Manic Expression

During my time as an Internet reviewer I’ve grown to be friends with many awesome people like Jess of xXJessworldXx, DanB, the FanFic Critic, Johnny Oldschool, and my best friend Jordan Tucker, my title card artist. I truly believe an Internet friendship can work if the people have a lot in common. It’s just fun to meet all the awesome people on the Internet and the movie today captures that feeling of friendship and trust as well as deal with some very touchy subjects in a more mature way. Yes, Mary and Max a very mature and beautiful movie based off the director, Adam Elliot's, friendship with his Australian pen pal that has lasted for over 20 years.

In the mid-1970s, a homely, friendless 8-year-old Australian girl picks a name out of a Manhattan phone book and writes to the first name she reads. The girl’s name is Mary Dinkle, the only child of an alcoholic mother and a distracted emotionally distant father. The man that Mary writes to is the overweight New Yorker Max Horowitz who suffers from aspergers and is subject to major anxiety attacks. I know half of you just became very uncomfortable the moment you read that line but really there isn’t any worry. The portrayal of Max’s aspergers is played to a somewhat extreme but handles the extreme very maturely, knowing when exactly to hit the extreme (Usually during one of his many anxiety attacks in the movie) and when to act respectful. Mary and Max have a very unique chemistry due to them both being loners in a way and the two over letters help each other out, giving each other advice, and giving them both something to look forward to each day.

Now the story isn’t all doom and gloom, Mary and Max actually has a funny bone in it usually linked to Max’s inability to understand emotions and Mary’s childish idealism messing with Max’s already laid in concrete reality. But there is one thing that I really hate about this movie. The poop jokes. On several occasions including the poop birthmark bit, Mary & Max will throw in some form of poop joke usually centring in on Mary and her socializing insecurities. Usually manifesting as her getting a dog turd on her shoe when she asks out the neighbour boy or when a pigeon takes a crap on her head as a kid. I’ve said time and time again that poop jokes are just plain stupid and lazy about 80% of the time. The use of poop jokes in Mary & Max really destroys my enthusiasm for it right when I’m in the middle of the movie and about to lose myself in it a poop joke pops up and I land back in reality again. By the end they stop doing it but seriously it gets annoying after the third immersion breaking poop joke. But in all honesty the poop jokes could have been a lot worst so I'm happy for at least that.

The artistic direction of the movie has been lifted from another Melodrama Pictures short called Harvie Krumpet. A story about a man who has Tourette's syndrome, chronic bad luck, menial jobs, nudist tendencies, and a book of "fakts" hung around his neck. Look familiar? 

My favourite type of animation is definitely stop motion just for the sheer blood, sweat and tears that goes into making one. I know all other sorts of animation takes a LONG time to complete and make it look good but I'd argue that stop motion would take the longest. Principal photography for Mary and Max lasted over 57 weeks, using 133 separate sets, 212 puppets, and 475 miniature props, "including a fully functioning underwood typewriter which apparently took 9 weeks to design and build. That takes commitment and a lot of patience.

The very simplistic colour palette creates a more real, bleak atmosphere around the movie that makes the characters’ dialogue and the world’s animation all the more interesting. The only colors that this movie deals with, which are split into the two characters’ stories, are browns and greys with a few splashes of red. In those instances the reds really pop on the screen and make you focus in on the object that the red is on. The browns used in Mary’s half of the story invoke the feelings of neglect, and emotional abuse that Mary suffers through but it also represents the sweetness of Mary like chocolate. And for all you smartasses out there. Yes. Brown represents the poop that Mary always seems to attract too. Ugh… Max’s story however predominantly uses greys which represent Max’s bland, monotonous life and a darker scarier nature world that Max sees but the greys also could represent the 1930s movie motif, meaning Max can be very civil and quite intelligent. It’s truly very fun to dissect the movie to see all the hidden meanings in it and the very subtle undertones shown in the art design.

Overall Mary and Max is a very emotional roller coaster I'd say the third act is one of the best third acts I've seen in any movie and the final scene the very final moment is just amazing. Period. I love it's sense of humour that helps it from being unbearably gloomy. I love the artistic design that creates the beautiful atmosphere of friendship and sadness. I just love Mary and Max it may have become one of my favourite movies of all time its that good despite the poop jokes. I'll now leave you with an image of Max's favourite snack.

It's Heart Attack-tastic

NEXT TIME: Small Soldiers