Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Rectangular_businessman This short is one adaptation of the book of Ernest Hemighway, by the Russian animator, Aleksandr Petrov (Which, along with Yuriy Norshteyn is one of the greatest Russian animators of the history) The visual technique of the short is paint on glass, and it looks absolutely beautiful, filled with a incredible level of detail. Every single frame looks like a painting, but not only the animation is beautiful to look at, but also the narration used by Petrov it's simply wonderful and mesmerizing, combining dream-like sequences with a unique, fantastic animation. I highly recommend this short to anyone, especially those who enjoy different styles of animation. No wonder why this won the Academy award to Best short in 1999. This short is a masterpiece.

Robert Reynolds I just saw this short a couple of days ago and was very impressed with the beautiful and striking detail-in the backgrounds, the characters, the movement-everything was simply gorgeous. There will be slight spoilers: This is a short animated adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novella The Old Man and the Sea and does very well by the source material. With only 20 minutes to work with as a running time, even a novella must be significantly abridged, but the main points are well covered here-the old man's struggles, his bout with the fish he ultimately catches, his problems getting his prize back to shore-all are told in a clear and concise manner. The narration is extremely effective and enhances the beautiful visual elements perfectly.Though it tells Hemingway's story well, this is, at its heart, a feast for the eyes. The oil on glass technique used makes colors jump off the screen. It reminded me (favorably) of the work of Frederic Back, which is also visually stunning. This short is definitely a piece of art by any definition.It can be found on more than one DVD release-the one I purchased was an IMAX version and also includes another short (Hemingway: A Portrait) and a "Making of" featurette on both shorts and is well worth having. Most highly recommended.

Galina "The Old Man and the Sea" (1999) directed by Aleksandr Petrov is a 20 minutes long animation based on Ernest Hemingway's 1952 novella of the same name. Petrov's film was awarded Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2000. More than two years of painting on glass sheets, using brushes but mostly his own fingers, resulted in over 29,000 paintings that enabled Petrov to produce this absolutely awesome, one of the kind feast of colors, images, and emotions that celebrate the famous work of literature and its creator. I have watched it perhaps ten times during the last weekend. I am still overwhelmed by its beauty and depth, and the admiration for what human imagination, creativity, and talent are capable of producing. The extremely rare technique made the film both incredibly realistic and magically dream-like. The director himself gave us the key to understanding his work when he explained that painting with his fingers instead of brushes, "is the closest way from the heart to the cartoon". He put his own heart in every scene of the film, and that's probably why every image is alive, breathing, and shining.

Richard Smith This film is such a milestone that it's a shame that it will probably never be screened again in it's original IMAX format. I was lucky enough to catch it during it's limited run in late 1999 when it was playing at the Sony IMAX in New York City. Anyways, Petrov's animation technique involves oil painting on glass, which most animation geeks are familiar with. When combined with IMAX the result is stunning. There is one shot near the end of the film with shows the Cuban fishing village at night with the stars in the background. The stars shimmer like diamonds set into dark blue velvet - incredible, beyond words, even if you are jaded about "art house" animation. If you ever hear of this film screening at an IMAX venue - don't miss it!