes to manipulate them, certainly Aelita got tricked 25 times like an idiot when XANA played with the memory of her past…
But in the end, without the fine and unique friendship of the heroes, the fight against XANA was doomed to failure. It's only in their friendship, the hope they had to see Aelita materialized one day, the fierceness they had to find William etc. that they could draw the energy to hold until the end and to defeat XANA.
In Matrix, the scenario is similar.
Neo is the seventh One to exist. All his predecessors only just saved the Mankind but didn't achieve to stop the war between the Man and the Machine. But Neo has a distinctive characteristic that the former Ones didn't have : He fell in love with Trinity.
This is this love that makes him turn away of the way he should take. And it's because of this that he has to find another way : From that, he reaches to a result the others Ones didn't obtain : The Peace between the machines and the Men.
In both cases, the triumph of the mankind over the Machine is possible thanks to the fact that the human being has feelings and isn't just a functional and rational beast.
We can besides compare two cult scenes of each of the two series :
In the episode 24 «Ghost Channel», XANA loses because it is unable to grasp the concept of friendship who urges Jeremy to virtualize on Lyoko despite his fright.
In the third part of the trilogy Matrix, the Agent Smith has a famous exchange with Neo in which he denies the existence of Love and of most of the other human feelings.
«Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?»
«I’ve told you why! Because he’s not infallible! XANA’s knowledge of people is only approximative!»
III-Les personnages
Spoiler
The characters
A chosen one
Aelita and Neo both represent the One, who controls the virtual world and who can counter the enemy.
On one side, Neo is a priori an ordinary man under the influence of the machines. He lives as a computer programmer in the Matrix, until Morpheus picks him up. Neo has no idea of his past, neither does him, or at least, his destiny of the One.
After becoming aware of his powers in the Matrix, he obtains unique abilities. He can act on the Matrix like anyone else : Fly at high-speed, stop the bullets with the thought, distort the space, move at high-speed… He feels the enemies programs like the Agents.
On the other side, Aelita, woken up by Jeremy and with no memory of her past, is the guardian of Lyoko. She owns the keys which allows her many things and that's here that the similarities with the One of the Matrix appear.
The most important common point is her ability to have an influence on the sectors thanks her power of Creativity… the mastery of the virtual world all in all.
She is the only one in a position to deactivate the towers just like Neo is the only one to destroy the machines.
Common power : A sort of double sight which allows Aelita to detect the infected towers while Neo can see the agents esacepd from the Matrix with a human appearance.
Common point between the Ones : They always care for their friends. At many times, they ask them to let them act alone… and they always have help with or without their agreement.
And finally, don't forget that it's Aelita and Neo who put an end to the perpetual confrontation and save the world.
Yet, their best similarity may be their mission of which they feel very vested.
An operator
It would have been a real pleasure for me to compare Jeremy and Tank… But in the light of the sequel of the first movie, I can't do this entirely. The actor, Marcus Chong, having a quarrel with the directors, the Wachowski brothers, has been deleted of the original script, being killed in the first movie… He has been replaced by another one in the movies 2 and 3 : Li.
During each one of their hikes in the Matrix, the heroes are guided by an operator. Stayed in the ship from where the heroes connect to the Matrix, he permanently watches over their evolution in the virtual world and guides them, helps them to escape the Agents in particular. He also is in a position to add abilities for his friends. He can for example learn Trinity how to pilot a precise helicopter in a record time.
In the case of Code Lyoko, you certainly recognized that good old fair-haired boy, 58 inch high who is Jeremy Belpois. Also him guides his friends, leads them to the towers, prevents them from the oncoming monsters… It's the same principle. It's also them who manages the vehicles of his friends : overboard, overwing and overbike.
As we already said, he can also program abilities to the heroes : Pair of wings, teleportation, etc…
In both series, the life of operator is not so easy… We can think that they are cushy there, quietly sit in their steel chairs while their friends risk their lives. That's not the case. In the opposite, they are in direct drive with the attacks of the enemy. In the case of Matrix, it is the Sentinels which attack the ship or even traitors in the heart of the team. About Code Lyoko, Jeremy is facing XANA's attacks who take the shape of possessed people : the xanatified.
A scientist at the origin of the evil
Yeah, don't refuse to see the reality… Franz Hopper may be really sympathic for me, and also for you I presume, it is him who is at the origin of all this mess. Franz Hopper created Lyoko, just as the supercomputer in which he is established and also XANA !
The one comparable to Hopper is noone else than the Architect in Matrix. It's him who conceives the Matrix in its whole, it means the different versions of the Matrix until it becomes suitable for men. So he created the virtual world in question.
The Architect and Franz Hopper
In the same way, the two men wanted to create a virtual Universe in which the Humans could acquire a perfect life under control and far from danger.
Moreover, both of them hide themselves in their creation in a certain way, the Architect chose to stay in the source itself whose the access is relatively difficult. Hopper ran away from XANA with finding refuge in the Digital Sea.
You will however notice an enormous difference which separates the two men. The Architect, who lies in the source of the Matrix, doesn't want to change anything at all and seem to take a side for the Machine face to a mankind who, obviously, rejected his work and the alienation it represented. In contrast, Hopper will do anything to put right his mistakes, and will achieve it, with his life.
IV-Similitudes en vrac
Spoiler
Similarities in bulk
And to finish this file in a way more light and more pictured, a gallery of many similarities and allusions from Code Lyoko about its predecessor !
THE allusion the most evident and the most indubitable ! This sign of provocation inviting the monsters to fight is directly taken from Matrix ! We find it twice : The first time by Odd to a Creeper in the episode 49 «Franz Hopper» and the second time by Ulrich to his clone in the episode 51 «Revelation».
Because a super bad guy, to be popular, it must be alluring !
Like the twins in the Matrix, the specters and the xanatified people can unmaterialize to go through obstacles and dodge bodies.
The universal binary language of the computer networks.
Boring machines and men.
When Smith changes matricians into himself, their body covers with an unknown black substance which is reminiscent of XANA's specters which infiltrate bodies of who they want to possess.
The heroes from Matrix are forced to evolve in the real world inside innumerable galleries which go down in the heart of the Earth to Zion, in order to avoid the dreaded Sentinels ! The heroes of Code Lyoko also go through sewers to reach the Factory without draw the attention.
A very underground setting for saviors of the mankind !
Probably the slowest punch of the history of the cinema…
Let's focus on the direction, even if they're not specific and exclusively stemming from the Trilogy, one of the trademarks of the Matrix saga is the slow-motion which will freeze the wild action scene on a key point before the speed continues more than ever.
The direction of Code Lyoko, on this side, really got inspired from Matrix in the energization of some fights with slow-motions, or even stoppings on a scene before moving camera.
Always at the direction, another typical technique of the Matrix saga is the bullet-time. This effect, often reused in other movies, is obtained with putting in circle a series of cameras activated at the same moment or in a very short time slot. It gives a famous moment of slow-motion turning around a scene at a precise moment… We find this in plenty during fight scenes of Matrix.
The bullet-time is also used in the french series (Episode 70 «Skidbladnir» among others). Certainly, we can't really talk of bullet-time because the direction is animated so computer-made but the concept is here !
Conclusion
Spoiler
Conclusion
Who would have thought that an american movie, whose the influence went until creating a philosophical movement, would have a straight link with Code Lyoko ? Yet, this file will have, I hope, proved the opposite.
The similarities with the american trilogy stays striking, in many respects and Matrix is the most known of the sources of inspiration of Code Lyoko, even if it's not the only one. Some of them would even tell that Code Lyoko is just a childish version of Matrix.
A last common point reunites these two.
Despite the some years of difference that made that Code Lyoko got inspired from Matrix, at historic level, the two works are clearly contemporary ! They are above all the heirs of a long science-fiction movement which reached a certain highlight at their time.
_________________ Note de Thran : Signature supprimée car trop grande. Voilà l'ancien code [code:1][/code:1]
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