Based on a true story Mary and Max tells of two pen pals, one a fresh faced chubby 8 year old from Australia and the other a 44 year old overweight shut in with a mental disability. The unlikely duo spark a rocky friendship that spans 22 years of their lives as they write back and forth through the thick and thin of their separate lives.

Mary and Max is from the mind and eye of Academy Award Winning Director Adam Elliot (Harvie Krumpet) and is a stop motion claymation feature. Elliot’s experience in this type of film shines as, even though it’s a dark film with lots of grays and shadows, the artistic use of objects, sound, and even shadow offer up an amazing amount of life to the film creating more then just an amazing claymation construction. You get both a substance enriched story and a fantastic world to bring it to life.

Don’t let the animation style of this film or the fact that its about a cute 8 year old fool you. Mary and Max is every bit a film for a mature audience. The content herein is subtle wit like you would see on a show like Arrested Development where you hear it but you don’t quite catch it for a few minutes. There is some graphic content which is innocent enough but straight forward nonetheless. Still, its an interesting story that hits on many social topics such as depression, child neglect, alcoholism, gluttony, and many others. Its all tied up in a cute little bow and delivered in this film in not to hard edged a way which gives the film charm and really allows you to delve into the lives of these strange and dysfunctional people. Toni Collette and Bethany Whitmore (the young and old voice of Mary) do a great job of giving Mary her personality and Oscar Winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as Max, forget about, its almost impossible to imagine that its his voice, he does such an incredible job. Eric Bana has a small role in the film and award winner Barry Humphries Narrates.

Bonus features are pretty decent. You get both the U.S. and international trailers for the film. Director Commentary which, I’m sorry, is sleep inducing. Its not boring but Adam Elliot’s voice is so calm and rumbling its hard to listen to. Behind the Scenes. Making of, which is more a comical piece. Alternate scenes which are good, watch those. Casting Call which was disappointing because it only shows Bethany Whitmore’s reading. Finally Adam Elliot’s Oscar Winning short film Harvie Krumpet is added to the special features running in at just over 22 minutes in its entirety. Not bad. Well worth checking out. Enjoy.