Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
The misadventures of an endearing exoskeleton are lovingly brought to life in this stop-motion mockumentary marvel.
Eye opener: Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate) discovers the wonders of the world wide web.
Writer/director Dean Fleischer Camp happened to be reading a book about the science of cuteness nearly 13 years ago when he created a wide-eye, winsome shell with inspiration from his then-partner, the actress Jenny Slate. Legend has it that Slate first uttered the little voice while coping with cramped quarters at a destination wedding, where she and Fleischer Camp were sharing a hotel room with friends. Back in New York, Fleischer Camp realised he was coming up against a deadline for a comedy video he’d promised a Brooklyn stand-up show. He set off to the craft store and after several ill-favoured prototypes, the shell with shoes on was born. By late 2010, Slate and Fleischer Camp’s creation had become something of a YouTube sensation — a real-life plot point that’s mirrored in the small shell’s Oscar-nominated big screen debut.
Separated from his community, the precocious Marcel (Jenny Slate) lives a simple, but vibrant life with his grandmother Nana Connie (the exquisite Isabella Rossellini) and their pet lint Alan. Faced with the challenge of surviving on their own (it takes a minimum 20 shells to have a community), Marcel has invented all sorts of ingenious ways to thrive. Together, the pair share dinners by birthday candlelight and bond over a deep love of 60 Minutes. When a documentary filmmaker (Dean Fleischer Camp) finds he’s not alone in his Airbnb, he begins to film Marcel, discovering his extraordinary world and unique sensibilities. Dean describes the short, leading Marcel to reply, “Oh it's like a movie, but nobody has any lines and nobody even knows what it is while they’re making it?” As the completed film hits YouTube and his popularity burgeons, Marcel begins to wonder if the online world could help him locate his long-lost community.
Like a beautifully realised children’s book, there’s something quite zen about the daily exploits of this curious little creature and director Fleischer Camp’s approach. It’s refreshing to see a family film that forgoes explosions, fights, and kaleidoscopic chaos in favour of a slower pace, where soft images tackle hard topics with humour and grace. Like Del Toro’s Pinocchio, Marcel is a stop-motion tour de force. Among the unique differences here, animation director Kirsten Lepore and her team were working with an inch-high puppet. As effortless and simple as it may seem, the animators not only had the challenge of bringing Marcel to life, but he had to seamlessly blend into (and interact with) his live-action world. Seen through a documentary-style lens, every meticulous detail reads as spontaneous and unscripted. Heart-warming and perhaps a bit silly, there’s profound truth rooted in Marcel’s quest to understand the very big world around him. His desire for connection, coupled with his feelings of loss and isolation, are emotions all of us can identify with, particularly post-lockdown. In a world that, for most of us, has suddenly gone from zero to sixty, there’s a lot of beauty in seeing the world through Marcel’s eye.
CHAD KENNERK
Voices of Jenny Slate, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, Dean Fleischer Camp, Lesley Stahl, Isabella Rossellini, Shari Finkelstein, Sarah Thyre, Andy Richter, Conan O'Brien.
Dir Dean Fleischer Camp, Pro Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan, Paul Mezey, Dean Fleischer Camp, Jenny Slate and Terry Leonard, Screenplay Dean Fleischer Camp, Jenny Slate and Nick Paley, Ph Bianca Cline, Pro Des Liz Toonkel, Ed Dean Fleischer Camp and Nick Paley, Music Disasterpeace, Costumes Jamie Catino.
Cinereach/You Want I Should LLC/Human Woman Inc./Sunbeam TV & Films/Chiodo Bros. Productions-Universal Pictures.
90 mins. USA. 2021. US Rel: 24 June 2022. UK Rel: 17 February 2023. Cert. PG.
