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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
In the “animation is for kids” argument, many fail to realize the full power of adult animation. It’s a medium targeted at mature audiences through heavier subject matter than can be handled by the general viewer. Animation as an art form consists of different styles and techniques, e.g. hand-drawn, painting, and three-dimensional. Stop-motion animation has particularly garnered love for decades, and recently it has blessed fans of the craft with noteworthy titles. Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s Anomalisa, Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, Phil Tippett’s Mad Dog, and The House are excellent examples of adult animation via stop-motion.
After nearly a decade since the release of his long-length short, Ernie Biscuit, Australian animator Adam Elliot returns for his second feature project, Memoir of a Snail. This film involves Elliot’s endeavors to keep up with the times, and it shows in the quality of the project. Although it has a different narrative pace and structure from, say, his first feature, Mary and Max, the filmmaker achieves a strikingly similar ethos and pathos here. Consequently, the collective effort results in fine juxtapositions of life occupying time and space.
Memoir of a Snail is written and directed by Adam Elliot.
In this review, I will discuss Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail. As this article’s title suggests, no spoilers will be present.
IFC Films’ Memoir of a Snail Synopsis
According to IFC Films Press, here is the official synopsis for Adam Elliot’s animated drama feature film, Memoir of a Snail.
IFC Films Press
Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books. At a young age, when Grace is separated from her twin brother Gilbert, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite a continued series of hardships, inspiration and hope emerge when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky, who is full of grit and lust for life. From Academy Award-winning animation writer and director Adam Elliot, Memoir of a Snail is a poignant, heartfelt, hilarious chronicle of the life of an outsider finding her confidence and silver linings amongst the clutter of everyday life.
Discussion
As his seventh clayography (a portmanteau of “clay” and “biography”) and the seventh installment of his Trilogy of Trilogies—consisting of three short-length short films, three long-length short films, and three feature films—Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail has a high enough bar to meet. The screenwriter employs a unique in media res type of storytelling, whereas Mary and Max jumped back and forth between its titular characters. The memoir follows its “snail” protagonist from birth to adulthood, where she learns large differences in things in the process. For instance, Grace Prudence Pudel (voiced by Charlotte Belsey, Sarah Snook) compares the happiness and optimism of her life with the melancholy and pessimism of her twin brother’s life. This is symbolized perfectly in the physical scars they share.
More so, memory versus forgetfulness is a major juxtaposition at play. Grace details the ongoing history of her life and its several chapters. If a picture can say a thousand words, then this motion picture is filled to the brim with minutiae. Meanwhile, her only true friend, Pinky (voiced by Jacki Weaver), grows weary of developing dementia. She doesn’t say much about her childhood and barely goes into detail about the events in her adulthood, but Grace holds conviction so they must be true. The only part of her life that Grace speaks little of is her time with her foster parents, and rightfully so in juxtaposition with Grace’s twin brother’s foster care upbringing.
Art and Literature
As it was with Ernie Biscuit, Elliot reiterates his love for art and literature. The Australian animator leaves Easter Egg references to numerous literary works in some frames, including—but not limited to—The Diary of Anne Frank, Franz Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist”, and Stephen King’s Misery. In Harvie Krumpet and Ernie Biscuit, he mentions how World War II and pervasive Nazi presence may have taken a toll on his life (and/or his characters’ lives). Through Gilbert Pudel (voiced by Mason Litsos, Kodi Smit-McPhee), Elliot characterizes an individual confined by a maniacal household, one whose matriarch is evidently a devout follower of popular literature.
However, the most intriguing reference spotted in Memoir of a Snail might be Kafka’s short story. “A Hunger Artist” centers on an eponymous protagonist whose deliberate eating disorder leads to a dramatic display for the world to see. This relates to Grace and her coping mechanisms through the consumption of food. Yet, it also points to Elliot’s striving to publish work over a given amount of time. His short-length shorts take a short time to produce, but everything else he’s done has had a half-dozen years to nearly a decade-wide gap between them. Elliot strives for perfection, and that hard work pays off well.
Grace’s intricate relationship with art isn’t a new device that Elliot conveys, but it’s still noteworthy. The protagonist guides viewers through what is and what isn’t art, i.e. art for show and art for expression. Phallic illustrations and self-help literature is one thing, but to tell the world about oneself through an artform is another thing. The 96-numbered home address across from Grace’s home in Canberra neatly alludes to Elliot’s first project, Uncle, a short film released in 1996. Additionally, the comparison between onions and glass bowls is clever writing.
Capitalism and Consumerism
Through Grace and Gilbert, Elliot explores the systems of capitalism and consumerism. On the one hand, Grace copes with her losses through material gain. Her house full of snails, guinea pigs, food, and more are indicative of a personal issue that isn’t confronted properly. Still, it’s common for someone of similar circumstances to react and respond without putting an expression into words.
On the other hand, however, there is Gilbert, who labors away for a build-up of wages to reunite with his twin sister. His socio-politico-economic environment falls pristinely in kairos of the world wherein marginalized groups reside today. The physical pain afflicting Gilbert’s body is a solid image of what capitalism represents under Marxist lenses. In fact, the “Pennies for Jesus” sequence demonstrates this idea interestingly; people in power benefit from the hard labor of those deemed inferior and act as if immune of consequence. Likewise, Grace is also a victim, but her body serves its own purposes. Elliot previously referenced communism in Mary and Max when the latter titular character is removed from jury duty in New York.
Music of the Memoir
Elena Kats-Chernin’s musical composition isn’t as harmonious as that of Mary and Max, which is, again, the point when Elliot’s aim is to establish an imbalance in his characters’ lives. The opera vocals and the violin instrumental during the opening credits are a nice appetizer for what’s to come. Kats-Chernin takes viewers through the ebbs and flows of the narrative, from the sorrow in the introductory scene to the glees of French activity. “Alouette” is a lovely tune that plays as the theme for the Pudel family’s fondness of birds (and of animals in general). The theme that plays when Grace yearns for her brother’s company is just as memorable.
Stop-Motion of a Snail
Every prop, set, and character design makes up 7,000 handmade objects. Elliot hand-draws 1,600 storyboards, two hundred characters, two hundred sets, and thousands of props. The animation is intentionally imperfect and incongruous, whether it be the countenances of Grace, Gilbert, aging woman Pinky, or Canberra neighbor Ken (voiced by Tony Armstrong); a broken tooth being shoved back into a character’s gums; or the Canberra and Perth landscapes.
Director of Photography Gerald Thompson captures a plethora of frames and shots, including the pile of clutter that is the opening credits. Thompson also captures one of the better sequences, which show Grace’s world spinning around her. Editors Bill Murphy and Saxon Wright have appealing cuts and framing, such as when Grace finishes reading one life-shattering letter on an important day.
The Appleby family’s Garden of Eden is a hypocritical setpiece that is eerily reminiscent of Dino Stamatopoulos’s adult stop-motion animated comedy-drama television series, Moral Orel. The church, the apple orchard, and the family home give off a level of instability that “Christians” tend to embody. Whenever Memoir of a Snail exhibits fire in its animation, there’s a high degree of fascination that is feel when taking in the complete scenery.
The Crew Behind Memoir of a Snail
Gerald Thompson (Mary and Max) serves as the director of photography.
Matt Irwin, Andrew “Andy Rails” Railton, Donna Yeatman, Lucy Davidson, Mark Kenfield, and Pierce Davison are the film’s stills photographers.
Elliot serves as the storyboard and animatic artist.
Bill Murphy (Harvie Krumpet, Mary and Max, Ernie Biscuit) serves as the film’s editor. Saxon Wright is the assistant editor.
Elena Kats-Chernin arranges and orchestrates the film’s musical composition. The score is performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Executive producer Robert Patterson serves as the music supervisor.
David Williams and Owen Grieve are the dialogue editors; Wiliams also serves as the sound designer. Lee Yee serves as the sound editor.
John Lewis serves as the animation supervisor.
John Lewis, Craig Ross, Pierce Davison, Seamus Spilsbury, Yeatman, Samuel Lewis, and Nelson Dean serve as the animators. Lucy Davidson, Kerry Drumm, Janette Goodey, and Elliot do additional animation.
Elliot serves as the film’s production designer. Bob Shea serves as the art director.
Braiden Asciak serves as the visual effects supervisor. Belinda Fithie serves as the VFX editor.
In post-production, Rui Li serves as the lead VFX artist. Murray Curtis, Ram Oraon, Marnie Edgar, and Marie Setiawan are the VFX artists.
The Cast of Memoir of a Snail
Sarah Snook (Predestination, Michael Cusack’s Koala Man, Succession) voices Grace Prudence Pudel.
Jacki Weaver voices Pinky. Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road, Matt Reeves’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, Pablo Larraín’s Maria) voices Gilbert Pudel, Grace’s younger twin brother.
Magda Szubanski voices Ruth Appleby.
Dominique Pinon (Alien Resurrection, Amélie) voices Percy Pudel, Grace and Gilbert’s French father. Tony Armstrong voices Ken.
Eric Bana (Finding Nemo, Hulk, Mary and Max) voices James the Magistrate.
Elliot voices Denise Floyd, a social worker. Paul Capsis voices Ian and Narelle.
Bernie Clifford voices Owen Appleby. Davey Thompson voices Ben Appleby, one of Owen and Ruth Appleby’s sons.
Nick Cave (Zack Snyder’s Justice League) voices Bill Clarke.
Asciak and Dan Doherty voice Dwayne and Shayne Appleby, sons of the Appleby family. Doherty also voices a Canberra courier.
Selena Brennan appears as the voice of Annie Pudel, Grace and Gilbert’s mother/ Percy’s wife.
Alexander Esenarro Santafe appears as the voice of Hector Santamaria, Pinky’s first husband.
Smita Singh appears as the voice of Grace’s teacher.
Craig “Rossi” Ross voices Craig Ross, a “heart healer”. Vicki Ross voices Vicki, a member of Grace’s laughter club in Canberra.
Luke Elliot voices a security guard.
David Williams voices Sylvia, one of Grace’s snails.
Performances and Character Developments
Grace Prudence Pudel (voiced by Sarah Snook)
Grief is a nothingness… Love can be blind. It can hide darkness and horror.
In his filmmaker’s statement via official press notes, Elliot describes Snook as a possessor of “authenticity, humility, frailty, warmth and humour”; this is quite true. Grace Pudel is a remarkably bright woman who wastes her years away due to unrequited love. She shares similar beats and traits as the Dinkles in Mary and Max, feeling “[l]lonely, loveless, and imprisoned”. This main character’s trauma is different from her brother’s, suffering from an appalling discovery of someone close to her. Snook has a fitting voice for this role, and I appreciate the scene where Grace experiences night terrors and the scene where she finally breaks down into tears.
Gilbert’s fate by the film’s conclusion helps fulfill the logos that is otherwise unclear in Elliot’s stories. The male twin’s characterization through his hobbies, interests, and passions is convenient. He ultimately uses his instincts and knowledge to the best of his ability, turning him into as great a character as his sister. Smit-McPhee has tremendous voice work, such as in Gilbert’s interactions with his foster mother or his small talks with Grace.
Mother Figures
Pinky and Ruth are exemplary embodiments of the aforementioned juxtapositions. Pinky expresses herself through art and creation in ways that are beautiful and vital to her being. She does this to stay alive, such as gardening or tapdancing to delay the arrival of her developmental condition. Then, there is Ruth Appleby (voiced by Magda Szubanski), who is a polar opposite in her destructive nature. Szubanski arguably has the best voice acting in the film, just from the sinister tone that she puts on when speaking to or about Gilbert. Then again, Weaver’s voiceovers during the final act offer the opposite effect with some meaningful line-reading.
Final Thoughts on Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot’s second feature film may not meet the likes of Mary and Max in terms of animation, music, and storytelling, but in time, it will find all the right demographics. Memoir of a Snail is a fantastic stop-motion project about choosing whether to hide in one’s shell or to break boundaries. Centering the narrative on twin siblings was a smart move to make as it highlights perspectives and bifurcating backgrounds while reminding the audience that everything in life is connected somehow. Elliot has two films left in his Trilogy of Trilogies, and I am eager to see what he commits to next!
5/5 stars
Memoir of a Snail is now playing in theaters!
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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
