Did Marcel the Shell with Shoes On need to be made into a feature-length movie? No, probably not. The three-minute short from 2010 was undoubtedly loveable, but there wasn't really all that much more to it than the cuteness of a stop-motion shell with a single googly eye and a little pair of pink shoes.
Director Dean Fleischer-Camp and co-creator (and Marcel voice actor) Jenny Slate have expanded those three minutes into 90, and even though the idea feels stretched thin, the cuteness never wears off. With a soft score of spa-ready tones, plus plenty of shots of Marcel's leafy garden, the mockumentarians lean into Marcel the Shell's ambient qualities and play up its aimlessness.
Marcel is a one-inch-tall shell living in secrecy in an Airbnb when filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp, playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself, moves in following a breakup and begins making a documentary about Marcel. And that's most of the film: Marcel making wide-eyed observations about the world and devising accommodations for how to cope with being so small (like rolling around inside of a tennis ball as a vehicle, or using sticky honey to walk up walls). He is endlessly curious but totally naïve — hence his many questions about what raspberries taste like, and his obsession with CBS's 60 Minutes.
The charm of Marcel the Shell is that, despite it being meticulously shot and stop-animated, the dialogue is improvised, with Fleischer-Camp laughing in delight at Slate's off-the-cuff jokes and infectious idealism. Slate affects a babyish voice, with a breathy, close-miked sound that's slightly ASMR. It's saccharine but it works, making it nearly impossible not to be won over by Marcel.
For as silly as Marcel the Shell is, it's also quite heartbreaking: Marcel lost his entire family in a sock drawer incident after the house's prior owners moved out, and now he's left to look after his grandmother (Isabella Rossellini) and try to find meaning in his extremely quiet existence. Towards the end, the slow-paced film finally finds some plot-driven focus and this storyline pays off with built-up emotion. I felt silly crying at a movie about a twee shell, but it was too sweet not to.
Marcel the Shell absolutely delivers on its concept, and while it will be too slow-paced and cutesy for many viewers, it's a satisfying execution of an idea that's more about vibe than storytelling.
(Elevation Pictures)Director Dean Fleischer-Camp and co-creator (and Marcel voice actor) Jenny Slate have expanded those three minutes into 90, and even though the idea feels stretched thin, the cuteness never wears off. With a soft score of spa-ready tones, plus plenty of shots of Marcel's leafy garden, the mockumentarians lean into Marcel the Shell's ambient qualities and play up its aimlessness.
Marcel is a one-inch-tall shell living in secrecy in an Airbnb when filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp, playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself, moves in following a breakup and begins making a documentary about Marcel. And that's most of the film: Marcel making wide-eyed observations about the world and devising accommodations for how to cope with being so small (like rolling around inside of a tennis ball as a vehicle, or using sticky honey to walk up walls). He is endlessly curious but totally naïve — hence his many questions about what raspberries taste like, and his obsession with CBS's 60 Minutes.
The charm of Marcel the Shell is that, despite it being meticulously shot and stop-animated, the dialogue is improvised, with Fleischer-Camp laughing in delight at Slate's off-the-cuff jokes and infectious idealism. Slate affects a babyish voice, with a breathy, close-miked sound that's slightly ASMR. It's saccharine but it works, making it nearly impossible not to be won over by Marcel.
For as silly as Marcel the Shell is, it's also quite heartbreaking: Marcel lost his entire family in a sock drawer incident after the house's prior owners moved out, and now he's left to look after his grandmother (Isabella Rossellini) and try to find meaning in his extremely quiet existence. Towards the end, the slow-paced film finally finds some plot-driven focus and this storyline pays off with built-up emotion. I felt silly crying at a movie about a twee shell, but it was too sweet not to.
Marcel the Shell absolutely delivers on its concept, and while it will be too slow-paced and cutesy for many viewers, it's a satisfying execution of an idea that's more about vibe than storytelling.