Mary Daisy Dinkle

Mary Daisy Dinkle is the heroine of the 2009 Australian animated film Mary and Max.

Mary and Max
Eight-year-old Mary Dinkle lives in the suburbs of Australia with her father, a factory worker, and her smoking, kleptomaniac mother, Vera. She is friendless, mistreated at school, and her only company is the Noblets from her favorite cartoon.

Desperate to find a companion, Mary adopts a rooster destined for the slaughterhouse and names it Ethel. Then she finds the name "Horowitz" in a phone book and sends a letter to him to be her friend. The "Horowitz" is Max Jerry Horowitz, a forty-four-year-old man with high-functioning autism who is also friendless and has the company of lost animals and an invisible friend named Mr. Ravioli. Both of them share the same love of milk and The Noblets.

When a response from Max comes in the mail, Vera cannot stand it and is about to throw it away when Ethel, desperate to help his friend, poops on the ground. Vera slips on the wet feces, causing the letter to tumble out of her hands and giving Mary enough time to write back to him. Mary and Max spend their days writing letters and helping each other out. She even manages to outsmart the school bully, Bernie Clifford.

One night, Max gets in trouble and is unjustly put in a psychiatric hospital. Mary loses hope, but they eventually reconnect. When she grows up, Mary marries her neighbor, Damien Popodopolous, but they break up. Things get worse for Mary when her father is killed by water on his metal detector and her mother when she drinks kerosene. She prepares to commit suicide but comes to her senses and helps Max find his sense of purpose.

In the end, Max passes away, but Mary gives birth to a child and reunites with her lifelong friend.

Trivia

 * Mary is voiced by Bethany Whitmore as a child and Academy Award nominee Toni Collette as an adult.