Bristol’s very own Wallace and Gromit are clear inspirations for the Australian team behind Mary and Max. The fingerprints of the animators can sometimes be seen on the characters as they were painstakingly modelled frame by frame to create this feature-length claymation.
But the gorgeous animation contrasts with many troubling topics. Aardman might have included a murder for the first time in their latest offering, A Matter of Loaf and Death, but Wallace and Gromit never have to worry about the real world concerns that occupy Mary and Max’s lives.
Mary Dinkle is a lonely eight-year-old girl from a small town in Australia who strikes up an unlikely penpal friendship with Max Horowitz, an obese 40-year-old chocolate hot dog-addicted New Yorker with Asperger’s Syndrome.
Mary and Max moves back and forth from brown Australia to grey America with a voiceover by Barry Humphries similar to that used in Amelie, delving into the mundane details of characters’ lives. Mary’s mother Vera, for example, “is addicted to cooking sherry, listening to cricket on the radio, baking and shoplifting”.
Mary (Toni Collette), like Amelie, is fascinated by the world around her and sets out to make it a better place. Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is confused by the world he lives in, but sets out to answer Mary’s childish questions about the birds and the bees to the best of his abilities.
The movie follows their lives and those around them, as Mary grows from a child into an adult and Max grows larger and larger.
Mary and Max, written and directed by Adam Elliott (Academy Award winner in 2003 for best animated short film with Harvie Krumpet), can be absolutely charming, and there are some wonderfully funny moments. But the dark undercurrent is never far away. This is an animation made for adults, with themes of death, suicide, mental illness and alcoholism.
Mary and Max both live tragic lives and do not expect this film to have a Wallace and Gromit-style happy ending. Do expect a wonderful and wonderful-looking movie which is thought-provoking and utterly engaging.
Mary and Max is showing now at the Watershed. Visit here for more info.
