Mary and Max (2009), Adam Elliot

This review will be critically analysing Adam Elliot's movie "Mary and Max". This a perfect example of beautifully stylised stop motion animation with a touching story. This review is based on Daniel Grim's, Thomas Caldwell's and David Nusair's reviews.

Figure1

"Mary and Max" ironically represents the lives of lonely people without too much of crying and moaning, but with a smile and hope that loneliness will not last forever. We've seen similar mood examples in movies like "Persepolis" and "Waltz with Bashir". These movies represents to the audience that there are many people who have seriously big problems with their lives, but still manage to see everything from the bright side. David Nusair, former Contributing Writer says that "Mary and Max isn’t really intended to be viewed by very small children. There’s nothing in the movie that will scar them for life, yet it’s clear that the emphasis on decidedly grown-up themes like suicide and mental illness will leave the little ones more perplexed than anything else." (June 15, 2010). Arguably even though there is a lot of warmth and sadness at the same time in "Mary and Max", children, who have probably not yet experienced real troubles in their lives, would probably not understand why everything might seem so grey and depressing,so David Nusair considers that only people who have experienced something similar can relate them selves to the movie and understand why it is never worth to give up trying to get what you want even if it looks very hardly believable.

Figure2

Relating the story with our own lives helps not only to understand the animation, but also look at our own profiles from another angle. Movie geek Daniel Grim on his blog "All Hope is lost" wonders: "More people should watch it and I guarantee they would love it maybe even relate to it because the film is made so brilliantly done and combined the serious tones of mental problems in life with an amazing story, not many other animated movies can compare." (December 8, 2011). Daniel Grim lets us to understand that this movie has a lesson inside about  the life itself.  The lesson is, again, no matter what, look at the bright side and reach what you want.

Figure 3

Not many people knows what exactly is this Asperger's syndrome is and what kind of symptoms it has. Adam Elliot really knew a lot about his characters and a very interesting fact was pointed out by Thomas Caldwell from Cinema Autopsy: "Elliot based the character of Max on his own penfriend, a person who also has Asperger’s Syndrome and lives in New York." (4 March 2009). In this case Thomas Caldwell reveals that characters in this movie are so warm and real not just because of good research, but also - real experience. It appears that all of those crazy mimics were not made out from nowhere.

All in all this movie is a touching story that should morally affect you. Sad story of a girl and an old sick man isn't very hard to watch and understand, but that doesn't take away the depth of the story. Amazing stop motion animation is another incredible benefit that only enhances the perfectness of already good stuff.

Bibliography:

1) David Nusair (June 15, 2010). http://movies.about.com/od/animatedmovies/fr/mary-max-review.htm

2) Daniel Grim (December 8, 2011). http://grimdeath999.tumblr.com/post/13941667043/watching-mary-and-max-on-film4

3) Thomas Caldwell (4 March 2009). http://blog.cinemaautopsy.com/2009/04/05/film-review-mary-and-max-2009/

Illustrations:

1) Mary http://www.dgdesignnetwork.com.au/dgdn/briefingroom/mary-and-max-the-exhibition-at-acmi/

2) Max http://www.dgdesignnetwork.com.au/dgdn/briefingroom/mary-and-max-the-exhibition-at-acmi/

3) Adam Elliot from bizare behind the scenes Mary and Max documentary shots http://f4.org.au/pages/f4-home/program/23-february/