Mary and Max (Australia; Adam Elliot, 2009)

   Apparently based on a true story, this touching tale of unusual friendship is a refreshing alternative to the prevalent 3-D animation we are usually subjected to. Using stop-motion animation, the film recounts pen-pal relationship between Mary, an little neglected Australian girl, and Max, an overweight New Yorker with a tendency for anxiety attacks, their loneliness and mutual lack of physical friends being their main common traits. Using different color hues to represent the differing world of these two unlikely friends, the film flows like an animated storybook, a feeling made stronger by the almost complete lack of spoken dialogue, the telling of the story being shared by an omniscient narrator and the two characters' letters being read in their voices (Toni Collette & Philip Seymour Hoffman) over the images. I also kept thinking of the stories of Roald Dahl when considering how strange the realities projected were, even more so when claiming to be based on real events. Funny, dark and touchingly sad, Mary and Max pulls you in from the start, immersing you in a distorted reality that proves once again the truth can sometimes be far stranger than fiction.