Adam Elliot’s Previous Work Should Make You Excited for Memoir of a Snail

Even your favourite cliché Disney release explores adult themes from Coco‘s dealings with grief and family legacy to Inside Out‘s exploration of complex human emotions and their impact on our lives.

Perfect Blue (Dir. Satoshi Kon, 1997), Grave of the Fireflies (Dir. Isao Takahata, 1988), Fantastic Mr. Fox (Dir. Wes Anderson, 2009) and countless others are excellent examples of animated films that have solidified themselves as meaningful cinema, discussing themes like mental health or the effects of war. These films are living proof that animation does not equate to lack of substance and depth.

A lot of cinemagoers attach pre-judgments and expectations when we see that a film is animation, and ultimately miss out on fabulous films – purely because we’ve perceived them to be ‘only for children’. However, a whole world of adult animation exists.

Adam Elliot is an Australian animator and filmmaker who in 2004 won an Academy Award for Best Short Animation for his film Harvie Krumpet. He then went on to release Mary and Max (2009), an animated feature film which particularly moved audiences including myself.

Mary and Max tells the story of two unlikely friends who find each other through letters. It spans over 20 years, started by Mary (Toni Collette), an eight-year-old girl living in Mount Waverly, Victoria, Australia, who picks an address out of a New York City telephone book. Her letter reaches Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a 44-year-old Jewish atheist man with Asperger syndrome, ultimately starting an unusual and heart warming pen pal relationship. The film is absolutely brimming with humanity, humour and some truly heartbreaking moments, that are perfectly captured through its animation style.

The title card at the beginning of the film states it is based on a true story, when asked Elliot stated “All my films have been based on… the people around me, but until this film I’ve never actually put that card at the beginning… But this one is almost a documentary. I do have a pen friend in New York who I’ve been writing to for more than 20 years. He does have Asperger’s, he is a big man, he is Jewish, he is an atheist. And Mary … Well, I suppose Mary is me. Her environment was very similar to my own childhood experience. My father’s name is Noel, but he didn’t work in a teabag factory… So it’s a blend. I always use the expression ‘don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story’.”

Mary and Max left a huge impression on so many people, resulting in countless Reddit threads sharing the powerful impact it had by discussing and correctly displaying disabilities on screen. You can tell immediately that Elliot makes his films with heart and vulnerability at its core, which makes his most recent creation, Memoir of a Snail, something to watch out for.

Much like Mary and Max, Elliot’s unique style shines through as he tells the tale of Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook), a young girl in 1970s Melbourne, Australia. The film delves into themes of loneliness, love, the passage of time, and the importance of childhood. From the trailer alone, we hear Pinky (Jacki Weaver) share a moving statement: “Life can only be understood backwards, but we have to live it forward.”

With Elliot’s distinctive combination of humour and melancholy, we are taken on a journey through the ups and downs of Grace’s life, once again proving that animation is able to explore universal and profound themes.

Memoir of a Snail has since managed to secure an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and is the second R-Rated animation film to ever be nominated, following Anomalisa (Dir. Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, 2015).

Memoir of a Snail screens at the Tyneside from Friday the 14th February 2025, and you can book tickets now.