User reviews

I really enjoyed this crazy Oscar-winning Oscar short (animated category). It played here at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va. My friend Jason Garnett, manager of the cinema, took a huge risk in bringing the shorts collection to this small city in Southwest Virginia. The film really reminded me of Naked Lunch. This is a Canadian film and Lunch's director David Cronenberg is also Canadian, so perhaps my reasoning is not far-off. Plus, both works deal with creativity and substance abuse. If "Ryan" has a fault, it is that the comedy and the dark central themes are at times an uneasy combination. But, the animation is absolutely remarkable. It makes for a surreal quality that makes feel as though they are looking at a Salvador Dali painting instead of watching a film. This is definitely not a film for children, but for adults, it is stark look into the dark world of drug abuse.

It's almost like a Tim Burton movie this. It's a story by animator Chris Landreth about his acclaimed and Oscar nominated compatriot Ryan Larkin. The latter has succumbed to drink, recently kicked a cocaine habit and is living a hand-to-mouth existence with just C$10 in his pocket. The startlingly effective animation: sometimes full bodied, sometimes skeletal, sometimes morphing human imagery onto the imagery (or vice versa) serves as quite a spooky bedrock for the ensuing interview which, at times, comes across as Landreth being worried that he, too, might be heading for this path of creative self destruction. I hadn't heard of either man, and so helpfully this is painted with extracts from two of Larkin's earlier works. "Walking" (1968) is something to behold - the hand-drawn attention to detail and the musculature is simply astonishing. This is amongst the best animations that I have ever seen - it mixes a sort of reality with the fictional in an almost unsettling fashion whilst revealing a few traits of both of the individuals who feature. Well worth 15 mins, I'd say.

It's certainly an original approach to make a documentary about an animator in animated form, and Chris Landreth's "through the mirror" concept, which shows us the characters' emotional scars and losses in physical form, is also a nice idea. The quality of the computer rendering and animation is top-notch, among the best I've ever seen, which makes this little film so spectacular to look at.

However, the story is pretty thin: A former successful animator fell on hard times and into drug addictions and is now a social reject. Little more than that. Not exactly unheard of, but it still could make for an interesting real-life documentary if the story was really probed into; but all that Landreth does is state this fact, in a highly pretentious manner, and adorning it with as much visual fancy as possible. And this makes it hard to take the story seriously, even if it's true. We see many secondary characters around the edges of the story, but they add little or nothing to it, and seem to just serve Landreth to show off his visual concepts. In the end, this short didn't have much effect on me, other than keeping me up to date with the state-of-the-art current computer animation capabilities...

Don't follow the genre at all so I have no idea how unique the effects are. Just happened to catch it on the CBC indie show Zed and was reminded about it when I heard it got an Oscar nomination. And I must say, this is a rare instance where you see a new technology being applied in a way that actually enhances every aspect of what happens to be a deep and touching story. As opposed to today's big budget CGI which provides little more than a cheap thrill. I can imagine if I were in Ryan's shoes in his regrettable state, I would feel exactly like the stripped down fragments of skin, bone, tendons and random Rube Goldberg parts he's depicted as. A must see film, and not only because of the gorgeous animation. 10/10

I bought a ticket for the Sundance animated short program thinking that I will see the usual rehashed animated fare. Boy, was I wrong. But as good and creative as the other shorts were, Ryan stood way out.

It is something truly original, not just because it is a computer animated documentary, but also because of the truly inventive use of the capabilities of CGI animation. The movie tells Ryan Larkin's life story in a concise but very touching way. I promise it will be the perfect roller-coaster ride, it will make you happy and sad, and it will make you think. And it will also make you stare at the gorgeous imagery.

I doubt you can find a better way to spend 14 minutes of your life.

I had seen Chris Landreth's Bingo when I worked at Alias, and I was very impressed by the evident creativity that involved in Landreth's work. . His work is very unique and no cliché, and most importantly, visually very interesting. I have yet to see anyone to produce a 3d short that's as advanced in terms of the creative use of the 3d tool. . My personal belief is, the Ryan is much more than just a 3d documentary(also a very new genre in 3d animation I believe), it is a piece of art, and the medium is computer animation.

This is a film about an Oscar nominated animator whose life has tumbled thanks to substance abuse. The once promising career is now a distant memory and the man lives as a panhandler.

The film has the strangest animation I've ever seen, as people are shown in bits and pieces--with chunks missing from their heads and bodies. I assume this is to represent how pieces of the individual and their memories disappear due to the ravages of alcohol and drugs.

I love short films and have reviewed hundreds here on IMDb. This Oscar winning animated short is among the small handfuls I have watched that just didn't do much for me. Sure, I respected the highly creative and strange animation style of the film. The story was also a bit compelling--but only a bit. The bottom line is that it just wasn't fun or interesting and I think perhaps it won because the category was rather weak for 2005.

This piece of work is truly the most astonishing animation I have ever seen. Its visual attributes are so rich that the eye fails to follow them on the screen. My experience was indeed enhanced since I watched it on the NFB's big screen in downtown Toronto. Ryan's creators have doubtlessly pushed the envelope in exploiting artistic techniques. Its intelligent plot is also very admirable. Based on the life of a real character, Ryan criticizes the extreme financial difficulties of many unknown artists who struggle with their lives to produce art. All been said, this is one of those cases where any literal description of the work is still far away from the actual visual experience. So Go Figure!

'Ryan' is a truly beautiful film in many respects. First the visual look of the film is high art. Beyond the composition and the colors, there is so much visual information going on that as a viewer you feel like you are getting a secret peek into another realm, where people wear the experiences that pilfer their soul. Secondly, there is something very beautiful about the film's ancestry and pedigree. The film showcases the talented Ryan Larkin and his animation in a way that both honors the art of animation but also shows the growth of the genre. Thirdly the film depicts and encapsulates the sacrifice that artists face and struggle to passionately create their art and walk down a path that is so very much less traveled.

'Ryan' a beautiful film deserves its honors and praise.

This is not your typical animated short. It's not something you'd normally see before a full length feature at the cinema. It's more complex, and deep as it is fun and entertaining. There are, however elements of that too.

"Ryan" is a story about Ryan Larkin, an innovative, talented and gifted Canadian artist from the late 60s and early 70s. Director Chris Landreth plays himself, only a much more animated version. His body is breaking apart, his memories are haunting him and he's much more interested in the late artist instead of his own life. He introduces us to Ryan, voiced by Ryan Larkin himself, and tells us that he's on the verge of breaking down (literally). The story then starts playing out very visually as Ryan starts explaining the troubles of being an artist and how many are not respected and poor.

The visual style of this is enchanting. It goes through 3D animation, to pencil drawing, to painting, to sketches. Really unique in the sense that it stimulates your eye and allows you to see much more in the screen than most animated features do in a full scene. There are relative clues as to the depth of the main character, and how he's nostalgic of the past, and stricken by the disease of poverty ('Spare change? Thank you, sir, you're very kind.').

Chris starts out by telling us that he's about to explain some things to us. We expect him to tell us a story of Ryan, which has a regular narrative structure in which there's a beginning, a climax and the end. However, he tells us this story in a series of flashbacks, interviews, and visuals. That's where the interesting part really kicks in. Friends of Ryan are brought in through different forms of animation, and they explain to us just how Ryan's life has been.

Every little detail of this movie is flawless. We see a closeup of Ryan and his jaw-dropping realistic face, we see that when he smokes and freezes the camera circles him, exposing every millimeter of perfection, from the smoke to the back of his deformed head. Each shot is so well animated, and yet so deep that it's no wonder it won at the Oscars (ironically since Ryan Larkin was at the Oscars in 1969 and lost only to become unsuccessful and poor). "Ryan" shows us that you can make an animated short that isn't targeted at kids, and have it both entertaining and thought-provoking.

I saw this film at the Newport International Film Festival a few days ago (June 12, 2005). It won an award at the Festival for Best Animated Short.

I am an animation enthusiast who has created some of his own experimental animations. Up until seeing "Ryan" I didn't know the film existed and the NIFF did not list it as an Academy Award winner. So I went into the theater to see a series of short animated movies of which "Ryan" was included.

When I LEFT the shorts program screening, I couldn't help thinking of how profoundly moved I had been after having seen "Ryan". The imagination and creativity that went into the making this short were nothing short of incredible. The two main characters were fragmented and distorted in a way that represented (as many of you have said) the disintegration of the psyche and persona of the individuals. But the faces still had shreds of their original faces included. This was one of the animation techniques that amazed me the most because I really could not tell if the facial shreds were computer generated or rotoscoped from the faces of actors then applied to the individual shreds.

This movie was also laid out as an animated documentary, which is unusual. This means that there isn't much action. Everything is in the interviews that were conducted throughout the film. This means the animators had to REALLY pay attention to the small details. One detail in particular occurred towards the end of the film. This detail shows all street signs, store fronts and window writing written backwards. But if you look closely in one of the windows, you will see the reflection of one of the characters, and he is a complete being. So the world we have been taken to in this marvelous film is very similar to the world Alice stumbled into when she went through the looking glass.

This is a very definite 10 out of 10. Most of my points are awarded for imagination, creativity and for telling a moving story about someone I had never heard of before.

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Edit 10/17/2011

Entire film on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrsVa3CzQj0

"Ryan" deserves ever accolade it has received and more. It illuminates. It shines a light on a piece of animation history while putting it into the greater context of one animator's creative journey. It is that rare example of a true animated documentary, using the form to better tell the story, enhancing it. Utilizing the fanciful to better tell the truth.

It has recently become available on DVD for five dollars at www.Filmporium.com. I highly recommend adding this academy-award winner to your library. This is one film that not holds up to, but rewards repeated viewing. The DVD also contains Bill Plympton's "Eat" and the circle-of-life short "Flux" by Chris Hinton.

Not only one of the best short films I've seen. Perhaps one of the best movies I've seen. This takes the genre that these under-appreciated people work in and it shows the wear and tear to psyches and the human entity. It also shows how much pain goes in with very little remuneration. The animation is so striking as these fragile creatures literally decompose before our eyes.

When Ryan Larkin, the Canadian animator from the late '60s/early '70s died recently, Cartoon Brew paid tribute by showing Syrinx (1965) and this Oscar-winning short by Chris Landreth. It follows Landreth interviewing Larkin is a visual style that I can only describe as psychedelic with the florescent way each faces were colored and lighted. Various associates of Larkin like his longtime girlfriend Felicity comment on the artist's life and career like his troubled childhood with his father or his cocaine and alcohol addiction. Well worth seeing for various animation types of both Landreth and Larkin as displayed in clips of a couple of his shorts like Walking (1969) and Street Musique (1972).

This animated short uses its animation style to express human situations that would be immediately accessible, even if you didn't know English. The excerpts of Ryan Larkin's work "Walking" (titled in the original French as "En Marchant" 1969) give you a glimpse of the genius of this man. Chris' street characters near the end are hauntingly familiar. Is that a fat Michael Richards I see? Well done, Chris, et al. I first saw this on CBC's ZED and it will likely get more play there, probably on their request program on "Feedback Friday" nights. Zed classifies this film as both Experimental and Educational genres. You can see an overview on their web site.

The things Ryan's amazing graphics expressed and the deeper meanings expressed by the outstanding art direction will make any viewer stop and truly think whats possible in movies.

In short, this movie was really really damn GOOD.

Ryan was so good, it made me sign up for IMDb. This is one of those sleeper hits, like Boondock Saints, Donnie Darko or Requiem for a Dream. This movie is very much in its own category in movies, until more movies "borrow" the graphic style. On top of all of the breath taking visuals is an excellent documentary on a brilliant yet flawed artist. Sad yet breathtaking, like i said: in its own category.

Simply put: There's nothing else out there like this!

I have mixed feelings about this film - nearly all of me likes this movie, but there was an aspect of it which bored me too. Also I don't know if I totally understood all that the filmmaker wanted me to understand.

As everyone has stated the animation is amazing and clever too. (Both the hand drawn and 3d). It's also an interesting approach for an animated documentary which I've not seen before. The character of Ryan was interesting as well as his wife and producer/friend and the ending is inspiring yet also sad and parallels his movement in past drawings. Yet I thought some stuff was just bizarre - I understood the fragmented personality aspect but is everyone fragmented? Was there significance to the colors used? Also some shots (i.e. diving into the director's mind which has a yellow smiley face) were bizarre. Nevertheless the film doesn't take itself too seriously and it is clever and worth a watch. I'd recommend it.

9/10

If you follow Chris Landreth's work, then you know this is going to be a bizarre, visually outstanding art piece. But "Ryan" makes something completely different. It's a homage to Ryan Larkin's job, another recognized animator, as well as a deep introspection into the hidden dark world of many artists, directors and celebrities, who had to deal with several addictions. Told from the mind-blowing point of view of Landreth, and animated with the style that we all know and love, giving every single character a unique, grotesque aspect, that perfectly symbolizes the wounds in their lifes, reminders of a dark, miserable past. You'll never get tired of wandering in Landreth's creation, you'll never get tired of listening to Ryan's monologues and past experiences, and somehow, you'll get a little bit of nostalgia from the calm soundtrack. You'll get dazzled by the constant tension towards the end, and you'll feel your heart touched, once the end credits have begun. Definitely, the best short film Chris Landreth has ever done.

documentary. homage. and fascinating use of CGI for a story who deserves it. because it is more than the concise, precise, touching and bitter story of Ryan Larkin. it is a wise and provocative film. because it is a special way for discover an artist and his universe. remembering the flavor of bohemian life style, the cultural revolutions of XX century. and the taste of freedom.

This animation is an orgy between creativity and imagination. You have to understand that this is a documentary about Ryan Larkin, A Canadian who pioneered animated drawings in the late 1960's but fell from that status. So, it is a documentary about the fall of an artist, a pioneering animator, by an animator, through animation. It is a view of life at its rawest. I think it would be interesting for this "psycho-realism" style to be explored more as a movie theme. For example, I think this could have an interesting effect on a movie with a theme similar to Artificial Intelligence. I was hoping AI by Spielberg would be a little more sinister or deep. That show fell flat on its ass. So, if Chris Landreth could hook up with some very creative, twisted writers, I could see this style becoming a new genre of movies. Enough of the same old, same old...