This very detailed, stop-action, animated film is not for kids. Award winning Australian Writer/Director, Adam Elliott intended to create an edgy, satire that provides an understated emotional tug with plenty of laughs, but also tears. It took him 8 years to have Grace Pudel (voiced by Sarah Snook) tell her own life story. Sarah Snook speaks with a little whisper and an upbeat delivery that underplays the heartache and the ignominy heaped on the little snail. Better known as Gracie, this is the touching honest and human tale of struggle and loss.
It’s all literally in writer/director Adam Elliott’s hands, since he and his crew must position the character figures’ movements frame-by-frame. He directed 7 animators to get between 7 and 10 seconds of stop motion on film in a day! It’s a painstaking, time consuming process that may not survive this AI era of instant gratification.
Watch our lively interview with the charming Adam Elliott when we saw the film at The 60th Chicago International Film Festival.
Elliott told us he only used 4 materials to create incredibly detailed 200 characters, 200 sets and between 5 and 7 thousand props made of clay, paper, paint, and wire. He even hired a glass blower to make some glass pieces for their shiny texture you see in scenes. A fiery explosion was made with crinkled cellophane, and no CGI. Elliott did not want to create characters nor objects with smooth or straight lines. He wanted to make them with imperfections to make them more realistic and human.
When we first meet Grace she’s at the bedside of a deeply wrinkled old woman on the verge of death. She’s the very wise, dear friend, Pinky (voiced by Jacki Weaver) and as she takes her last breath, she utters one word that seemingly make so sense to Grace. No spoiler here.
Grace’s mother, who also loved snails, died giving birth to Gracie and her twin brother Gilbert (voiced by Kody Smith-McPhee). Her father, Percy, (Dominique Piñon), was a strange dude. He was a French juggling street-performer who soon succumbs to alcoholism and the sibling are separated, sent to awful foster homes. Gilbert gets the worst of it, living with cruel religious cultists in far away Western Australia. Not knowing where Gilbert is, Grace is determined to reunite with her twin and be with him forever.
This adorable little snail with sad eyes and antennae attached to her knit cap finds no happiness from childhood into womanhood. She retreats into her own shell as she fills a house with hoarded bric-a-brac, collecting a menagerie of snails, romance novels and guinea pigs. All the time, Gracie is looking for a love of her own, and, of course, her brother. She ends up marrying a despicable man, but ultimately finds friendship and guidance from her older friend, Pinky. Elliot told us that he cast Pinky trying to show a relationship of extremes, where a young person can learn from someone older, and vice versa in a beautiful symbiotic relationship.
Writer/Director utilizes an animation style that sometimes brings a chuckle at inappropriate moments referring to bodily functions, nudity and sex. He exaggerates the characters’ features and turns them into rakish caricatures even as they are putting Grace and Gilbert in horrific situations, some of them shocking, gory and gross. Also included in the cast providing character voices are Eric Bana and Nick Cave.
Despite all the ghastly injustice in Grace’s world, it is curious and fun to watch. And the story does present a satisfying conclusion in a bleak world where hope is still possible. Grace is a simple little figurine, but with just clay, paint, paper and wire, Adam Elliot has created amazing art in great detail that comes to life with charm and empathy. You’ll fall in love with Gracie. We did.
IFC 1 hour 34 minutes R
