Mary and Max Will Open Sundance

Mary and Max, the Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette-voiced claymated feature film from the creators of the Academy Award winning short animation Harvie Krumpet, will open the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Normally, I'd wait until there was a trailer up at least to report on this, but the art and style of Mary and Max looks amazing. Right now, I'd see the film on that merit alone.

From the film's official website:

"MARY AND MAX is a simple tale of pen-friendship between two very different people; Mary Dinkle, a chubby lonely eight year old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, a 44 year old, severely obese, Jewish man with Asperger's Syndrome living in the chaos of New York. Spanning twenty years and two continents, Mary and Max's friendship survives much more than the average diet of life's ups and downs. Like Harvie Krumpet, MARY AND MAX is innocent but not naive, as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agoraphobia, and much much more."

You can also hear the hauntingly sweet theme on the official website. Be sure to check out the Characters section too - so much wacky lovableness!