Mary and Max: parents' guide

Mostly dark comedy: a mime is killed by a falling air conditioner and Mary's father is swept away by a wave. Bullies beat young Max and torment Mary, Max's mother's suicide is heard as an offscreen gunshot, and Max briefly starts to strangle a man.

No swearing of concern, but bullies chant an antisemitic slur ('Jewboy') at young Max, and 'wog' and 'poo face' are thrown around as insults.

Frequent crude references: dogs mating, a child's muddled idea of where babies come from, Mary asking Max about 'sexing,' and a condom-factory joke. Max is shown fully nude in clay, and Mary and her husband are implied to have sex.

Mary's mother is an alcoholic who swigs sherry and chain-smokes, and she dies after drinking embalming fluid while drunk. Depressed adult Mary drinks heavily and reaches for pills, and a man smokes a joint at a bus stop.

Sad more than scary: Max's panic attacks, his months in a psychiatric hospital with shock treatment, a string of pet deaths played as dark jokes, Mary's suicide attempt, and the discovery of a main character's body near the end.