Mary & Max by Adam Elliot Mary and Max was definitely the most challenging film I have ever made. I often say the experience was like making love and being stabbed to death at the same time! Extreme words, but there were days when the incredible technical challenges were simply overwhelming. Over two hundred brilliant crew members worked on the film over five years with each of my six animators only accruing an average of five seconds per day. Wonderful actors like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette also made the journey more bearable. The reason I choose to direct stopmotion features and not live action films, is becasue as an animation writer and director I get to have an enormous amount of creative freedom and control. Our actors and their worlds can be however we want them to be. We have the wonderful tool of facial exaggeration to heighten an emotion. There is also a tangible and magical quality about stopmotion films, that CGI films will never attain. At the end of the road we made a film that was luckily worth the effort; it has entertained and nourished audiences around the globe and I hope will continue to do so long after I turn into a plasticine blob myself! Adam Elliot of the Bus Stop set. Max waddles across the road. Max typing. Adam Elliot dressed up as Mary. Calista Lyon and bus stop set. Max misses Mary. Craig Fison and garbage truck stop. Max in the mental institution. Craig Ross animating Max typing. Max in the bath. Darcy Prendergast and murderer puppet. Max in chocolate heaven. Darren Bell sculpting Vera’s head. Max gets eaten by his pets. Frankston Icebreakers puppets.
Max gets angry at the homeless man. Max comes home. Max and Mary crew. Back to current issue