Ryan (2004)

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.