Memoir of a Snail is a quirky sad drama comedy about the life of a quirky sad girl. It’s stop-motion animation all the way down and I’d say its beautiful but its really more deliberately drab and sad (and quirky). It’s the story of her life from her pre-mature birth onward. It covers her strange family, her losses, her friendships, and… yeah… just some mellow drama, melodrama, thoughtfulness, sadness, and happiness. Nothing too extreme.

Its stop-motion animation is lovely in an odd, slightly off-putting way. I’m not sure why it needed to be animated except maybe for the squelchy, squeaky snail pets she has and maybe finding it difficult to find an actress to play the overweight, sadsack she is.

And probably the filmmakers just love stop-motion animation… perhaps evidenced most by the stop-motion characters in the film making their own stop-motion movies.

The film is rather mellow and quiet, never going for major drama which left it a little flagging in parts. I wasn’t bored but felt its deliberate, sad pacing a choice that I wasn’t always jibing with. But it was interesting seeing the new quirky, sad angles her life would take. And it was low-key funny at times too.

Definitely something to watch if you love stop-motion and early Tim Burton, though not as Gothically horror-tinged as his work. It’s a bold piece of craftsmanship telling a pretty slim, thoughtful story.

Score: 82