Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (2022)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
One of the most charming and thoughful films in recent memory, stop-motion/live-action hybrid Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is one of the best films of the year.
Jenny Slate’s talents are immeasurable here - as both the voice of Marcel, as well as the co-creator and co-writer of the project with Dean Fleischer-Camp.
This is good for the soul. A smart, astute, moving story of how we adapt to adversity, overcome loss, and find the simple joys in life that keep us grounded and whole. I love this movie. I think you will too.
NO
A small, sweet-tempered film; nonetheless the premise if hard for some viewers to even consider.
Perhaps the film will play too cute for some.
Though it appears to be for little kids, this is likely not going to interest the littlest among us. Concepts are bigger than they can follow and the sight gags and visual puns only hold their interest for so long.
OUR REVIEW
A seashell, with a googly eye, shares ruminations on life and a love of the television show “60 Minutes” to an amateur documentary filmmaker living temporarily in an Airbnb the seashell calls home. This is Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, a slightly strange, endearing, sublime little film that is as peculiar as it is affecting.
Standing no more than one-inch tall, Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate), takes care of Nanna Connie (Isabella Rossellini) and looks after Alan, his pet ball of lint, in the absence of the family which raised him. At one time, the home Marcel shared with his Nanna and countless other anthropomorphic beings was a bustling, thriving, active environment. However, when the two adults began arguing and then eventually went their separate ways, the family dissolved and Marcel, Nanna, and Alan stayed behind.
We learn these details and more from Marcel’s discussions with Dean (co-writer and director Dean Fleischer-Camp), who is staying at the Airbnb where Marcel resides. An amateur filmmaker dealing with a recent breakup, Dean and Marcel become fast friends and Dean begins filming all the amazing things Marcel shows him. Plus, footage of Marcel just talking about his unique views of the world, his resourcefulness in survival, and the tender bond he has with his grandmother is too amazing for Dean to miss.
Over time, Dean’s uploads to YouTube go viral and Marcel becomes an internet sensation. However, he starts to pick up on new behaviors with Connie that he struggles to rationalize. And together, he and Dean settle into a temporary cohabitation that teaches each of them about the suddenness of life, change, and everything in between.
While it seems like it should be said “you’ve never seen anything like this…” chances are you have. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On first appeared in 2010 as an animated short film, made by then-couple Slate and Fleischer-Camp. After winning awards and critical acclaim, a second and third short were produced. And while Slate and Fleischer-Camp eventually would divorce, they remained friends and colleagues, collaborating as time and schedules would allow to adapt Marcel for the big screen.
The results could not be more charming if they tried. Slate is a marvel, infusing so much charisma, energy, and agency to the little sentient one-inch tall seashell that you instantly swoon over his existence. The curiosity Dean finds with Marcel seems, at once, both borne of innocence and maturity. Segments of the film find Marcel checking-and-balancing his view of the world with Dean’s. Turns out, Marcel is a pretty savvy, smart little seashell.
Dean, a bit down on his luck, is lost. And finds life again with his connection to Marcel. As Marcel opens up about what he remembers occurring prior to his family leaving (largely signified in a relationship depicted by actors Thomas Mann and Rosa Salazar), Dean sees similarities in his situation and together they reach a place of understanding.
Big life lessons are not what you anticipate with a seashell caring for a ball of lint. But Marcel is no ordinary seashell. Slate and Fleischer-Camp have a deep, thorough understanding of this world, these inhabitants, and the correlation between what we hold inside and what we share outside.
Simple things, things we so often take for granted, are illuminated through Marcel’s world. The beauty of a garden. The quiet solitude of a breeze blowing by and through you. The quiet moments. The loud moments. The ability to discover and learn how to explore, but also process loss and change. All of it is addressed in the most kind, meaningful, and wonderful of ways with Slate and Fleischer-Camp’s brilliant concept and screenplay, co-written with Nick Paley.
Someone recently asked me if Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a kids’ movie. I found it an interesting question, only because I don’t quite know the answer.
Two young kids (at or around 5 years old) sitting behind us didn’t care a lick about the film after about five minutes - the concepts and dialogue and lack of mayhem you get with Minions, for example, is completely absent. Marcel’s stop-motion world is set against the backdrop of live-action, with Marcel and a few other items bounding around one frame at a time.
Tick up to a bit older though and this is a film that could spark some conversations as kids become more aware of their world and their surroundings. I don’t know how much merchandise Marcel will sell during the holidays, but the messages in place here can remain with viewers long after a toy breaks or a logo flakes off the fabric and fades away in the wash.
In the end, as Marcel tries to hold together, repair, and find his missing family, we are immersed in a world we don’t want to escape from. Even the seemingly random use of “60 Minutes” makes sense in this story, and Lesley Stahl’s extended cameo is quite delightful.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On was more than I could have ever expected. Far more than a kitschy YouTube video, perhaps it does spin its wheels a bit in the last act. But few films in recent memory have spoken to me so personally about the need for resilience, how deeply personal and isolating loss and recovery can feel, while also reminding us that we owe it to ourselves to find comfort and joy in the simplest of things life presents to us.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer-Camp, Isabella Rossellini, Lesley Stahl, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, Sarah Thyre, Andy Richter, Nathan Fielder, Jessi Klein, Peter Bonerz
Director: Dean Fleischer-Camp
Written by: Dean Fleischer-Camp, Nick Paley, Jenny Slate (screenplay); Dean Fleischer-Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Nick Paley, Jenny Slate (story)
Based on the short film “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” written by Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate
Release Date: June 24, 2022
A24