A gentleman panhandler. One of the pioneers of Canadian animation. Oscar nominee. Poor beggar. An artist unable to create. God observing the world. Fallen angel. Arrogant. Shy. Broken. Not destroyed.

Ryan, directed by Chris Landreth, is an animated tribute to Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. Thirty years ago, at the National Film Board of Canada, Ryan produced some of the most influential animated films of his time.

In Ryan we hear the voice of Ryan Larkin and people who have known him, but these voices speak through strange, twisted, broken and disembodied 3D generated characters... people whose appearances are bizarre, humorous or disturbing. Although incredibly realistic and detailed, Ryan was created and animated without the use of live action footage, rotoscoping or motion capture...but instead from an original, personal, hand animated three-dimensional world which Chris calls 'psychological realism'.

A world encapsulated in the words of Anais Nin:
We don't see things as they are. We see things as we are.


2004, 13 min 54 s


Directed by
Chris Landreth

Produced by
Steven Hoban
Marcy Page
Mark Smith

Production Agency
Copper Heart Entertainment Inc.
National Film Board of Canada

13. The Adventures of Andre and Wally B.
This animated short from Pixar is really the weakest of the bunch. I'm willing to give it a free pass on how it looks since it was made in 1984 but the story isn't all that imaginative either. The story is just a bee chasing a guy. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure imagination was invented before 1984 so I can't give it them a free pass on the bad story.

12. Boundin'
Boundin' was about a Sheep that liked to dance. Then one day somebody comes and shaves off all his wool and the other animals laugh at him. The sheep is embarrassed until one day a jackalope comes hopping by and tells the sheep to hop too, instead of dancing. When I first saw this animated short from Pixar my immediate reaction was, "what the heck was that??" That is still my reaction after seeing it many more times.

11. Mike's New Car
Mike' New Car is starring Mike and Sulley from Monsters, Inc. Mike gets a brand new car and shows it off to Sulley. Everything goes wrong and Mike wishes he had his old car back. Mike's New Car was basically like a scene stolen from the Three Stooges with a lot of physical humor but I didn't think anything was funny about it. The most entertaining part of this animated short was hearing the directors' kids do the commentary on the DVD.

10. Red's Dream
Red's Dream is about a small red unicycle in a bike shop that has a dream in which a clown is riding him and juggling. The unicycle then becomes the star of the show as the clown falls off the unicycle and the unicycle continues to juggle the balls. I enjoy the opening setting of this animated short, it's a dark and rainy night, because that is a very difficult setting to animate, but I'm not too crazy about the unicycle and the dream. Plus, clowns are scary.

9. For the Birds
For the Birds had several birds that were minding their own business on a power line. Soon a much larger and awkward bird appears and the smaller birds make fun of it. The larger bird then makes his way onto the power line and the smaller birds try to get rid of him. At the last second they realize that the larger bird is weighing down the power line and as soon as he lets go the rest of the birds will be catapulted into the air, but they realize too late and as they are shot through the air they lose their fathers. Honestly this animated short from Pixar was not bad as far as the animation or the story but neither was something that wowed me either.

8. Geri's Game
Geri' Game is unlike the next couple of animated shorts coming up on this list in that I wasn't really crazy about the story but the animation is incredibly good. In Geri's Game there is an old man in an empty park that sits down to play a game of chess. Geri gets up and goes back and forth between the two sides and plays as both the white pieces and the black piece. The two Geris seem to have completely different personalities even though it is just one guy playing both sides.

7. Mater and the Ghost Light
Mater and the Ghost Light was the third animated short from Pixar to feature characters from their feature films. In this one we see Mater playing pranks on all the other characters from Cars. The cars then get together and play a prank on Mater by making him think he is being chased by the Ghost Light. Mater and the Ghost Light was alright but honestly after seeing Cars I would've rather seen an animated short with some different characters.

6. Lifted
Lifted is a very creative animated short from Pixar but just doesn't quite crack the top few spots. In Lifted an alien is taking his examination on how to abduct somebody with the tractor beam. The alien continually messes up, causing the farmer to crash into the wall and the ceiling and at one point gets him stuck in the window. The alien fails to capture the farmer but the instructor lets him fly home instead. Unfortunately he crashes the spaceship into the farmer's home.

5. Jack Jack Attack
Jack jack Attack was starring Jack Jack from the Incredibles. Jack Jack Attack was different from the Pixar animated shorts in that it revealed a part of the movie that we had not seen. During the movie Jack Jack is left with a babysitter and this animated short shows what happened with Jack Jack and the babysitter. This animated short also touches on every babysitter's worst nightmare. What if you got to the house you were babysitting at to find out their baby had superpowers and could phase through walls, fly and set himself on fire?

4. One Man Band
In One Man Band a little boy has just one coin to his name. He is going to use the coin to make a wish in the fountain but two different One Man Bands are playing in the courtyard and are taking tips. The two One Man Bands fight for the boy's coin until they make him drop it down the drain. The boy then demands a violin from one of the Bands and when he begins to play he get an entire bag of coins. One of the best moments in all of the Pixar animated shorts come when the boy pulls out two coins taunts the two bands with them and then throws them in the fountain instead.

3. Tin Toy
The animation in Tin Toy is a little rough but the story is probably the cutest of any the animated short by Pixar. Tin Toy is about a small one man band toy and the baby he belongs to. At first the toy is happy and having a good time until he realizes that the baby doesn't really play with toys but actually just shakes them about and throws them on the ground, usually breaking them. The Tin Toy then decides to stay away from the baby but he' been cursed by the fact that every time he moves he makes music.
So while the Tin Toy is trying to sneak away he actually plays music and attracts the attention of the baby. The baby then comes after him and the Tin Toy makes a break for it and hides under the bed to find about 20 other toys all hiding there too.
The Tin Toy looks back out from under the bed to see that as the baby was chasing the Tin Toy he tripped and fell and was now crying. The Tin Toy feels sorry for the baby and goes out to try and cheer up the baby with some music. At first the baby enjoys the music and plays with the Tin Toy. But then the baby sees the packaging that the Tin Toy was in and decides to play with that instead, making the Tin Toy jealous.

2. Knick Knack
Knick Knack is another early animated short from Pixar that might not look as good as Luxo Jr. but makes up for it with an imaginative story. There are many knick knacks sitting on a desk, each with a theme from a different place in the world. Inside of a snow globe from Alaska is a snowman named Nick. Nick sees the babe in the Miami knick knack waving at him and wants to go see her. Unfortunately he is stuck in his snow globe. Nick tries many different funny methods to try and escape the snow globe including trying to hammer his nose through the glass and even using TNT to try and blow up the glass.

1. Luxo Jr.
Luxo Jr. is basically the Toy Story of animated shorts. Luxo Jr. is probably the most famous Pixar animated short and it sent shock waves through the entire industry because it showed just what computers were capable of. Luxo Jr. is of course the animated short with the two lamps, a bigger lamp watches the smaller lamp as he plays with his ball. Just like Toy Story, animation has come a long way since Luxo Jr. but none of today' animated shorts look any better.
Luxo Jr. is also a piece of history like Toy Story. Luxo Jr. was the first CG movie to ever be nominated for an Academy Award. Luxo Jr. was such a big part of Pixar's success that it now appears in the Pixar logo.

An absolutely brilliant film! Jiri Trnka, the master of puppet animation, confronts totalitarianism in this, his final, film. It would be banned by the Communist Czechoslovakian government (at the time), despite taking the country's highest animation award.

In this dark and entertaining short film, an artist attempts to create a new pot for his favourite plant. He happily makes his creations while dreaming that his plant will grow to be a beautiful rose. All of a sudden, he here's a knock at the door, and in comes this giant omnipotent hand, that tries to force the artist to make statues in it's likeness. The artist resists as best he can, but he eventually becomes overwhelmed by the constant attempts, by the hand, to force him to conform. He becomes brainwashed; an intellectual zombie. At this point the hand attaches strings to the artist, puts him in a cage, and uses him to make hand statues. All the while glorifying the artist's work and awarding him with medals and honours.

The artist's inner lust to be able to express himself freely is what helps him prevail over his indoctrination, and enables him escape his prison, whether it be literal or in his mind, and return to his home where he now must live in constant fear of the wrath of the omnipotent hand. He shuts himself in, thinking he is out of the reach of the almighty hand, but in the process he puts his plant and pot up high, hoping it is out of the reach of the hand, and it ends up falling on his head, killing him. The artist is inevitabally destroyed by his own creation. All because of the constant fear he had to live with once he escaped the hand's strings. Once dead, the hand paints the artist as a great person, a national hero. Unfortunately not in the circumstances or for the reasons that the artist would like to be remembered.

Trnka's condemnation of Totalitarian society, and their lack of right for free expression is dark, damning and an amazingly animated. It is no wonder the government banned it as this is the sort of media that people admire, and would perhaps even listen to. That was obviously not acceptable. An amazing example of an artists civil disobedience and the impact it can have.