Marcel the Shell With Shoes On – Review
90 Minutes, Rated PG
Written by Dean Fleischer-Camp, Elisabeth Holm, and Nick Paley
Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp
**You can read Ryan’s review HERE. I’ve dropped the link to our discussion below. If you want to skip the Where the Crawdads Sing segment, jump to around 14:50. **
Synopsis:
Marcel is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out 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. But when a documentary filmmaker discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope at finding his long-lost family. A beloved character gets his big-screen debut in this hilarious and heartwarming story about finding connection in the smallest corners.
Way back in 2010, a 3-minute video hit YouTube featuring a small shell named Marcel, and audiences were hooked. It didn’t take many videos for Marcel to become a pop-culture phenomenon, and the inevitable feature film adaptation became inevitable.
And of course, A24 was going to be the studio to do it, lol.
Thankfully, creators Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate were still in charge.
Sure, some of the individual bits from those early videos are reused here, but that’s mostly to ensure audiences not familiar with Marcel’s background to get a sense of who he is.
Before we go on, though, I was to commend Fleischer-Camp for remaining faithful to the look and feel of the original videos. The goofy angles, the focus (or lack thereof, lol), and framing of Marcel in his world creates a magical space in which you can believe a one-inch shell can tool around a house running electric mixers and ziplining.
As for the film itself, who would have thought that a simple shell could carry so much metaphysical weight?
Having lost his entire community in a disaster of epic proportion, Marcel now lives alone in an AirBnB house with Nana Connie, trying to adapt to life without anyone to help them. When Dean comes along and rents the house, he meets Marcel and decides to make a little documentary about the innocent yet oh-so-wise little shell to help him cope with his own life.
As we learn more about Marcel and Nana Connie, we’re drawn into Marcel’s grief at the loss of his family and friends, as well as his concern for Nana. All the while, we also see into his hope and joy at the world around him.
After one of the videos goes viral, “60 Minutes” (“The Show” as it is known to Marcel and Connie) asks to interview Marcel (and Dean) and perhaps help find the rest of the community. Reluctantly, Marcel agrees, afraid of hoping too much, only to be disappointed.
But the fact that Leslie Stahl (“she’s fearless”) would be coming to do the interview seals the deal, and Nana Connie convinces Marcel to try.
The outcome is at once sad (for what it shows us about ourselves) and joyous.
There’s no reason people should have identified with the original videos as much as they did, but the all-too-simple wisdom Marcel reminds us of is timeless, and perhaps we’ve simply grown so cynical that it takes hearing it from a shell to get it through our own thick skulls.
Because despite its sometimes-silly humor (hearty hair), it’s full of heart (pun not intended) and love and appreciation for life, which is something we need to remember to do ourselves.
But it doesn’t shy away from life’s darker moments, either, which is also something we need to remember.
And yes; you might tear up a little. Or more than a little.
If Marcel the Shell With Shoes On isn’t on 99.9% of “Best of” lists at the end of the year then there probably isn’t any hope left for humanity.
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On opens wide in theaters July 15 and stars Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer-Camp, Isabella Rossellini… and Leslie Stahl.
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