A STUDY GUIDE BY MArguerite o ’hARA http://www.metromagazine.com.au http://www.theeducationshop.com.au Introduction > Mary and Max is an animated feature film from the creators of the Academy Award-winning short animation Harvie Krumpet (Adam Elliot, 2003). This is Adam Elliot’s first full-length feature film. LikeHarvie , it is an animated film with claymation characters. However, unlike many animated feature films, it is minimal in its use of colour and the action does not revolve around kooky creatures with human voices and super skills. Mary and Max is about the lives of two people who become pen pals, from opposite sides of the world. Like Harvie Krumpet, Mary and Max is innocent but not naive, as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship and autism as well as taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agoraphobia and much more. Synopsis at the Berlin Film festival in the seter, 1995) and WALL·E (Andrew Generation14+ section aimed at Stanton, 2008), will be something HIS IS A TALE of pen- teenagers where it was awarded that many students will find fasci- friendship between two the Jury Special Mention. How- nating. Tvery different people – Mary ever, this is not a film written Dinkle, a chubby, lonely eight-year- specifically for a young audience. It would be enjoyed by middle and old girl living in the suburbs of It is both fascinating and engaging senior secondary students as well Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, a in the way it tells the story of the as tertiary students studying film. 44-year-old, severely obese, Jewish friendship between these two peo- Mary and Max would be relevant man with Asperger’s Syndrome liv- ple and would have wide appeal. It in the following curriculum areas: ing in the chaos of New York. The is both very funny and poignant. film chronicles Mary’s trip from Many of the themes explored in • English – telling stories, par- childhood through adolescence to the film – bullying, being different, ticularly biographies, and nar- adulthood, and Max’s passage from loneliness, longing for connected- rative construction. middle to old age. Spanning twenty ness and understanding – would • Media and Film Studies – ex- SCREEN EDUCATION years and two continents, it ex- appeal to students. At the same ploring ways of telling a story plores a bond that survives much time, the extraordinary technical through animation and devel- more than the average friendship’s challenges of making a claymation oping an understanding of the ups and downs. animated film, where everything medium chosen. is hand-made and there is no use • Cultural Studies – understand- Curriculum Links of computer generated imagery ing how people lived in an (CGI), now commonly used in earlier period of the twentieth 2 Mary and Max recently screened films such as Toy Story (John Las- century through the detailed worlds created of their daily lives. • Values Education (and related subject areas) – looking at different kinds of friendships and how they are tested and nurtured. Exploring themes of loneliness, difference, loyalty and acceptance. • Art and Design – exploring the creative challenges of building complex worlds with clay fig- ADAM ELLIOT AND MELANIE COOMBS ures and artefacts and looking at how limited colour palettes can be used effectively in ani- Animated Film for Harvie Krum- mation. pet. His films are described as clay animation or ‘claymation’ and his Advice to Teachers: as the film characters, sets and props are all includes some challenging issues hand-constructed. such as alcoholism, agoraphobia, depression, anxiety and suicide, In 1996, Adam studied animation teachers are advised to watch the at the Victorian College of the Arts film before showing it to younger where he made his film Uncle. students. After graduating he completed the other parts of this trilogy, Cousin Teachers could select from the (1998) and Brother (1999). In student activities in this guide that 2003, he completed the half-hour would most interest their students claymation Harvie Krumpet, nar- pany, Melodrama Pictures. Here is and best address their particular rated by Geoffrey Rush and pro- part of her producer’s statement. curriculum area. Apart from film duced by Melanie Coombs. Apart study questions, they include from winning an Academy Award I see the pattern in all of Adam’s several hands-on activities related in 2004, Harvie was included in work is about accepting differ- to model-making and animating, as the 2006 Annecy International ence … I first wanted to work with well as a quiz about the film. Festival’s Top 100 animated films Adam after seeing Cousin [one of of all time. All Elliot’s films focus his earlier short films]. I’d never SCREEN EDUCATION About the Filmmakers on ‘difference’ with compassion, seen such an honest film about humour and pathos. He is the disability. Not only did the film Adam Elliot wrote, directed official patron of The Other Film clearly articulate what Cerebral and designed Mary and Max. An Festival, Australia’s only disabled Palsy seemed like to him as a independent filmmaker from film festival. child but also how difference can Melbourne, Elliot came to inter- be confusing and difficult to deal national attention in 2004 when Melanie Coombs produced the with. And I think this is the crux 3 he won the Oscar for Best Short film through her Production Com- of what Adam says in his work. Coombs also produced Harvie Student Activity – genre based on Japanese comic Krumpet. While she has worked Before watching Mary books. closely with Elliot for many years, and Max 2 Do you think animated films are Melanie also produces other films specifically created for a young through her production company, These are suggested discussion audience? including The Fabric of a Dream: areas and activities. Teachers may 3 Are you aware of any animated the Fletcher Jones Story (Dennis choose to work through some or films made for an older audience? K. Smith, 2007) and The Funk all of them with their students as 4 What expectations do you have of (Cris Jones, 2008) orientation activities before watch- animated films? ing Mary and Max. However, they 5 Can you recall seeing any films Cast are not essential pre-viewing for that employ some animated enjoying the film. sequences as part of the film’s The cast of voices includes Toni story? Why might a director Collette (Mary), Phillip Seymour 1 Conduct a discussion with choose to include some animated Hoffman (Max), Barry Humphries students about what they know sequences? SCREEN EDUCATION (The Narrator), Bethany Whitmore about animated films and what 6 There’s always something to as the young Mary and Eric Bana they think about them. Most learn from a director’s earlier (Damien) students are likely to have seen work. Elliot’s earlier films, at least some of the more recent including Harvie Krumpet, (A detailed crew list can be ac- mainstream animated features can be watched on DVD. The cessed at <http://www.maryand and others may have a particular Harvie Krumpet DVD is widely max.com/downloads/pdf/ interest in Manga/anime films, available from both video 4 USpresskit.pdf>.) a sub-branch of the animated shops and libraries and can be animating and photographing clay and/or plasticine models – figures and objects – positioned in a series of minute moves. As in any other film, the characters are arranged on a set with lights and cameras. But in stop-motion animation, there are twelve moves for every second of film, while film normally runs at twenty-four frames per second. As the Fact Box on the left indicates, purchased through Madman as with many ‘hand-made’ enter- Mary and Max Fact Box Films or via <http://www. prises, this is expensive and slow to (or, as Harvie Krumpet would say, harviekrumpet.com>. This DVD FAKTS) produce. is a most valuable resource for introducing Elliot and his 212 hand-made puppets from The making of the sometimes polymers, clays, plastics and metals, filmmaking process to students multiples of the ‘puppets’ of the each one about 30cm or a foot tall. (and it’s not long!). It includes characters and the creation of all not only all his earlier short 133 separate sets the sets and props by hand, based films but several entertaining on the writer/artist’s drawings and 475 miniature props from a wine and interesting extras where ideas, is very labour-intensive. glass to a fully functioning Underwood Elliot takes us through the typewriter making of Harvie and we learn There are many stages and tasks about claymation. It would be an 1026 different character mouths. involved in making a stop-motion (Max alone had more than thirty) excellent DVD to show students claymation film. While many of before watching Mary and Max. 394 individual eye pupils, the size of these tasks are part of making any 7 While watching these earlier a ladybird feature film, there are particular films, and when you watch Mary demands on the creators of an 147 tailor-made costumes (and Max and Max, think about why the only wears tracksuits) animated film likeMary and Max. director has chosen to tell his Here are some of these tasks: stories through the medium of Mary’s wedding dress is based on Lady animation. Di’s dress 1 Conception – researching and 808 miniature Earl Grey tea bag conceiving the film Student Activity – boxes hand-cut, folded, glued, wrapped 2 Funding and budgeting After Watching Mary and air-brushed 3 Scripting and Max 4 Sketches of characters, sets and 12 litres of water-based sex lube for tears and jungle rivers all props and artefacts (includ- STuDEnT ACTiViTy 1: ing dogs, cats, birds, blowflies, SCREEN EDUCATION Making the film – Time, 5236 muffins eaten by director snails and cockroach) skills and patience during 57-week film shoot 5 Storyboarding Production crew of 50 working 6 Model making construction of Stop Motion Claymation together to produce about two and all characters, sets and props a half minutes of animation a week.