The animation of Adam Elliot

I first had the pleasure of viewing Adam Elliot's first feature length animation film "Mary and Max" at an animation fim festival in Zagreb (Animafest) that myself & my travel companion wandered into almost by accident, seeking shelter from the rainy weather that afternoon. Last night, when I went to view it a second time at Etiuda i Anima, Krakow's own animation festival, I had the bizarre reaction of finding myself already moved to tears in the opening credits. But of course, I knew what was coming. And also because I adore the main theme, which is Perpetuum Mobile by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

Elliot's previous animation films can be seen on Youtube ("Cousin", "Brother" and "Harvey Krumpet" definitely, and "Uncle" I've yet to track down). There's something remarkably consistent about Elliot's films, not only is the style the same but the stories and the way they are told are too, to such an extent that they all rather feel like chapters or fragments from a larger encompassing whole - part of a longer story, even though the characters are not the same.

Elliot's imagination for thinking up cruel and unusual punishments for his characters to endure seems limitless. And he uses autobiographical elements, which are exagerated and twisted to become ironic and often surreal. There's something very Candide-esque about Elliot's characters and endless trials and suffering they must undergo, the way they seem to endure and deal with the ridiculous amounts of bad luck life throws at them with total resignation, accepting their fates and the awfulness of life largely without emotion, just a fatalistic acceptance. This is what is at once depressing and hopeful about the stories Elliot tells, and I think is probably very true to life.

The theme of the outcast, the individual who just doesn't seem suited to the world, is recurrent. These outcasts are not rewarded or redeemed, they suffer and keep on suffering till the bitter end, but implicit in the stories is the message that "fitting in" is really the least of your worries.

There is no sadness and little poignancy in the telling of Elliot's tales (although perhaps the exception is Mary & Max, which does have a slightly different feel). In the 3 shorter films I mentioned above, the twists & turns of the lives the characters, the litany of woes and misfortunes is recounted in a kind of deadpan, sometimes crude style, the narrator appears entirely unmoved by what he is describing and the look and feel of the film corresponds to this because it is all quite understated (a lack of accompanying music in the earlier films contributes to this feel, I think, and if in fact quite conspicuous by its absence).

What all Elliot's wonderfully human characters seem to share is an oustanding capacity for quiet perseverance, of trudging on with life against the odds, in the face of the sheer bloody awfulness of it all. Awfulness that is entirely without meaning & without justice. And that contributes to a kind of sad, melancholic realism, there is no glorification of suffering and little pathos, as typically is overdone in many other non-animated films.

Especially in the earlier stuff there is also a kind of ugliness to the look of the animation itself, accentuated by the lack of colour. The characters initally appeared to me as quite horrifying creatures, that would be better suited to a film of a different nature - i.e. one designed to scare & disgust, not tell a tale of the triumph of hope & humanity over almost absurd levels of adversity. But I suppose this can be compared to a director who deliberately does not use beautiful actors. In the same way, Elliot's animated characters are not smooth nor airbrushed, with an aesthetically appealing finish, but instead appear as imperfect creations, who we are faced with "warts and all."