Marcel is an adorable, 1-inch-tall shell who finds a colorful existence with his grandmother, Connie, and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. However, when a documentary filmmaker discovers them, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and new hope of finding his long-lost family.
First, let me be clear, I have never seen nor heard of Marcel the Shell (internet sensation) before I saw promotional material for this movie. Whatever Marcel’s run was as a viral sensation was lost entirely to me. Maybe it was generational, or I wasn’t paying attention to viral things when they happened. Still, for whatever reason, I walked into this movie without knowing Marcel’s history. That being said, for a concept that started as a simple internet sketch, this movie takes its time unspooling to great effect. The borderline ASMR qualities of Marcel’s videos have inhabited the film, enhancing the sense of adventure when Marcel’s story finally unravels before us. It’s sweet and cute but blended with some sharp comedy and insight about change.
Marcel (Jemmy Slate) is a shell with shoes on. You can tell by the eye and mouth and shoes. Marcel’s quiet life as a sentient shell recalls a time when other family members surrounded him. After a misfortunate accident by the owner of the house Marcel lives in, there’s no one left but Marcel and his Nana Connie (Isabella Rossellini). Marcel and Connie have carved out a peaceful life when a filmmaker stumbles across the pair and begins to document everything. As Marcel examines his life, he sees loneliness and begins to search for his missing family, often at Connie’s request. What starts as a quiet life at home leads to Marcel discovering the big world outside and just how fraught his dream really is.
Without knowing the internet sketch gimmick, Marcel’s front half plays delicately. Marcel’s small world feels fragile and held together by a string and some glue. This quiet documentation of Marcel’s life builds the world from the ground up, spoon-feeding us the history of this world. It’s an inventive joy to see how filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp pieces together Marcel’s world. A tennis ball functions as a car. A slingshot launches apricots into the house for consumption. Marcel uses honey to stick his feet to walls and climb up on surfaces. It’s cutesy and twee, not only in its design but also in the effort it takes Marcel and Connie to employ. Just feeding a bug taxes Connie’s efforts enough. People who recall the internet event will recognize some of the scenes as ripped straight from Fleischer-Camp’s YouTube page, but for those of us safely unfamiliar, it only adds to the mood.
The back half of Marcel the Shell finds a narrative throughline and approaches that story with the same steady pace as the first half. Marcel begins to yearn for his family, and eventually, the wayward filmmaker helps Marcel out. Over the course of Marcel’s journey, Nana Connie takes ill and derails Marcel’s hopes of ever finding anyone. Out of fear of losing Connie, Marcel retreats back into his ordinary life, setting boundaries where there weren’t any before. Connie must help Marcel embrace the coming change and continue the search for his family. It’s a compelling story that encompasses grief, destabilizing change, and learning to grow. Connie’s speech to Marcel had me tearing up even when I laughed. That back half helps the movie really soar beyond its original version. Marcel becomes fully realized with wants, needs, and fears, not just some cutesy animation project.
Make no mistake, the animation here is subtly impressive. The kind of stop motion animation everyone understands on a basic level feels fun, if superficial. Fleischer-Camp takes it up a notch by incorporating smaller events in the background of images while layering animation, making us ask: How’d they do that? For example, Connie and Marcel talk while standing on a laptop. Connie’s weight presses down the z button, so the entire time Marcel and Connie have a heated discussion, the computer screen’s blank word doc is just recording the letter z over and over ad nauseam, selling the effect of it happening in real time. This divergence from typical stop motion animation and incorporation of the natural world layers precisely the kind of detail work that sells this movie from top to bottom. There were plenty of similar moments where I honestly wondered how they did that.
“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” is a fantastic movie. It’s meant for everyone. It’s funny and cute and quaint and sly and gritty and inspiring. It’s perfect for children, parents, and adults. We could all learn something from Marcel’s example. I highly recommend it.
In Theaters in NY & LA Friday, June 24th, expanding nationwide July 1st, and DFW July 8th
