The Old Man and the Sea (Russian: ?) is a 1999 paint-on-glass-animated short film directed by Aleksandr Petrov, based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. The film won many awards, including the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Work on the film took place in Montreal over a period of two and a half years and was funded by an assortment of Canadian, Russian and Japanese companies. French and English-language soundtracks to the film were released concurrently. It was the first animated film to be released in IMAX.
That is amazing, but I wonder what the framerate is, since one painting does not produce one frame (if that were the case it would be animated on 1’s and there would be paintings to spare, if it is 29000 paintings and it lasts 19min and 40 sec.)
This is really the apex of animation from a visual standpoint. I think more expressive and cartoony disney characters would be required but I see no reason why a feature production couldn’t be made with the glorious and lush backgrounds that we see in this film.
I got here from tumblr from a post that was talking about different kinds of animation. This was one of them on the list. I didn’t expect myself to watch the entire thing but I did. And wow. That was amazing. Incredible.
I literally had just read this short book in one sitting before typing in the title on Google to learn more about the story and see if there was anything I missed. It was a powerful story and the end when the other fishermen commented on the size of the fish made me tear up for some reason. My only criticism of this stunning animated film is that it cannot convey that length of time and pain the old man went through to get that magnificent fish. I also missed the men-of-war comments. That said, I applaud this beautiful piece of work.
Only learned lately that the voice of the old man belongs to Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent. For one of his exceptional roles see the movie Away From Her based on one of Alice Munro’s short stories. (Alice formerly of Clinton Ontario received the Nobel Prize for literature in 2014).
Wow. Breathtaking art. Was each frame a painting? The animation reminds me somewhat of Kings Quest. I hated reading this book and didn’t appreciate it at all in eighth grade, but I think this video would have helped me understand it a bit more had I seen it. The live action movie is garbage.
I’ve shown this video to my students at school. they were amazed . I myself can never express enough appreciation to the artist who took the time and effort to deliver such an outstanding work of art. thanks.
It’s a beautiful animated story and so touching. I was happy when he caught his dream at last but it didn’t last long for the enemies destroyed his dream… It was so touching. I have learned from this…
I understand from reading up a bit that it is painted on glass- The effect gives credence to the story by fantastic Hemingway and captures the underlie of the current stream of poetry in life and death.
