Review of Mary and Max

Review of Mary and Max

Mary and Max

Mary & Max is a 3D stop motion animation which is aimed at a more mature audience. It portrays dark themes and depressing moments which Michael Edwards explains on whatculture.com. 'So why is this so special? Firstly, the atmosphere created by writer/director Adam Elliot is tailor made for combining serious, dark issues with genuinely funny moments. The claymation is designed in a way that is a caricature of the ordinary, a childlike parody of the reality that these lonely souls inhabit.' (Edwards, 2010) Creating Mary & Max took a long time to do and even before pre-production a long storyboard had to be drawn, as well as being on a budget only a handful of animators worked on the film, as quoted by Adam Elliot on awn.com. 'After the script stage, I spent four to five months hand drawing the entire storyboard (1,300 panels). Only then did we move into the studio and start pre-production. We could only afford six animators so the pressure was on for each of them to produce an average of five seconds per day with very little time or money for take two's or three's.' (Elliot, 2009) 

Mary

The film explores a range of emotions from sadness to joy and humor to seriousness. It can be familiar at some times to complete strangeness at others, this being mentioned on moviemet.com by James Plath. 'Despite serious social and psychological issues and coarse material, "Mary & Max" inhabits a world that is both familiar and bizarre - and both logical and illogical. One minute the cause-and-effect aspects of life seem to be enforced (as when Max's goldfish keep dying and he's up to Henry the 9th), and the next minute you have a pet chicken who seems to have the lifespan of a parrot. It's that juncture where quirkiness and the imagination meet serious human themes and life's naturalism that most fascinates Elliot. He clearly wants you to laugh in spots, to be shocked other times, to be outraged on occasion, and to be saddened others.' (Plath, 2010)  

 Max and his Cat

Rating; 

List of Illutrations

Figure 1. Elliot, Adam (2009) Mary and Max [Poster] At: http://www.movieinsider.com/posters/9886/ (Accessed on: 12.02.12)

Figure 2. Elliot, Adam (2009) Mary [Screen cap] At: http://cutprintreview.com/reviews/4-12-stars/mary-max-review/ (Accessed on: 12.02.12)

Figure 3. Elliot, Adam (2009) Max and his Cat [Screen cap] http://whatculture.com/film/review-mary-and-max.php (Accessed on: 12.02.12)

Bibliography

Edwards, Michael (2010) Review: Mary and Max. http://whatculture.com/film/review-mary-and-max.php (Accessed on: 12.02.12)

Elliot, Adam (2009) Mary and Max: Elliot and Clayography.  http://www.awn.com/articles/article/mary-and-max-elliot-and-clayography/page/1%2C1 (Accessed on: 12.02.12)

Plath, James (2010) Mary and Max - DVD. Review http://moviemet.com/review/mary-and-max-dvd-review (Accessed on: 12.02.12)