Not Your Typical Animation

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2015)

A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.
At the outset, I was a bit skeptical of the high praise this film has received and how it continues (in 2015) to stay on the IMDb Top 250, despite competing with so many classics and the disproportionately-rated superhero movies. Was this a fluke or some hidden gem that has not received enough attention?
Indeed, it turns out to be the latter. Although not a children's film like it first appears, that makes it all the better. Jokes about prostitutes, condoms, homophobia, atheism... never in an offensive way, but still subject matter that will never be rated G. And this allows for some very clever, innocent humor.