10 Wonderfully Quirky And Eccentric Animated Movies

2. Mary And Max

A movie about loneliness and isolation, depression and mental health problems might not sound like a recipe for a touching and heartwarming experience, but this is exactly what is achieved with Mary and Max, an Australian claymation feature with characters every bit as endearing as the best Pixar has to offer, with a little more depth thrown in for good measure. Mary Daisy Dinkle is a young girl suffering from bullying at school and an alcoholic mother at home who one day decides to write a letter to someone in New York, selecting a random name from the phone book. Max Jerry Horowitz is the recipient, an anxiety-ridden middle aged man suffering from depression and Asperger Syndrome, who decides that writing back to Mary might be a good thing for him, and the two become pen pals. With exceptional voice acting from Toni Collette and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the central roles, Mary and Max strikes a perfect balance between dark comedy and affecting drama, held together by Barry Humphries' witty narration. Director Adam Elliot strips down the colours and creates a near-monochromatic movie, all browns, greys and sepia tones with the occasional bright red punctuating the imagery. Beneath this seemingly drab aesthetic lies a movie with genuine warmth and compassion for its characters - it is an ode to the marginalised and the outcasts, wherever they may be, a sensitive and funny testament to the weird and wonderful.