Film Program: Mary & Max (2009)

Figure 1: Mary & Max (2009) - Film Poster 

 Mary & Max (2009) is a dramady claymation about two characters one that lives in Australia named Mary, a young, slightly overweight girl and the other in New York a middle-aged aspergic man named Max. Adam Elliot, the Director has used claymation in a stylistic fashion to make the subjects on screen more visually palatable. Mary is a small, poor and lonely child with an alcoholic mother who neglects her. Mary is bullied for having a birthmark on her forehead which is remarked as the colour of 'poo'. Max is also very lonely and struggles to make sense of social interactions in a place where social interaction happens on a daily basis, New York City. The two characters become penpals and form an emotional lifeboat with each other where their happiness in life comes from the connection to the other. 

Stylistically there is a definitive split in the two environments of Austalia and New York, Mary occupies a world of sepia tones and childlike cobbled together scenery, it reflects the characters child-likeness and innocence, Max occupies a world which is drained of all colour, it is arguable that the world is black and white because we see the world as a reflection of how Max views the world. New York in Mary and Max is a cold and empty place regardless of being populated by many characters and business. "It’s a film that both believes in the power of human connection and friendship" (Todd, 2015) Todd remarks, it is visually uncontested when we see Max receive a pom-pom from Mary, it's like a beacon telling us that we aren't simply seeing a black and white film, we are in fact seeing a black and white world, the red pom-pom is from outside this environment and is symbolic of the two characters friendship, their similarities and their differences. 

   

Figure 2: Mary & Max - Max at his TypeWriter 

Figure 3: Mary & Max (2009) - Mary on her bed

Throughout the Animation the narrator steps in constantly to provide information for the audience in a deep and salty tone which creates a more cartoonistic and lighter version of what's on screen, is it argued that "The narrative structure of the film is less satisfactory, skipping from year to year with abandon and ultimately unable to complete the emotional arc of the relationship with anything but cartoonish simplicity." (Goodridge, 2008) however the narrative is something that is complementing the emotional relationship between the two characters, which is the sweet spot of the Claymation, it would seem that "Her emotional journey culminates in a scene that is so loaded, so transfixing, so masterfully made, it is impossible to look away" (Buckmaster, 2014) I think it is plausible that an audience couldn't feel so strongly towards a climax as they do if the characters didn't have such an emotional connection which is established in the audience. 

The Childlike simplicity of the animation gives the film an easiness in watching and dealing with trepid subject matter, the characters feel connectable, and the film never treats its characters like they are difference from the audience, it does well to create a film based completely in the perspective of the characters and it makes it completely relatable.  

Bibliography:

Buckmaster, L. (2014). Mary and Max: rewatching classic Australian films. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2014/may/30/mary-and-max-rewatching-classic-australian-films [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].

Goodridge, M. (2008). Mary And Max. [online] Screen. Available at: https://www.screendaily.com/animation/mary-and-max/4042619.article [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].

Todd, A. (2015). Love Yourself First: Mental Illness In MARY AND MAX. [online] Birth.Movies.Death. Available at: https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/06/19/love-yourself-first-mental-illness-in-mary-and-max [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].