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Memoir of a Snail [Out-of-theatre Review]

Title : Memoir of a Snail

Filmmaker : Adam Elliot

Seen : 10/06/24

General Note : 9.25/10

Technical details:

Duration : 93min

Public : Adult

Type : Clay Stop-motion Animation

[Disclaimer : This review might contain some out-of-context spoilers, but i'm really keeping them as not detailed as possible]

I've had the great opportunity to watch this movie for it's premiere, at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and presentated by Adam Elliot himself.

I'll be honest, i didn't really knew this filmmaker's work before watching this movie. And i didn't wanted to watch it. The thing is : i had a reservation left, free time, this seance was still available to reserve, and one thing i love at this festival is discovering things i wouldn't had try otherwise. As for why i didn't wanted to watch it at first, giving the aesthetic i knew there would be  a dark dirty bloody humour, which is not my thing. And i was right. The thing is, i loved this movie.

Of course i was disturbed by some jokes like i thought initially, but it wasn't that bad. But this whole movie was beautiful. It was rude, harsh, dirty, moving, true. Memoir of a snail is a movie about real life. Real life can be hard, sometimes you'll be pathetic, you'll lose people, be sad, but life is something beautiful that is worth going through the harsh moments, because life is about hope, and about the people that we meet on our path.

Resume : 

Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for snails and an intense love for books. At their father's death, 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.

D.A : 9.5/10

Entirely hand crafted. No CGI. And the opening scene show us an incredible amount of assets piled on each others. My first thought during this scene was : Wait...how is this low budget? You can see the passion and time that got into that movie just by looking at all the assets and decors. And the all D.A. support the themes of the movie. It's rough and dirty looking, all the characters and assets looks like they've been forgotten on a shelf for years : dirty, damaged and sad. As for the colours, we mostly stay with a greyish tern palet. So when suddenly there's a bright color you notice it directly.

Animation : 7.5/10

Weirdly i struggle to remember the quality of the animation, because it's not what i considered important in this movie. But for a low budget movie and giving how precise, long and complicated stop-motion film making can be, i was pleasantly surprised. The animation wasn't the best, i mean it wasn't Coraline or any other Laika's movie, but it was good. It wasn't really dynamic, but it was well made and expressive.

Scenario : 10/10

This story was really touching. It was simple yet really interesting, mostly thanks to the themes addressed. In addition to the themes that i've already cited, there's toxic religousness, hoarding (one of the main theme), homophobia, stuffing (yes...and those scenes were heartbreaking), grieving, behavior problems (such as kleptomania or pryromania), poverty. And those are only the main themes i can remember about. But the basic plot of the movie is so simple and efficient, that all of those themes can be treated in a caring and complementary way. Also, the balance between the sadness and the humour is really well done (and even though i didn't liked some jokes because they were disturbing to me, so mostly bloody jokes, they still made me laugh). A good example of this balance and how much we can get caught in this movie : in the first scene, we see Pinky dying. It's showed in a funny way, we don't know her, some dark humour tropes are used, it made us laugh. Then we have to see the same scene again, maybe an hour later, after seeing all about this crazy sweet old woman and her relationship with the main character. And now we're sad. It's exactly the same scene, the same shots. That's a big part of why i think this is a great movie, it knows its codes and how to play with them and the audience.

Characters : 10/10

Gracie : 

From the beginning i though i would probably like Grace, but i loved her. She is relatable, and just so endearing. You truly want things to get better for her and her brother. And despite her big heart and kindness and innocence, she's not perfect. She's just a human being, trying her best in a messed up world. Sometimes she is pathetic, sometimes she hide too much in her shell, sometimes you just want to shake her and tell her to stop complaining and take her life in hands. But it's not a problem, because that's what all this movie is about. Learning from your mistakes, to trace your own path, to never give up on what's important to you, to do it if you want it. I'll be honest, i related to her. When i saw her being pathetic i remembered being like that at some point in my life. I think it's just the most truth and relatable character of this movie, and one of the most in every movies i've seen.

Gilbert:

His relationship with his twin sister is really beautiful. Their bond is unbreakable, yet we are drives to despair to see them meet again. Also, i felt like this character was really peculiar. He seems like a troublemaker right from the beginning, but his behavior is easily understandable. He and Grace represent each an emotion born from their troubled childhood. When she is made of sadness, he is made of anger. And it's this anger against the world, against the people who tried to hurt him or his sister who makes him so endearing. Most of the scenes that made me cry where about him. He is such a pure soul, angry about all of the pain around him, he was the most touching to me.

Pinky:

I loved her. She is wild, funny, chaotic but also caring, sweet and kind. But most of all : she is free. The whole point of this character is to show Gracie what life can be about. She counterbalance the main character's temper so well, you directly understand why they matched so well. Sometimes we meet people that will not stay long in our life, but for all the time they're with us, they just teach us about life. That's the purpose of Pinky. We never know her real name, we don't need to know. She represent a big part of the message of this movie, that's it. When you create a character, it's important to be sure they are useful to your story. She is.

Conclusion :

This was one of the sweetest movie i've seen about those themes. The whole audience was caught into it, we laughed, we cried, we audibly gasped at the plot twists, it was truly amazing. I've applauded, along some other peoples, through the whole credits and it was a standing ovation. You can feel the passion and care of the peoples that worked on this movie, especially Adam Elliot. I'll try to re-watch this movie as soon as i can and to check previous Adam Elliot's long movie, "Mary and Max". So, as you've probably understoud, i highly recommand this movie. 

[animovie]

Puss in Boots : The Last Wish [Out-of-theatre Review]

Disclaimer: i've started this review some weeks ago just after i've seen the movie (november 27th)

I've watched this movie in preview some days ago and i absolutely wanted to do a little review about it. Normally there's no spoilers in this post, i will do a more complete review (with spoilers this time) when i would have re-watched it. Also a little disclaimer, this is my first public movie review ever.

Ok now back to the movie. First of all, i didn't want to go watch it. I had personal reasons for that and frankly i wasn't fond of the first movie. To me it was "meh", like it was kind of fun but nothing exceptional. However i finally accepted to give it a try, even if i wasn't excepting anything from this movie.

Aaaaand i loved it. I was into it from the start to the end.

Compared to the first movie, it's more mature and well constructed. No really bad childish jokes, or just a few here and there i must say it didn't marked me (unlike in the first movie were it really bored me). Also the characters are truly well developed and the characters designs are neat. I think if Dreamworks keep up with hybrid animation (like we also saw in "The Bad Guys") and with that kind of good scenarios we'll have gems.

Animation: 9/10

They really did a great job with the hybrid animation. The slow frame rate moments were interesting and i like that they only used it during dynamic fights. It was a little disturbing at first but i got used to it.

The artistic direction (management?) is absolutely incredible, the colors and textures are beautiful. Also the atmosphere is often amazing, but in some scenes the brights colors are just too much. With textured surfaces (like fur for example) it tend to work well, but for flat tints the result was kind of weird and even giving an impression of collage. Sometimes some colors are almost neon, which can hurt to see when the all decor is like that. Sometimes you can see it was on purpose but other times it just gave the impression that it was badly handled.

Of course it's what i remember, i've seen it once some days ago and had to re-watch the trailers to be able to put words on my impressions. So to me the visual is incredible despite some little mistakes.

Scenario: 8.5/10

Really well balanced and incredibly well managed with that much characters development in parallels from one another. The base subject (death and how to confront it) are really well treated and the global message as "classic" as it is (you have to settle for what you already have) is well shown and in differents ways. The only flaws to me are some lines of dialogue who are useless, common or even clichés (in the bad way) as well as some little scenario "easy options". But nothing that, at first viewing, stopped me to fully enjoy this movie. I also liked the really highlighted subtext about egoism and envy.

Characters: 9/10

The characters are truly endearing (even those you wouldn't think so) and most importantly, like i said before, very well developed. Nothing is created, they just used the good basics of a good constructed character and some good clichés to deepen it with a good scenario and interesting subjects who where deeply treated. This good character development is also allowed by the presence of two "static" characters, so those who stay loyal to their principles from beginning to end. This type of process permit to make the others characters evolve around them and tho highlight their change, i've found it truly well used in this movie. Also the relationships between the characters are well handled. There is a different type of relationships showned : friendship, love, family and self relationship.

Conclusion:

8.6/10

One of my new favorite Dreamworks movie. Also as an animation student i would love to work on this kind of movie, i'm so happy to see this kind of animation with a big studio like Dreamworks. I will definitely go watch it again and i totally recomand it!