Memoir of a Snail

Stop-motion animator Adam Elliot's semi-autobiographical tale chronicles the life of a dejected Australian misfit girl forcibly separated from her beloved twin brother after they're orphaned. Grace Pudel survives an unpleasant childhood in the 1970s and '80s to grow up and become a lonely hoarder who identifies with snails and eventually finds creative expression through her late father's passion, animation. Dickensian almost to the point of self-parody, this miserablist work of trauma-fetishization would be laughably dismissable if it weren't for the character design's inventiveness and the production's delightful handmade qualities. The film is made on the kind of vast, elaborate clay canvas that still feels humble and organic which used to epitomize the work of fellow Best Animated Feature nominee Nick Park. But, while creating dynamic or humorous visuals to play over voice-over narration is a perfectly pleasing approach to storytelling in an animated short, it can become monotonous in a feature film. Elliot's protagonist (voiced by Sarah Snook) looks back on her life and tells us about it, preventing the viewer from feeling like we're discovering things with her as she grows and develops.