This month’s Anilogue International Animation Festival will be opened by Australian Oscar-winning director Adam Elliot’s Mary and Max.
It’s his most recent project, following Harvie Krumpet, which stars Mary, who lives in Australia, and has a pet rooster called Ethel; and Max, who lives in Brooklyn, and has a mild form of autism. The two become lifelong friends by exchanging letters, though they never meet. The claymation film won Elliot an Oscar in 2004; his new feature length movie, Mary and Max might just get him another. Here’s what he had to say about creating with clay.…
I think I spotted Harvie Krumpet in the end credits of Mary and Max, I didn’t see him in the film though. Where is he?
Yes, Harvie appears in Mary and Max very briefly. You probably missed it, but he’s in towards the end of the film when Max goes to the typewriter supplies store to get some ink, just before he strangles the homeless man. You see, I’m trying to link all my films together.
This may be because they’re all based on autobiographical elements.
Yes, definitely. And Mary and Max is an especially personal movie, based on my real pen friend who lives in New York.
Did you ever get to meet him?
No, not yet. He and I have been writing for 20 years, and he does have an Asperger’s syndrome, he’s Jewish, an autist, and a very large man, so there are all these similarities between him and Max.
In what way do you think animation is an appropriate medium for biographical content?
Primarily, the aim of my all my films is to make the audience forget that they’re watching an animated film. The characters become very real human beings, and that’s very important to me; I’m not interested in making animated films with these talking animals. I’m much more interested in realism and portraying very believable, authentic characters on the big screen.
The success of Mary and Max led to you traveling with the film a lot. Did the reception differ between countries?
It seems there’s this European flavor to Mary and Max, even though half of it takes place in America. Americans find the film very challenging, and are surprised by the amount of dark material in it. They’re so used to Disney and Pixar and Dreamworks – they’re much too used to animation for children, and are thus a bit challenged by Mary and Max. Having said that, it’s done very well at film festivals in the US and Canada; we opened the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Also, the Academy Awards are coming up, as well as the Golden Globe, and we think we have a small chance of being nominated for that.
And what’s your next project?
I’ve just started writing another feature. I’ve also been offered a job in Hollywood, but I turned it down and chose to stay here in Australia to keep telling my own stories. I want to remain a writer and director of my own work. It could be another three or four years before you see another film from me, but I only do two films a decade, I’d say.