Memoir of a Snail (2024): A Sad, Funny and Tender Animation

Last updated on November 6th, 2026 at 11:58 am

There are animated films for children, and then there are films like Memoir of a Snail. Made by the Australian director Adam Elliot, who previously gave us Mary and Max, it is a stop-motion story about grief, loneliness, hoarding and the slow work of letting go. It is often very funny. It is also one of the saddest films of 2024.

The film won the top prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for best animated feature. Here is my guide to its story and what it has to teach.

The Story

Grace Pudel, voiced by Sarah Snook, sits beside her pet snail and tells it the story of her life. Born in Australia in the 1970s, she and her twin brother Gilbert grow up with their loving but struggling father after their mother dies. Grace is shy, bullied for her cleft lip, and collects snails and snail ornaments for comfort. Gilbert is her fierce protector.

When their father dies, the twins are separated and sent to foster homes on opposite sides of the country. Gilbert ends up with a strict, religious farming family. Grace is placed with a carefree couple in Canberra who largely ignore her. The siblings write to each other and dream of reuniting.

Grace’s one true friend becomes Pinky, an eccentric elderly woman (voiced by Jacki Weaver) with a wild past and a huge appetite for life. Pinky teaches her that life must be lived forwards. But Grace, weighed down by loss, retreats into her shell, filling her home with objects until she can barely move in it. The film’s final act is about whether she can finally come out.

What It Teaches

Life Is Hard, and That Is Not the End of It

Grace suffers loss after loss. The film does not pretend this is fair, but it insists that a life can still hold friendship, humour and meaning.

Slowness Has Its Wisdom

The snail is Grace’s symbol: slow, careful, carrying its home on its back, always ready to withdraw. The film suggests that slowness can be a strength, but that staying in your shell forever is not living.

Memory Shapes Us

The whole film is a memory told aloud. Grace’s identity is built from the people and things she has lost. Learning to keep the memories while letting go of the clutter is her journey.

Hoarding as Grief

The film’s portrait of compulsive hoarding is gentle and unusually truthful. Grace does not collect things because she loves objects. She collects them because she cannot bear any more loss.

Friendship Saves

Pinky is proof that one generous person can change someone’s life, even late in it.

How It Looks and Sounds

Elliot’s handmade clay world is brown, grey and lumpy, full of tiny, sad and absurd details. Every set and puppet was made by hand. The voice cast, including Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Gilbert, Jacki Weaver and Eric Bana, gives the characters warmth beneath the gloom.

Who It Is For

This is not a film for young children. It deals with death, abuse, religious extremism and sexuality, often bluntly. For adults and older teenagers, especially anyone who has lived with grief, it can be deeply moving.

My Verdict

Memoir of a Snail is a small, strange, beautiful film that asks how we move forward after loss, slowly, if necessary, like a snail. It was a strong year for animation and for unusual stories. If you liked the bold storytelling of Anora, give this quieter film a chance too.