Mary and Max Reviews

As good as anything Pixar has made in terms of emotional power, but a lot less known. What a shame. Mary and Max is one of the best animated movies I have ever watched, and one of the most heart-wrenching movies I have ever seen, period.

This is a film that I think its hard to decide what I really think about this movie. I can decide that it is a good film but I can't decide if it was an okay film, a fantastic film, or a just a flat out incredible film. The main reason I can't really decide is that its such a depressing and such sad and horrible film. If i could decide on a full rating is that it is a great film and worthy of its rating of 94% its just not a good film for everyone to see especially children.

Very unusual, absorbing animation, both sensitive and dark. Philip Seymour Hoffman steals the show as the voice of Max.

Back In 2003, director Adam Elliot released an animated short called "Harvie Krumpet". It went on to win an Oscar and like most animators after receiving this accolade, he went on to make a feature film. If this little film is anything to go buy, then it won't be the last we'll be seeing of this talented artist.
It tells the story of two, not so different but very unusual, pen pals; Mary, an 8 year old Australian girl living in Melbourne and Max a 44 year old man from New York. They both struggle to get on in life and have difficulty connecting with people yet miles apart, manage to strike up a heart-warming friendship that spans 20 years.
As we are introduced to young Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced by Bethany Whitmore as a child and Toni Collette as an adult), we are told she has eyes the colour of muddy puddles and a birthmark the colour of poo. She gets teased at school and her parents are always busy. Her father is either working on taxidermy or attaching the strings to teabags and her mother is constantly 'testing' the sherry and listening to Cricket on the radio. The people around her have very little time for her. As a result, she randomly chooses a name from an American phonebook and writes a letter to Max Jerry Horovitz. Max (voiced by an unrecognisable Philip Seymour Hoffman) is just as lonely and finds the world very confusing and chaotic. He has trouble understanding people, is hyper sensitive and has trouble expressing his emotions. However, he decides to respond and an unlikely friendship develops between them. It's the commentary on their individual lives and personal experiences that provides this film with some off-beat and darkly humorous ideas. Mary is able to ask questions like: Do sheep shrink when it rains? Why old men wear their trousers so high and if a taxi drives backwards does it save you money? She also tells Max of her neighbour who's scared of going outside - "which is a disease called homophobia". She's sweet and innocent and like Max, shares that inability to fit in. Max is also allowed a rare chance in his life to open up. He tells her of his top five favourite-sounding words; "Ointment, Bumblebee, Vladivostok, Banana and Testicle". He also informs us, that when he was young, he invented an invisible friend called 'Mr. Ravioli'. His psychiatrist said that Max didn't need him anymore, so 'Mr. Ravioli' now just sits in the corner and reads self help books. The humour is easy-going and possesses a freshness and originality. The use of animated clay dolls and monochrome and sepia settings are also brilliantly done, helping the humorous characters and dialogue perfectly compliment each other. Despite a lightness of touch though, it also addresses some deeper themes; alcoholism, mental illness, body image, suicide and depression which make this a film more suited to adults but that doesn't stop it from being a delightful and highly inventive piece of work.
It's been a long time since I seen Adam Elliot's short "Harvie Krumpet" but I'll be keeping an eye out for it again after this creative, emotional and poignant little treat.

"Mary and Max". Glanced at the cover and the first thought was, "Hey, looks like a very interesting movie." Wow... interesting indeed. This animated movie ain't for children; this is one dark movie. "Mary and Max" is a very clever, multi-layered philosophical study of two social outcasts. There's hardly any color, and the narrative's usually delivered in first person with heart-warmingly, nimble dialogue between the two lonely stars. You're gonna laugh, you're gonna feel dread, and you're gonna feel happy. Its as immersive as its gonna get for an animated movie, and it's all due to the cohesive delivery -- ingenious direction, out-of-this-world yet familiar style, and the great voice actors are just to name a few of the ensemble achievements "Mary and Max" manages to pull off. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's hardly getting the praise that it deserves.

A totally unique and original Animated film. Quite gritty for an animated film, it's tone is quite depressing, but so human in an ironic way. The relationships are captured with a true insight and depth.

This film is an absolute masterpiece. It's colorful, whimsical, red, depressing, disgusting, gorgeous, hilarious, and illuminating all at once. It doesn't limit itself to merely being an "adult animation" film, which I love. You can tell Elliot was inspired by a bunch of filmmakers (particularly Wes Anderson) but at the same time his style is uniquely his own. There's a release at the end that comes out in a little pop, cathartic and heartwarming. And I don't usually like to praise voice actors, but Philip Seymour Hoffman's New York Jewishness is ON THE MONEY.

An intricately poignant claymation film about the friendship between two very unlikely people, Mary and Max pushes the envelope of what claymation can do as an art form while also being quirky, cute, and interestingly dark. This medium has brought us everything from Wallace and Gromit to Gumby, but never has really left the realm of the childlike and vulnerable. This film also starts semi-naive with the fresh faced perspective of Mary, a chubby girl from Australia. Her thoughts are often depressive and yet original, and have the spirit of a child. Friendless and always ignored by her alcoholic mother and patiently apathetic father, she sends off a letter to a stranger in New York to ask her most intriguing questions. Soon a correspondence develops between herself and Max, an obese atheist Asperger's patient. Though both are separated by so much in their lives they still find common ground as both are friendless, lovers of junk food (including sweetened condensed milk) and have childlike sensibilities. Over time this changes, but destruction envelops both of their lives, only having each other to lean on metaphorically. Amazing things keep happening to both, sometimes awful and sometimes amazing and life changing. Though both go through a rollercoaster of emotional distress and loneliness there is hope and advice to be given. Every one of Mary's unfortunate problems is solved by the wizened naivety of Max and in turn Mary constantly helps out her clueless friend, who's disorder keeps him awkward and confused. The film covers the seventies and into the present, always hopeful, eccentric, and downright uplifting. Many of the characters go through their own transformations by association, and we get to see a bevy of different stages in the lives of two certainly different individuals. The care and concern they have for one another though they've never met is something that we don't get to see every day, and though many believe it's sappy and unrealistic, the depths of depression and aloneness are easy to relate to. It's edgy for what it is and tried to accomplish and the message of friendship was one never covered in such an interesting ways. Beautiful, beautiful film.

Refreshingly dark and edgy.

Mary and Max is innovative, original and quite heartbreaking animation about a rare kind of a friendship between two lonely souls. Another is eight year old Mary who has practically no friends at all and is also bullied at school. Another is middle-aged Max who suffers from Asperger's syndrome and barely sees or even likes anyone. One day their life takes turn into something interesting when Mary decides randombly to pick name in phonenumber-catalogue and Max's name comes up. There begins a story about pen pals that is deeply human and heartbreakingly sad also. Director/writer Adam Elliot is very good as a writer and this film's biggest strenght lies definetly in a well made screenplay and dialogue. It balances between being a sweet comedy and more darker drama and sometimes the effect is uneven, but it has many important things to say about people who suffer from mental illness. So many of today's animations are way too familiar and recycles the same old ideas, but here is a film that dares to be something different. It is far from perfect and has it's flaws in form of unbalanced moments of seriouness and humour, but it is fresh and something new.

A funny and sad tale of a pen pal friendship that mixes sweet with bitter and heart-warming with callous humor and still works. It's certainly not for kids, but the quirky animation and the details are fun to watch. Problem is the bleakness of the theme and how many really bad things keep happening, so it's really not a happy movie, even if you sometimes hope for it to be. So, being the optimist that I am, it left me oddly unsatisfied, even though I enjoyed many parts of the film for its unusual humor.

Mary Daisy Dinkle is a chubby, eight-year old girl from Australia who is neglected by her parents and has no friends. She then finds a pen pal named Max Jerry Horovitz who is an atheist, obese, mentally ill, loner living in New York City. For a twenty-year span, the two write letters and send each other things as they answer each others questions involving the issues in life.

Of all the themes director Adam Elliot could have gone with for "Mary and Max", he chose life and all the issues that come with it. "Mary and Max" is a extremely unique animated film that treats itself as it was live action. The characters are awesomely designed with realistic issues. When they're stressed, you feel stressed. When they're sad, you feel depressed. Many emotions and sparks fly in the film. I did not cry but I felt that someone has grabbing my heart with a tight grip.

Its a claymation film with very strong, mature PG-13 themes. The animation was gnarly. Almost every prop in this was designed with clay and I am very proud at the animators. I've mentioned how strong the themes are and the animation and design of the characters don't seem to go along with that. However, the films makes us deal with that. I would've given this film 100% if it was live action but the animation aspect is still quite beautiful. I tend to be put off by narration in films but that is what "Mary and Max" was built upon and Adam Elliot made it tolerable and interesting.

The voice acting was phenomenal. Whoever voiced Young Mary in the beginning did a fantastic job. Toni Collette was awesome as older Mary. This is the second film I've seen with her, the first being "The Sixth Sense", and my first ever with Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He was excellent as Max added much, much emotion into the terribly troubled character. The narrator, who sounded like Geoffery Rush, was very good. Maybe the best narrator (who is not a chatacter) that I've seen in any film.

The film has well crafted opening credits that give us an a very good look at part of the film's setting. Once the narration kicks in, it adds very funny lines and unexpected, and some vulgar, humor. Once the character's issues kick in, the movie takes a very different direction to a emotional romp. Elliot knows how to make a scene more intense as it progresses. For example, the acclaimed "Que Sera?" sequence. My. Jaw. Dropped.

It is no way intended for children and that probably is the best thing about it. "Mary and Max" is a top-notch film that gives us an excellent look at life and its issues. If you are currently down in the dumps, get your butt up and rent this movie. It'll probably make you more depressed but make you appreciate your life more and make you so grateful that you neither Mary nor Max. I wonder if this is really based on a true story as it said at the start of the film. This is a film that is 100% guaranteed to stay in your memory. You need to see this. I urge you to. Big Oscar snub, I'm talking about right here. Well, I gotta go. I need to go watch the latest episode of "The Noblets". Thanks for reading and leave clean comments below.

"The stars made more sense."

"Mary and Max" is one of the most powerful and heartbreaking animated films I've ever seen. Completely Brilliant.

It is rare that a film is both heart warming and heart breaking at the same time, never as true here with Mary & Max. Adam Elliot has excelled himself after the success of Harvey Krumpet - a hard act to follow - and has cemented himself as one of my favourite writer/directors of all time (with only two films so far). This is a tale to be cherished, although your enjoyment is based on your outlook on life, are you a half full or half empty person, can you see the silver lining to every cloud, can you see truth beyond the fog of uncertainty? If not, Mary & Max can show you the way, just give them that chance. A new favourite of mine and Adam Elliot is definitely a name to look out for.

Difficult and mature film making, disguised as an animated film. The childish presentation of the film is important for its subject matter, but it always has a dark and artistic edge. Mary and Max is one of those rarest of films. One that I knew nothing about before seeing it. No trailer, no poster, no plot synopsis etc. All I knew is that it was animated and Hoffman did a voice. The film is a complex look at relationships, family, mental health, sexuality, and acceptance. All these themes pop-up, but are viewed through the eyes of a child, a man with Asperger's, and a woman suffering from depression. The film spans 20 years, and we are treated to the real highs and lows. Whether is be marriage, urinating on a sandwich, or the death of a mime. The film draws you in with its presentation, but keeps you hooked with its thoughts and emotions. Hoffman gives a tremendous performance. The kind that makes you think voice over work should be nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars. Mary and Max treats you to some incredibly funny comedy, and devastatingly saddening tragedy. This is a film that I will certainly watch again and again, and is up there with the best animated films of all time.

A unique and strangely funny film with some of the weirdest & quirkiest characters I've seen in animation, but it adds plenty of charm to a heartbreaking story. This one flew under the radar for quite awhile and deserves an audience bigger than it will likely get. The voices are well matched to the characters and almost unrecognizeable despite big names. The animation is definitely one of the reasons why this probably didn't get a major release in my opinion since animation largely appeals to younger audiences and this is most defintiely a more mature style and themed animated movie. It deserves an audience though, and I'm trying to do my part.

This is a beautiful, funny movie that is also cripplingly sad. If this had been a live-action movie, it would be one of the most depressing pieces of cinema this side of Angela's Ashes. The claymation however adds an element of whimsy and quirkiness, that gives the story a much-needed lift. It's about an eight-year old alienated and lonely Australian girl who, on impulse, writes a letter to a man in New York that happens to be the perfect person for her to talk to. The letter's recipient is a mildly autistic man who's as alone in the world as she is, and, despite the fact that Mary's first three letters trigger in Max debilitating panic attacks, they forge the most lasting and definitive friendship of either of thier lives. It's a very sweet movie, and the sadness comes through when you get a little reminder of how bad the title characters have it. Max leads a rather pathetic existence and there is tons in the world that he doesn't understand, which then frighten and upset him. Mary's childhood was not particularly happy, since she's neglected at home by her wobbling alcoholic mother and tormented at school because of a brown birthmark on her forehead. They kind of help each other make sense of thier lives and give each other comfort, and thier connection lasts for decades.

Rather excellent. The animation was top notch. I must admit this made me unusually depressed for about an hour after watching it, although it had its sweet moments. I especially loved the valium scene (although at about that point I wanted to do what she was doing).

A lonely 8-year old girl in Australia picks a random address out of the phone book and begins a lifelong pen-pal relationship with Max, a middle-aged New Yorker with Asperger's syndrome. Funny and touching dual character study, done in a cute/grotesque claymation style.

It's really refreshing to see animations like this & Fantastic Mr. Fox, Hilarious & fun as hell to watch but feels a bit rushed at times