Mary and Max, directed by Adam Elliot, is a tale about two pen pals: Australian eight-year-old Mary and American forty-four-year-old Max. Mary finds Max's number in a phone book at the post office and writes him a letter to ask where babies come from in America. Mary's adult questions give overweight, anxiety ridden Max anxiety attacks every time he receives her letters. Eventually, he needs to be institutionalized after one of her letters and when he stops writing Mary freaks out and pretends to forget about him.
This movie is incredible! It is now one of my all-time favorites. It really hit me. I shed a lot of tears while watching and felt oddly empowered by the movie. It's about being different and only having one other person in the world understand who you really are. It's about overcoming the difficulties life has thrown at you and beating all the odds. It's about friendship and love. It's really about self-discovery and growing up.
The movie not only has an incredible story-line but great claymation and voice acting as well! Mary is voiced by my all time favorite actress ever, Toni Collette. Toni Collette has starred in some of my favorite programs ever like United States of Tara where she plays a mother with multiple personality disorder. She's also fantastic in In Her Shoes, Little Miss Sunshine, Connie and Carla, Clockwatchers, and Muriel's Wedding just name my favorites. She's AMAZING. I could go on and on.
Max is voiced by the talented and super cool Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman has been in everything from The Hunger Games to Along Came Polly to Charlie Wilson's War. This guy does it all! He is hilarious in comedies and great in his very serious roles. I'll never be able to forget him in Along Came Polly as Ben Stiller's very strange friend who sharted at a party. Also, I found this awesome picture of him playing basketball from the movie and ALWAYS thought he was saying "Letter A" and not "Let it rain." Learn something new everyday!
I really could go on all day about Toni and Philip but this is about Mary and Max. Apparently, according to the director, the movie is based off true events. The character of Max is based off Elliot's own pen-pal in New York. According to sources from Wiki, the movie took about 57 weeks to shoot and used 133 separate sets, 212 puppets, and 475 miniature props including a fully functioning Underwood typewriter which apparently took 9 weeks to design and build.
I really love the look and feel of a good claymation. I've seen videos of people making claymation's and it takes a lot of hard work and time! They set up the puppets then move them, take a picture, move a little, take a picture, and so on and so forth. It's a long process but worth it in the end for how amazing it looks.
If you like claymation, Australia, Toni, Philip, weird storylines, and general awesomeness then check out this movie! It really left a mark on me and I'm not sure why. It's streaming right now on Netflix! Here's the trailer. I couldn't find anything better than a trailer but at least you can hear how wonderful the music is in this movie.
Also, because I love Along Came Polly here's a clip of Sandy taking what is obviously his spotlight. Just give him the freedom to rock out, guys! Also, please note his outfit. It's tight and makes him even funnier. I never realized how much I love Philip Seymour Hoffman until this moment.
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