What if I told you the most emotional and moving film of 2024 is a whimsical, stop-motion animated feature about a snail-obsessed woman? Adam Elliot’s bittersweet tragicomedy Memoir of a Snail packs an unexpected emotional punch as one of the year’s greatest animated films, but also as one of the must-watch movies of 2024. Period.

We have patiently waited 15 years for Elliot’s follow-up to the fantastic Mary and Max, which the filmmaker follows up in spectacular fashion here. Once again hitting on the themes of loneliness and friendship, Memoir of a Snail takes a whimsical approach to some pretty dark subject matter.

Grace Pudel (voiced by Sarah Snook) has been dealt a rough hand in life, as she explains to a snail named Sylvia. Part clay coming- of-age tale, part adult awakening, Grace has always been shy compared to her twin brother Gilbert (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee). Raised by their paraplegic French father, the twins are separated when tragedy strikes and Grace finds herself adrift in a world of loneliness. What little comfort she finds comes from her pet snails – both real and decorative – and her only friend, an eccentric elderly woman named Pinky (voiced by Jacki Weaver).

Dealing with everything from alcoholism, masturbation, sex, fetishes, and perhaps more claymation nudity than you’d expect, this is not a movie for kids. Far from it. If family-friendly mollusk Marcel the Shell was too twee for you, Memoir of a Snail shows that snails can have some edge too. It’s not just the story that makes for a compelling watch. Visually stimulating, the attention to detail in Elliot’s stop-motion world is an utter delight. The hand-rendered claymation creates a wholly-formed, complex world that evokes Henry Sellick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas or Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The drab and muted palettes of 1970s Australia illustrates Grace’s inner world of turmoil, depression, anxiety, and grief, all captured with depth courtesy of Snook’s vocal performance. If this were a live action film, it may be almost too bleak to bear, but Elliot’s vision for his heroine offers hopefulness in the face of what seems to be a never-ending string of tragedies. Just as it appears she’s found some semblance of peace, it is cruelly whisked away from her in the blink of an eye.

Though first and foremost Grace’s story, the secondary characters are just as well-rounded and developed as she is. Her brother Gilbert, twin flame and protector, is cruelly snatched from her and sent across the vast continent of Australia. As the two youngsters are able to communicate only through letters, they chart their lives apart all while dreaming of a future where they can be reunited as family. Though Grace’s life may not have the physical hardships Gilbert has as the foster child of religious fundamentalist apple farmers, she recedes into her own inner world, becoming a hoarder of snail-related things.

Elliot, who also penned the script, approaches the string of trials Grace faces in a refreshing, straightforward manner. He ties everything Grace feels back to the snail. From the snail hat kindly knitted by her father to her tendency to draw within her own shell just like a snail, Elliot crafts an exquisitely beautiful worldview that though dark, is not devoid of hope.

Just when it feels like too much darkness, levity breaks through in the form of eccentric characters whose quirks add a few welcomed chuckles. Though serious themes run through the story, they are done so with a natural balance and some real-world reminders. Grief is weird, death can be funny, pain can lead to laughs, and weirdos can find true companionship and acceptance from both themselves and others.

Don’t go forth at a snail’s pace; run to see one of the best films of 2024.

Memoir of a Snail opens in theatres on November 15.

Read more about the film in our interview with director Adam Elliot.