Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: Film Review
The Oscar nominees just keep on coming! Next up is the glorious live-action/stop-motion animation hybrid, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
This mockumentary tells the story of Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate), a one-inch-tall shell that wears shoes (obviously) and his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini). Two years ago, after humans Mark (Thomas Mann) and Larissa (Rosa Salazar) split up, Mark unwittingly took the majority of Marcel’s family with him. Marcel and Connie have the run of their old home, which is now an Airbnb, but they are desperate to be reunited with their family.
Marcel is in almost every frame of this movie so he had to be a strong enough character to carry it. That is no problem. Marcel is smart, sassy, sensitive, inquisitive and has an amazing sense of humour. I adored this little shell. He is also inventive and super creative and I loved watching their ingenious ways of getting around the house. It’s just so clever – of course, a slice of bread is the perfect bed for a shell and a tennis ball is an excellent mode of transport.
The narrative also relies a lot on Marcel’s relationship with Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp), the amateur filmmaker who rents the Airbnb and makes a documentary about Marcel and Connie’s situation. At first, he wants to just observe and not be seen or heard in the film but he gets more and more involved as the story goes by and we actually see him a lot by the end. Their friendship is very sweet and heartwarming.
Fleisher Camp and Slate released their first Marcel the Shell with Shoes On short in 2010 and two more editions followed in 2011 and 2014. They have done well to expand upon those shorts and create a story arc that is legitimately worthy of a 90-minute film. They have taken a lot of ideas and lines of dialogue from the shorts but the additional characters and search for Marcel’s missing family are completely new.
This animated movie is a delightful gem that warmed my heart and put a smile on my face.
In cinemas from Friday 17th February