Mary and Max

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Average Customer Rating:	4.5
Release Date:	2010-06-15
Publisher:	MPI Home Video
Actors:	Toni Collette; Phillip Seymour Hoffman; Barry Humphries; Eric Bana
Aspect ratio:	1.66:1
Audience rating:	Unrated
Format:	Color; DVD; NTSC; Widescreen
Language:	Original Language: English;
Weight:	0.2 pounds

Product Categories

Collette, Toni; Comedy; Movies & TV on DVD and Blu-ray Disc Trade-In; Spotlight Deals; DVD; DVD Deals; Widescreen; US & CA DVDs: Region 1; 2000 & Newer; English; DVD

Product description

From Academy Award® winning writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs (HARVEY KRUMPET) comes the hilarious and moving new claymated feature film about the pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced by Oscar® nominee Toni Collette) is a lonely 8-year-old in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Max Jerry Horovitz (Oscar® winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is an obese 44-year-old with Asperger s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. Over the course of 20 years and 2 continents, their unusual journey of friendship will explore autism, taxidermy, alcoholism, where babies come from, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and more of life s big and little surprises.

Mary and Max, a Claymation film by Academy Award-winning animator Adam Elliot (Harvie Krumpet), has just enough quirky oddity to distinguish it from Elliot's fiercest Claymation competitor, Aardman Animation (Wallace and Gromit). Mary and Max tells the story of a 20-year pen pal friendship between an 8-year-old Australian goth girl, Mary Daisy Dinkle (Toni Collette), and 44-year-old New Yorker Max Horowitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman). The film's humor throughout is rooted in a general malaise that afflicts both characters. Mary, who has an alcoholic mother, a dull father who works in a matchstick factory, and a grandfather who committed suicide by drinking ammonia, is quite fed up with her ensuing adolescence. Fortunately, she reaches to the right person, an agoraphobic man with Asperger's syndrome who wants friends but has no clue how to acquire them. As the story progresses, years lapse and the two learn to rely on each other in more intimate ways until conflicts arise that add tension to an already-packed narrative. The animation style, done mostly in a gray to black palette with an overall droopy look, enhances the melancholic feeling that exudes from this intriguing story. Funny details, too, make it suitable for kids, such as Max's never-ending passion for chocolate hot dogs. While the letters are shared with the viewer, read aloud by either Mary or Max, one discovers universal anxieties and how they can be remedied through friendship. When Mary asks, "Have you ever been teased?" Max has pages to draft on this topic. Mary and Max is a uniquely bittersweet film starring two clay-sculpted outcasts that leaves one hoping for a sequel. --Trinie Dalton

Customer reviews

« a very enthusiastic 5 out of 5 stars - you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll remember what it's like to be alive »

Simply stated, "Mary and Max" is the perfect film.

I watch a lot of movies; on average, I watch at least one movie every other day. I see a lot of great films, which tend to be classics and creme of the crop films that appear on the critics' annual top ten lists. Inevitably, I also see a lot of bad and mediocre movies.

What makes the experience of movie-watching rewarding for me, what I watch for is that effervescent feeling of being surprised and delighted with the storyline of the film so much so that one forgets one's own personal troubles and is literally transplanted into the world of cinema. Such an experience is rare for anyone, but especially for someone who watches movies with the purpose of then dissecting them and blogging about their shortfalls.

And yet, when one does come across a gem, a film with integrity, values, and, most importantly, heart, one can not help but gush with admiration. "Mary and Max" is the kind of film that stops a person in their tracks and makes them appreciate life. It's the kind of movie that warms the iciest of souls. To borrow from the film itself, "Mary and Max" is the kind of movie that "makes your brain smile."

Indeed, the film is intelligent mentally and emotionally. Without spoiling the plot, I will say that the friendship, companionship, and love that's shared by the title characters transcends beyond what a moviegoer generally sees and experiences at the theater.

How marvelous is "Mary and Max"? It's been about 30 minutes since I've seen it and I'm itching to watch it again. I have a feeling that it's the kind of film that stands up to repeated viewing and one that truly benefits from them as the jokes and animation deserve more reflection and observation.

"Mary and Max" is the kind of film that makes you think. The kind of movie that makes you cry. The kind of film that makes you laugh. The kind of film that makes me happy to be alive. The kind of movie that restores your belief in humanity.

In addition to the skillful stop-motion animation and an impeccable plot, it doesn't hurt that two of the hardest working, most talented actors today have lend their voices for the title characters. Mary is voiced by Toni Colette; whereas Phillip Seymour Hoffman lends his voice for Max.

The truth of the matter is that no amount of praise can define the experience of watching the latest stop-motion claymation animated feature. Drop everything and watch it and discover the perfection for yourself.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-09-01

« Claymation Returns »

Technology is constantly fluctuating. Even other day you can get a new phone thatfll do at least one more thing than the last one: voice dialing, HD video recording, bar-code reading, GPS, video chat, until eventually our phones will inhabit our bodies and force us into slavery. Wait, has Apple already done that?

Another bit of technology that is constantly in flux is film. One day we have jerky, black-and-white, soundless frames available in 5x5 manually rotating film boxes, the next we have computer generated imagery of a cartoon wildebeest sharing a screen with the since deceased Rodney Dangerfield running us down in 3-D. Itfs been quite a century.

In the midst of that timeline of film, there once was an stop-motion animated process called claymation. The use of claymation began before cell-structuring, and could be seen used in creations such as Bob the Builder, every worthwhile Christmas special ever made, TOOL videos, and uber-ridiculous video games. In keeping with the idea that art should be a pain-staking, bloody process that would take years to accomplish, claymation film made itself a true 3-D art form to be pitted against a more commercial, computer-generated 3-D world. Sadly, stop-motion in general lost steam as Tim Burton decided to put Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in as many live-action movies as possible. however, there was a minor resurgence in the art-form when Seth Green launched his infamous Robot Chicken. It is unknown how much an effect Robot Chicken had on writer/director Henry Selick, but some time later Coraline hit the public with tremendous success. Stop-motion animation was shot in 3-D, blending the old with the new with fantastic success.

However, I havenft given a crap about the return of claymation for at least a decade, until I saw Mary & Max.

The story that evolves in Mary & Max is almost like an adult fairytale, except that it is based in reality, and is supposedly even based on a true story. Itfs not exactly the content that makes it like a fairytale, but more how it is presented. For most of the film, the story is explained to us by a disembodied narrator(voiced by Barry Humphries) as if our grandfather were telling us about Mary & Max, after he had told us that babies came from beer glasses. This narration gives the story a quirky cuteness to it, since many times the action on the screen is almost the opposite of what the narrator is portraying, like how a child, or a middle-aged man with Aspergerfs Syndrome, would imagine it.

The plot of Mary & Max is as follows: a lonely, chubby 8 year old Australian with a Gorbachev birthmark named Mary Daisy Dinkle randomly chooses an address from New York to start writing to in the hopes that they would answer a question about where babies come from in America. The letter is received by Max Jerry Horowitz(played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), an obese, 44 year old Jewish atheist living in New York with Aspergerfs Syndrome. Maryfs simple letter is answered with a novel of a letter where Max divulges information I wouldnft put in a diary that I locked away in a safety deposit box on the moon. He also tells her that in America, babies come from eggs laid by rabbis, Catholic nuns, and dirty prostitutes. This begins an inter-continental friendship that lasts for about 18 years, that is followed throughout the movie.

The comedy comes from the sincerity of Mary and Max as they try to explain their lives to each other in their socially inept voices: Mary being inexperienced with life, and Max being utterly oblivious at times. A little girlfs obsession with Earl Grey, a manfs obsession with chocolate hotdogs, a closeted Greek boy with an obsession with sheep herders(played by Eric Bana), even suicide, these ideas are all incorporated into almost a sing-song quality. This does not diminish the emotions involved to the viewer when watching the film, but it does dull the sharpness a bit. The story isnft without grieving moments, which makes it more like the adult fairytale description that I just canft shake from. Oh, and I got a little misty-eyed at the end. Like when I watched What Dreams May Come and Big Fish. Wimp, you say? I dare you to get through any of these 3 movies without some tears, you cold-hearted [...].

The production of the film is fantastic. During the opening credits, the camera work makes it a point to show the detail and texture that had gone into creating the settings and characters, from lamp posts to pets. They look almost animated, which is a testament to not only the clay artisans, but the cinematography as well. The detail is what makes this movie stand out most of all, and reclaim the idea of claymation as an art-form, and not some ridiculously low-budget production style.

In regards to flaws, I couldnft find any. The only thing I could call a flaw is that the packaging as an animated movie, and the gNot Ratedh rating, could result in an oblivious parent picking out the movie for their child. There are few moments that could be construed as explicit, but as a whole, the movie is a little too deep and the subject matter a bit more adult orientated. This is from a guy who turned his younger siblings on to horror movies.

I give this film 5 out of 5 chocolate hotdogs. Get the Blu-Ray version if you have the chance, and the extra 5 bucks.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-08-30

« Tim Burton meets Sigmund Freud »

If Tim Burton and Sigmund Freud were to collaborate on a film, the result would be "Mary and Max," a sometimes poignant but mainly depressing animated film. The film is "based on a true story" (which given Hollywood's tendency to exaggerate probably means that there was one a Mary and a Max who knew each other), and features two lonely depressed individuals. Both find consolation in each other's letters, and their friendship somehow spans oceans, age, time, and the risk of death from obesity and diabetes (they're both fanatical chocolate lovers).

Mary is a little girl living in Australia, whose family life is wretched and unbearable (her mother is the world's first alcoholic kleptomaniac). Max is a middle-aged New Yorker who has Asperger syndrome but rather just be called retarded.

Their story is literary, and I guess it is "literary" in that it made me cringe and suffer.

The animation was also done in poor taste, a dark fragility that just augmented the already downtrodden depressing mode.

Rating: (3 out of 5) @ 2010-08-27

« great film and blu-ray »

Don't really have anything to add. Pleased to have this title as part of my collection.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-08-14

« Deserves 6 stars, not 5! »

A thoroughly enjoyable, multi-layered story for kids & adults alike. Touching and humorous, this movie will appeal to both fans & non-fans of animation.

A must-see for any fan of "Wallace and Gromit", "Coraline", and/or Billy Crystal's "Lew Goldman" character from the 1980's.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-08-13

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