Arguments are often made by the true auteur artists working today that animation does not constitute a genre in itself, but simply a medium in which to tell stories; western animation too often spreads the idea that animation is best used to help younger audiences reckon with more existentialist ideas that may have been harder to contemplate in live-action. If there’s any crux to that argument that is true, it is that animation does often offer a space for healing, but that doesn’t mean it’s exclusively for children. In fact, the lack of traditional parameters regarding what can be accomplished visually allows animation to reach a potentially much wider audience by discussing a plethora of issues relating to different stages of life.

Adam Elliot’s latest stop-motion animated feature, “Memoir of a Snail,” achieves this ambition, and in no small part because it was loosely inspired by his own life.