In 1976 Australia, lonely 8-year-old Mary randomly sends a letter to the U.S., asking where American babies come from. (Mary's grandfather tells her Australian babies are found at the bottom of beer glasses.) The letter goes to sad and equally lonely Max (voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman), a middle-aged New Yorker who has problems with overeating and social anxiety. The resulting friendship between the pen pals helps both express and learn about themselves, while providing information about a scary world from which they feel shut out.

The buzz: The opening night showing at this year's Sundance fest, "Mary and Max" comes from Australian writer-director Adam Elliot, who won an Oscar in 2004 for his short film "Harvie Krumpet." This already has been a not-bad year for animation ("Up," "Coraline," "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"), so hopefully this claymation flick is equally inventive and not just good-looking and mindless like "9."

The verdict: I don't know how anyone wouldn't love this splendid, beautiful, hilarious and heartbreaking film. The animation is lovely, the voice work is perfect (Hoffman has never been better, and an effective Toni Collette voices Mary as an adult) and Elliot's script—with great narration by Barry Humphries—overflows with intoxicating language. From the description of Mary's eyes as "the color of muddy puddles" to Max saying that a frisbee is like a boomerang that doesn't come back, a film's language hasn't excited me this much since "Brick." Fortunately, the visual details in "Mary and Max" are as striking as its words. This movie loves its characters and all their sad, playful, wonderful wrinkles, and so will you. Promise.

Did you know? The leader of Max's overeaters anonymous group emphasizes that chocolate is not a food group. Surely if you add peanut butter and banana and whipped cream in there it at least counts as a sub-category?