Oscar-winning claytography animation filmmaker Adam Elliot returns with a new film, ‘Memoir of a Snail‘. The film stars Sarah Snook as the voice of Grace, a young girl in 1970’s Australia befriending an eccentric older woman after having trouble with accepting her mother’s death.
The movie also features the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Magda Szubanski, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, and Jacki Weaver.
‘Memoir of a Snail’ world premiered at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it won the Cristal Award for a Feature Film.
Release Date
Directed by Adam Elliot, ‘Memoir of a Snail’ opens in US theaters on October 25, 2024.
Synopsis
In 1970s Australia, Grace’s life is troubled by misfortune and loss. After their mother dies during pregnancy, she and her twin brother, Gilbert, are raised by their paraplegic-alcoholic former juggler father, Percy. Despite a life filled with love, tragedy strikes anew when Percy passes away in his sleep. The siblings are forcibly separated and thrust into separate homes. Gilbert finds himself in the care of a cruel evangelical family, while Grace, grappling with intense loneliness, gradually withdraws into her shell, much like the snails she adopts. As the years pass, and despite new disappointments and sorrows, a glimmer of hope emerges when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman called Pinky.
Reviews
Nadine Whitney in an AWFJ.org review gave the film an A score, writing, “Whimsy in Elliot’s films is mixed with sadness and grime, but the animation auteur wants the audience to see the value in both the large and small lessons of life. Memoir of a Snail is a miracle of compassion.”
Stephanie Bunbury in a Deadline Hollywood review also praised the film, writing, “You don’t have to be mad to do stop-motion animation but, as the saying goes, it helps. Which makes it all the remarkable that Memoir of a Snail, peopled though it is with flawed, unpredictable characters, is so reassuringly sane.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for ‘Memoir of a Snail’.