Mary And Max Review (Classic Write-Up)

Mary Did You Know

While Aardman and LAIKA are the companies most known for feature-length stop-motion animation features, they're not the only ones using this technique on the big screen. The Nightmare Before Christmas and Frankenweenie were made outside of those two companies, but Mary And Max stands apart from most other features of its ilk by not being a family film. Instead, it's a drama dealing with much more adult content such as alcoholism and the wistful nature of existence.

Vocals courtesy of Barry Humphires (most well known to American audiences as Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo) are a primary player in this film, as he plays an off-screen narrator telling viewers of a quite captivating tale of two individuals, Mary and Max, who become pen pals. Separated by countless miles (Mary lives in Australia, Max resides in New York City), the two communicate over the years as various life-altering events shape their views of the world.

The aforementioned narration made me think Mary And Max was an adaptation of a book of some sort, with Humphires reading passages from the source material. To my surprise, this is an original work written by Adam Elliot, rendering the omnipresent narration a unique, but ultimately successful, aspect of the movie that allows for the worlds of the two titular characters to fully come to life. Those distinct environments also have their differences emphasized by the animation, with Maxs New York City home being in black-and-white to reinforce an atmosphere of despair.

Stop-motion actually fits the film quite well, not only on the basis of writing, but even purely from a design perspective, the numerous members of the cast have their own style that makes them stand out in a crowd. Thankfully, this isn't a style over substance kind of a production, as the characters also manage to engage as fully fleshed out personalities. Aside from one or two moments where it feels like the movie goes off on a tangent, a sharp focus is kept on the duo and how they evolve over the years.

These changes blend both elation and tragedy with craft, particularly in the way it handles Mary, after learning Max has Asperger's Syndrome, taking up an interest in the field of Autism in college. Here, tensions bloom in how Marys treatment of Aspergers rubs Max the wrong way (to put it lightly), and it would be so easy for the film could go off the rails in trying to create problems between the characters. Thankfully, Elliots writing allows for a nuanced depiction of the mindsets of both personalities, which is the sort of thoughtful approach that runs quite prominently within Mary And Max.