Director: Adam Elliott

Featured voices: Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jacki Weaver, Adam Elliott, Eric Bana, Nick Cave

Australian animator Adam Elliott has chronicled the lives of troubled outsiders in oddball and heartfelt pictures such as ‘Mary and Max’ and short ‘Harvie Krumpet’. His latest is a darkly whimsical study of a socially awkward woman who, despite her beleaguered circumstances, soldiers on in her quietly heroic manner. Following the death of their father, who was a former French street performer confined to a wheelchair after being knocked over by a drunk driver, the Pudel (pronounced Puddle) siblings, Grace (voiced by Sarah Snook) and Gilbert (Smit-McPhee) are separated and sent to live with foster parents. Grace, a snail collector who was bullied at school for having a cleft palate, is sent to Canberra where she has been adopted by a pair of easy-going but negligent swingers, Ian and Narelle. Grace’s adored brother Gilbert, a possible pyromaniac who used to stick up for her at school, is sent to live with strict evangelical fruit farmers, Ruth and Owen, outside of Perth. Although they communicate by letter, Grace gradually retreats into her shell, just like one of her snail pets. Things look up when Grace befriends the ancient ex-table dancer Pinky (voiced in rasping tones by Jackie Weaver) whose fiery spirit inspires the younger woman. Grace’s romantic experiences, however, are not so enriching. The richly detailed stop motion animation, rendered in stygian browns and reds, suggests Laika’s ‘Boxtrolls’ colliding with a particularly grim Australian kitchen sink drama, while the script throws up some good lines: ‘Dad used to say that childhood was like being drunk,’ Grace recalls. ‘Everyone remembers what you did, except you,” But the pic’s parade of plasticine perverts and the oppressive colour scheme can be a bit much over a 90-minute plus running time.

David Willoughby

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