En marchant

Ryan Larkin uses a variety of animation styles to depict human beings at work, at play and yes - walking. Dressed and naked, and from different perspectives, we see his impressions of our stride, our expressions and our musculature (or lack of it) as we do that thing that was supposed to distinguish us early on from mammals. At times the artwork is ultra-detailed, at others a less defined - almost ghostlike image is presented - and all to a fitting score that reflects the pace engagingly. There's a lot of work and inspiration gone into this five minutes and it makes one of our more mundane activities quite interesting to watch.

This is film as art. Walking is known for being ground-breaking -- the interpretations of the movement of the human body in so many styles, some so natural and realistic they could almost pass for photography, others so abstract they are just a few dabs of paint. The extremes of perspective and style reflected the counterculture and psychedelic culture of the times. Ryan Larkin is an animator's animator, maybe he's not famous in pop culture, but he's famous in industry circles because he opened up new possibilities. Everyone walks all the time, in real life and in animation, and Larkin meditates on the possibilities in such a simple movement.

I'm not an artist, but I have some knowledge of painting and drawing. We have here, something that is so avant garde and so physiologically out there that it captures one immediately. Most art teachers would tell their students the hand and the foot are the hardest things to draw and animate. Let's face it. In a five minute film, we are able to view the science of walking in nearly every incarnation.

The film consists of various people walking and they are drawn in a variety of ways. As you see cartoons walk or outlines of people or sketches, music accompanies their every move. There really isn't anything more to the film.

WALKING was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short but in this day and age, I doubt if this would be possible. That's because the quality of the animation and stories has risen dramatically over the last decade or two and a pure art film like WALKING probably wouldn't be noticed. Sure, it has some lovely animation here and there, but this isn't consistent. Plus, there really is no plot to the film and even though it's only five minutes long, I have a hard time imagining people sticking with it to the end--I know I had to struggle. In many ways, it looks like an art house film and not much more.