History WesternAnimation / MaryAndMax

Set in the 1970-90s, and ''supposedly'' VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, ''Mary and Max'' tells the story of a friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary Daisy Dinkle, a lonely 8-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, and Max Jerry Horowitz, an obese 44-year old man with UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome living in New York City. The movie follows the story of their life and friendship over the course of Mary's childhood and adulthood. What appears to start out as a solely [[BlackComedy blackly humourous story]] soon turns into something quite dark and [[TearJerker often very depressing]], dealing with everything from [[AbusiveParants parental neglect]], to insecurity, to bullying, to suicide.

->''"Sometimes perfect strangers make the best friends..."''

A 2009 Australian clay-animated BlackComedy / Drama film written and directed by Adam Elliot. The emotionally powerful ''Mary and Max'' appears to have been overshadowed by such recent, better-known stop motions as ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox''.

Set in the 1970-90s, and ''supposedly'' VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, ''Mary and Max'' tells the story of a friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary Daisy Dinkle, a lonely 8-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, and Max Jerry Horowitz, an obese 44-year old man with UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome living in New York City. The movie follows the story of their life and friendship over the course of Mary's childhood and adulthood. What appears to start out as a solely blackly humourous story soon turns into something quite dark and [[TearJerker often very depressing]], dealing with everything from parental neglect, to insecurity, to bullying, to suicide.

* BlindWithoutEm: Ivy, Max's neighbor.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome or SplashOfColor: Scenes that follow Max in New York City are black and white with the occasional splash of color. Scenes that follow Mary in Australia are sepia-tone with the occasional splash of color. Interestingly, once Mary comes to visit Max, she's still sepia-toned when everything around her is black and white, and their exchanged gifts retain their origin's coloration.

* InnocentInaccurate: Mostly averted, as Mary's mother "borrows" things from the store, but Mary realizes that something about it is off.

A 2009 Australian clay-animated BlackComedy film written and directed by Adam Elliot. The emotionally powerful ''Mary and Max'' appears to have been overshadowed by such recent, better-known stop motions as ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox''.

* BlackComedy:

* RealIsBrown

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Apart from the director's 20-year friendship with the source for the Max character, [[spoiler:(who was ''still'' alive at the time of the film's release and might still be today)]], mostly fiction.

A 2009 Australian clay-animated film written and directed by Adam Elliot. The emotionally powerful ''Mary and Max'' appears to have been overshadowed by such recent, better-known stop motions as ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox''.

A 2009 Australian clay-animated film written and directed by Adam Elliot. The emotionally powerful ''Mary and Max'' appears to have been overshadowed by such recent, better-known stop motions as ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox'', as well as the fact that it falls [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids smack bang into the middle of the]] AnimationAgeGhetto.

* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: "Go with good health" is Max's send-off to his letters.

* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Mary's mother Vera. Well, aside from the "party" part.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Max is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in 1980 (based on the fact that he writes Mary four years after the film's beginning in 1976 and informs her of his recent diagnosis). While AS was known about back then, but it didn't become a distinct diagnosis until 1992, so it's highly unlikely that Max would have been diagnosed.
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Max's "Mime and the Air conditioner" manslaughter charge.

** Max's mother would be a straighter example.

* ImagineSpot: Max wound up in some trouble for one during his job as a trash collector, because he liked pretending he was "an intergalactical robot". A bystander called the police on him.

* IntergenerationalFriendship
* InterruptedSuicide: [[spoiler: Mary's.]]

* {{Narrator}}

* NoSocialSkills: Both of them, but Max especially.

* ParentalAbandonment: Max's folks.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Averted. Max is implied to have been one his entire life, but is also asexual and the film does not shame him for his virginity despite his overwhelming loneliness.

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler:Probably the best way to describe Damien as he does show some genuine interest in Mary at times.]]

* AbusiveParents: Mary's are mostly neglectful and preoccupied, though her mother also calls her fat and ugly, telling her that she's "growing up to be a heffer". In a subversion, outside of those things, they do seem to love her.

* {{Asexual}}: Max, which makes it doubly funny that Mary asks him where babies come from in America.

** He also doesn't like it when people talk about "curing" his Asperger's. This is [[TruthInTelevision a very good way to irritate people with Asperger's in real life too.]]

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler:Probably the best way to describe Damien as he does show some genuine interest in Mary at times]].
* BigApplesauce: Where Max lives

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Max forgives Mary and she comes to visit him for the first time with her newborn baby... only to find that he passed away, albeit peacefully, on the very morning that she arrives]]. And then [[spoiler:Mary looks ''up'' to see that Max has laminated all of her letters and [[TearJerker attached them to the ceiling]] in his home]].

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Max hates Mary for publishing a book about Asperger's syndrome with him as the subject, primarily because she'd expressed a desire to ''cure'' it when he'd explicitly stated in one of his letters that he saw nothing that needed "fixing".]] Mary becomes incredibly depressed and then [[spoiler:Damien leaves her for his pen-pal friend.]] Later, we see [[spoiler:Mary trying to hang herself.]]

** The narrator explains that Max would iron, laminate, then store all of Mary's letters in a special place, which is revealed at the end of the movie - [[spoiler: Max's gaze upward while ironing hints toward where he put her letters, along with the placement of his Life Goals list earlier in the movie]].

* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Despite having earlier displayed TheUnsmile, Mary finds Max's corpse looking at the ceiling with a genuine smile on his face]].

* ImaginaryFriend: Max has one, "Mr. Ravioli", who quietly sits in the corner reading books since Max's psychologist said it wasn't healthy. [[spoiler: His eventual departure from Max's apartment is what kickstarts his first reconciliation with Mary]].

* InterruptedSuicide: [[spoiler: Mary's]].

* MundaneMadeAwesome: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmviZ04mqc0 The definitive using-a-typewriter scene, people]].

* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Mary tries to commit suicide by swallowing pills and hanging herself at the same time. [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt On the other hand, that pill bottle was almost certainly decades past expiration since we never see her mother taking them and the bottle is full. Taking a handful might have had just enough potency to get her out of her depression.]]]]

* ObliviousToLove: Max

* RhythmTypewriter: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmviZ04mqc0 Max on his typewriter]].

** ''The Nobblets'' seem to be a parody of ''TheSmurfs''

* StealthPun: As young Mary watches the Noblets (see GettingCrapPastTheRadar above), she curls up with Ethel, a rooster. [[DontExplainTheJoke Or cock]].

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy

* {{Tearjerker}}: So, so many.

* BerserkButton: Max feels ''very'' strongly about littering, confuzzled by the fact that people break the law so unthinkingly.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The narrator explains that Max would iron, laminate, then store all of Mary's letters in a special place, which is revealed at the end of the movie - [[spoiler: Max's gaze upward while ironing hints toward where he put her letters, along with the placement of his Life Goals list earlier in the movie]].

* RunningGag: Every so often, one of the Henrys gets flushed (or blended, or flops out the window, or into a toaster).

* BerserkButton:
** Max feels ''very'' strongly about littering, confuzzled by the fact that people break the law so unthinkingly.

** The air conditioner falling on the mime

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The narrator explains that Max would iron, laminate, then store all of Mary's letters in a special place, which is revealed at the end of the movie - [[spoiler: Max's gaze upward while ironing hints toward where he put her letters, along with the placement of his Life Goals list earlier in the movie]].

* RunningGag:
** Every so often, one of the Henrys gets flushed (or blended, or flops out the window, or into a toaster).

** The subject of [[spoiler:Damian's sexuality is heavily foreshadowed as well -- he wanted to be in theater, he made Mary's wedding dress, they honeymooned at Mykonos, and the aforementioned ambiguous attitude towards his and Mary's consummating their marriage]].

* AbusiveParents: Mary's are mostly neglectful and preoccupied, though her mother also calls her fat and ugly.

%%* BigApplesauce

[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/max2.JPG]]

->''"Sometimes perfect strangers make the best friends..."''

Set in the 1970-90s, and ''supposedly'' VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, ''Mary and Max'' tells the story of a friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary Daisy Dinkle, a lonely 8-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, and Max Jerry Horowitz, an obese 44-year old man with UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome living in New York City. The movie follows the story of their life and friendship over the course of Mary's childhood and adulthood. What appears to start out as a solely blackly humourous story soon turns into something quite dark and [[TearJerker often very depressing]], dealing with everything from parental neglect, to insecurity, to bullying, to suicide.

!!Tropes:

* BerserkButton:
** Max feels ''very'' strongly about littering, confuzzled by the fact that people break the law so unthinkingly.

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler:Probably the best way to describe Damien as he does show some genuine interest in Mary at times]].
%%* BigApplesauce

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler:Mary and her baby arrive to visit Max just after he's died.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Max forgives Mary and she comes to visit him for the first time with her newborn baby... only to find that he passed away, albeit peacefully, on the very morning that she arrives]]. And then [[spoiler:Mary looks ''up'' to see that Max has laminated all of her letters and [[TearJerker attached them to the ceiling]] in his home]].
* BlackComedy:
** Perhaps the most extreme one was in an (spoofed) DeletedScene on the DVD, where the ending has Mary [[spoiler:finding Max's body on the couch as in the real ending -- except this time, his pets are tearing it apart, as per her thoughts during Max's breakdown]].
** The other gag was after Len [[spoiler:had saved the day -- instead of crossing the street and narrowly avoiding the car, it instead hits and flings him offscreen]].

-->'''Max:''' Do you have a pet kangaroo? When I was born, my father left my mother and me on a kibbutz. She shot herself with my uncle's gun when I was 6. Do you like chocolate hot dogs?
* BrutalHonesty: Max, occasionally, [[spoiler:as a symptom of his Asperger's]].
-->'''Max:''' I cannot understand how being honest can be considered improper. Maybe this is why I don't have any friends.
* CannotTellAJoke: Max

* DoctorJerk: Played with for Doctor Bernard Hazelhof: Max's psychologist. He seems to insult Max a few times, over his low intelligence, and calls his dreams of owning the Nobblets and chocolate stupid. However, he does help Max through his problems and encourages his friendship with Mary, saying that it is beneficial to him. And after Max feels betrayed, he helps to convince him that no-one is perfect, and friends can sometimes say bad things or stuff out of ignorance, but you should forgive them if you really are their friend. He also tries to promote a healthier lifestyle to Max.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** [[spoiler:Mary. Almost.]]

* EyesAlwaysShut: Ivy, on account of her blindness. Except for [[spoiler:when Max gave her the rest of his lottery winnings, which elicited an EyePop]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The narrator explains that Max would iron, laminate, then store all of Mary's letters in a special place, which is revealed at the end of the movie - [[spoiler: Max's gaze upward while ironing hints toward where he put her letters, along with the placement of his Life Goals list earlier in the movie]].
** The subject of [[spoiler:Damian's sexuality is heavily foreshadowed as well -- he wanted to be in theater, he made Mary's wedding dress, they honeymooned at Mykonos, and the aforementioned ambiguous attitude towards his and Mary's consummating their marriage]].
* FreezeFrameBonus: When [[spoiler:Ivy dies]], a tombstone nearby has the director's name on it.

* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Despite having earlier displayed TheUnsmile, Mary finds Max's corpse looking at the ceiling with a genuine smile on his face]].

* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Both of the main characters.

-->'''Max:''' My top-five are "ointment," "bumblebee," "Vladivostok," "banana," and "testicle."

* {{Malaproper}}: Mary, to humorous effect -- though only when she's a child. She knows her neighbor is afraid of the outdoors, but thinks it's called "homophobia".

* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Mary tries to commit suicide by swallowing pills and hanging herself at the same time. [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt On the other hand, that pill bottle was almost certainly decades past expiration since we never see her mother taking them and the bottle is full. Taking a handful might have had just enough potency to get her out of her depression.]]]]

* ObliviousToLove: Max

* ReadyForLovemaking: Mary does this at after marrying Damien. [[spoiler:His ambivalent reaction is the first clue that he's not exactly straight.]]

* RunningGag:
** Every so often, one of the Henrys gets flushed (or blended, or flops out the window, or into a toaster).

** One to ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'' (the doctor is "in").

** At one point, Max wears a shirt saying "Aspies for Freedom", which is the name of a real Asperger's rights organization.

* SkewedPriorities: PlayedForLaughs during Max's letter [[spoiler:post-breakdown]].
-->'''Max:''' P.P.S. -- Not much has happened since I last wrote, except [[spoiler:for my manslaughter charges, lotto win, and Ivy's death]].

* StrongFamilyResemblance: [[spoiler:Mary's baby has Damian's ears and Mary's birthmark]].

* ThemeNaming: Max has 3 snails named after famous scientists -- Einstein, Edison, and one with a cracked shell named Hawking.

* TheUnsmile: Max's attempt to display "happiness" freaks out the hobo in front of his building [[spoiler:though partially because Max had recently attacked him for littering]].

[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/max2.JPG]]

->''"Sometimes perfect strangers make the best friends..."''

Set in the 1970-90s, and ''supposedly'' VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, ''Mary and Max'' tells the story of a friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary Daisy Dinkle, a lonely 8-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, and Max Jerry Horowitz, an obese 44-year old man with UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome living in New York City. The movie follows the story of their life and friendship over the course of Mary's childhood and adulthood. What appears to start out as a solely blackly humourous story soon turns into something quite dark and [[TearJerker often very depressing]], dealing with everything from parental neglect, to insecurity, to bullying, to suicide.

!!Tropes:

* BerserkButton:
** Max feels ''very'' strongly about littering, confuzzled by the fact that people break the law so unthinkingly.

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler:Probably the best way to describe Damien as he does show some genuine interest in Mary at times]].
%%* BigApplesauce

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler:Mary and her baby arrive to visit Max just after he's died.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Max forgives Mary and she comes to visit him for the first time with her newborn baby... only to find that he passed away, albeit peacefully, on the very morning that she arrives]]. And then [[spoiler:Mary looks ''up'' to see that Max has laminated all of her letters and [[TearJerker attached them to the ceiling]] in his home]].
* BlackComedy:
** Perhaps the most extreme one was in an (spoofed) DeletedScene on the DVD, where the ending has Mary [[spoiler:finding Max's body on the couch as in the real ending -- except this time, his pets are tearing it apart, as per her thoughts during Max's breakdown]].
** The other gag was after Len [[spoiler:had saved the day -- instead of crossing the street and narrowly avoiding the car, it instead hits and flings him offscreen]].

-->'''Max:''' Do you have a pet kangaroo? When I was born, my father left my mother and me on a kibbutz. She shot herself with my uncle's gun when I was 6. Do you like chocolate hot dogs?
* BrutalHonesty: Max, occasionally, [[spoiler:as a symptom of his Asperger's]].
-->'''Max:''' I cannot understand how being honest can be considered improper. Maybe this is why I don't have any friends.
* CannotTellAJoke: Max

* DoctorJerk: Played with for Doctor Bernard Hazelhof: Max's psychologist. He seems to insult Max a few times, over his low intelligence, and calls his dreams of owning the Nobblets and chocolate stupid. However, he does help Max through his problems and encourages his friendship with Mary, saying that it is beneficial to him. And after Max feels betrayed, he helps to convince him that no-one is perfect, and friends can sometimes say bad things or stuff out of ignorance, but you should forgive them if you really are their friend. He also tries to promote a healthier lifestyle to Max.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** [[spoiler:Mary. Almost.]]

* EyesAlwaysShut: Ivy, on account of her blindness. Except for [[spoiler:when Max gave her the rest of his lottery winnings, which elicited an EyePop]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The narrator explains that Max would iron, laminate, then store all of Mary's letters in a special place, which is revealed at the end of the movie - [[spoiler: Max's gaze upward while ironing hints toward where he put her letters, along with the placement of his Life Goals list earlier in the movie]].
** The subject of [[spoiler:Damian's sexuality is heavily foreshadowed as well -- he wanted to be in theater, he made Mary's wedding dress, they honeymooned at Mykonos, and the aforementioned ambiguous attitude towards his and Mary's consummating their marriage]].
* FreezeFrameBonus: When [[spoiler:Ivy dies]], a tombstone nearby has the director's name on it.

* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Despite having earlier displayed TheUnsmile, Mary finds Max's corpse looking at the ceiling with a genuine smile on his face]].

* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Both of the main characters.

-->'''Max:''' My top-five are "ointment," "bumblebee," "Vladivostok," "banana," and "testicle."

* {{Malaproper}}: Mary, to humorous effect -- though only when she's a child. She knows her neighbor is afraid of the outdoors, but thinks it's called "homophobia".

* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Mary tries to commit suicide by swallowing pills and hanging herself at the same time. [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt On the other hand, that pill bottle was almost certainly decades past expiration since we never see her mother taking them and the bottle is full. Taking a handful might have had just enough potency to get her out of her depression.]]]]

* ObliviousToLove: Max

* ReadyForLovemaking: Mary does this at after marrying Damien. [[spoiler:His ambivalent reaction is the first clue that he's not exactly straight.]]

* RunningGag:
** Every so often, one of the Henrys gets flushed (or blended, or flops out the window, or into a toaster).

** One to ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'' (the doctor is "in").

** At one point, Max wears a shirt saying "Aspies for Freedom", which is the name of a real Asperger's rights organization.

* SkewedPriorities: PlayedForLaughs during Max's letter [[spoiler:post-breakdown]].
-->'''Max:''' P.P.S. -- Not much has happened since I last wrote, except [[spoiler:for my manslaughter charges, lotto win, and Ivy's death]].

* StrongFamilyResemblance: [[spoiler:Mary's baby has Damian's ears and Mary's birthmark]].

* ThemeNaming: Max has 3 snails named after famous scientists -- Einstein, Edison, and one with a cracked shell named Hawking.

* TheUnsmile: Max's attempt to display "happiness" freaks out the hobo in front of his building [[spoiler:though partially because Max had recently attacked him for littering]].