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I watched a DVD last night called Ryan. It is one of the rarest of DVDs in that every minute of the bonus material is worth watching. The main feature of the DVD, Ryan, is a 14-minute computer animated documentary about Ryan Larkin, a Canadian animator who kind of went nuts just as he was gaining recognition for his work in the early ’70s. In this surreal but compelling documentary,

…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. (View a .ram clip from the film.)

The DVD has two additional CGI shorts by the director, Chris Landreth: Bingo and The End. Both are weird and fun to watch, but are novelties next to the three animated shorts by Larkin included on the DVD: Walking, Syrinx, and Street Musique — this guy was an artist. I was impressed. What puts the DVD over the top, though, is the 52-minute documentary about Larkin called Alter Egos. It starts off as one of those making-of ‘featurettes,’ but it’s really the most compelling feature of the DVD. In it we see the real Larkin — who is much more interesting than the CGI-distorted version depicted in “Ryan.” It ends with Larkin actually viewing the final cut of “Ryan,” which is a hell of a moment; that’s all I’m going to say. Afterwards, I immediately played the Larkin shorts again with a greater appreciation of his talent. It took about two hours to explore the entire contents of the DVD (including watching the Larkin animations twice, the second time with Larkin’s commentary track turned on). It was time well spent. Kind of makes me want to pick up a pencil myself.

P.S., “Last Exit on St. Laurent Street: The Wonderfully Fucked Up World of Ryan Larkin,” an extensive article about Larkin published in Animation World Magazine.

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