I spent the last ten weeks watching Sylvester Stallone movies, so I know from crazy, quixotic passion projects. But even I am staggered by this thing: a 35-minute “paraphrasing” of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner from 12,597 animated watercolor paintings. It’s beautiful and insane—who would do this? A really big Blade Runner fan, I guess.

That fan is Swedish artist Anders Ramsell, who hand-painted each of the thousands of 1.5 by 3 cm paintings that make up the film, then synced them up to audio from the movie. The results are moody, and dreamily gorgeous.

Confession: I’ve never been a Blade Runner lover, and I remain slightly mystified by the intensity of people’s devotion to it. Works like Ramsell’s madly detailed ode don’t bring me any closer to “getting it,” but they make me want to rewatch the movie and try again.

[Kotaku]