To start with I found an interesting blog post that has made some interesting points about the colour used, (http://filmtank.org/forum/forum/film-development/films/1458-mary-and-max-adam-elliot-2009-representation-through-color-and-lack-thereof)
“First and foremost, I am intrigued as to the significance of the use of color within Mary and Max. The juxtaposition of Mary’s sepia toned world with the desaturated greyness of Max’s life in New York City seems to reflect the audience’s presupposition that a forty-year-old man and a little girl aged eight would have little to nothing in common. The stark contrast within the use of color signifies the extent to which Mary and Max are worlds apart. Through the omniscient narration as well as the letters sent to and fro, the audience comes to learn that Mary and Max relate on a variety of levels. Not only do Mary and Max adore the Noblets and chocolate, both are portrayed as not fully understanding the indifferent world.
By way of depriving both Mount Waverly and New York City of vivid color and saturation, Mary and Max calls attention to the infrequent appearances of red. Although I first noticed that certain items related to modifying one’s appearance/adorning the body are consistently red in color (Mary’s Mother’s lips, Mary’s barrette, Max’s pompom), this understanding of the use of red is problematized by other instances (fire reflected in the eyes, for example). What do you think that Mary and Max is trying to achieve through the use of red as a cinematic device?
Interestingly, the objects sent from one protagonist to the other retain their color regardless of the surrounding color palate, or lack thereof. In this way, I believe that Mary and Max is attempting to visually represent the extent to which both Mary and Max consider their correspondence to be refreshing, or a break from the daily monotony and overbearing dreariness of their separate existences. Through the personal insight, existential questions and intimate anecdotes put forth within the letters, Mary and Max give a part of themselves to the other. For example, the pompom given to Max by Mary is demonstrative of the lasting impression or effect that Mary is leaving on Max’s existence.
Other elements I found to be particularly provocative:
Theme of death (Mary’s grandfather, the Henry’s, Mary’s Mother and Father, Ivy, Mary’s suicide attempt, Max’s Mother, Max himself, Max’s manslaughter charge)
Phallic references (image of Max on the moon, the Noblets)
Sexual elements (how babies are born, condoms, dogs playing piggy back, “homophobia,” Damien in love with male pen pal)
Mary and Max’s understanding of the world vs how the world really is
Juxtaposition of comedic vs tragic elements
Absurdities/quirkiness (did anyone else notice how many times the camera is focused on Max’s butt?)”
I also found an interview where Adam Elliot discusses the use of colour in Mary and Max (https://blogs.crikey.com.au/cinetology/2009/04/10/q-a-with-mary-and-max-writerdirectordesigner-adam-elliot/)
“My ideas are really…not Hollywood. They’re much more European, I suppose.”
“I really wanted to use colour as a device in this film a lot more than I had in my previous films. I quickly worked out that if there are these two worlds we should really separate them by colour and of course New York is a very concrete place, a gray world. Australia in the 70s to me was very brown…We wanted to make Australia dehydrated, like a nicotine stain – that was the colour palette we decided on. We used spot red as a device to make all those little objects that Mary and Max send each other more potent, more significant. A little bit like what Spielberg did in Schindler’s List with that little girl in the red dress. It might come across as a bit pretentious but I thought well, no one else is doing this in animation. Most animation is all colour and movement. Every colour of the rainbow, all vibrant, and again we wanted to do something a bit different. It really suits the characters’ moods as well.”
“On Mary and Max I didn’t actually do any of the animation. I employed six animators to do it for us. We had a huge crew: a support crew, a DOP and a huge lighting department. Each animator roughly did five seconds per day. So about 25 seconds a day was done; about two and a half minutes a week. That’s why the shoot took 57 weeks. It was a huge logistic nightmare to make this film. They worked out if I had have animated it, it would have taken 225 years (laughing) so I didn’t have a choice. And, to be honest, I don’t enjoy actually animating. I much prefer to design all the characters and write the script and the actual moving of the puppet is something I find extremely tedious. I would be happy to never do it again.”
An article about Mary and Max the exhibition in Australia https://2015.acmi.net.au/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/2010/mary-and-max-the-exhibition/
Maddy Caulfield Animation 