The obvious outlier among last year’s Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations, Dean Fleisher-Camp and Jenny Slate’s story about a talking seashell never had a chance, which is probably why film cognoscenti tripped all over themselves in a rush to claim it was some kind of work of genius. It isn’t, but its charms are unique. Having started as a series of shorts that quickly developed a following on YouTube about ten years ago, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On has been carefully reformulated as a 90-minute feature by jiggering the titular mollusc’s origin story and using his internet fame as part of the plot-line. But the basic frame of the shorts remains in tact: Fleisher-Camp interviewing Marcel, who is voiced by Slate, after he discovers him living with his slightly senile grandmother, Connie (Isabella Rossellini), in the Airbnb house he’s renting. Apparently, there was a larger shell brood that belonged to the previous tenants, a couple who broke up and moved out taking all the shells except Marcel and Connie, who ever since have been making do as best they can.

Most of the humor is derived from Slate’s purposely cute vocal mannerisms and portrayal of Marcel as a wisecracking, genuinely curious adolescent savant who is constantly dreaming up ways to overcome his very small size by repurposing common items he finds around the house, including detritus (nail clippings as skis—yech!). But there’s also poignancy on display, as Marcel enlists Fleisher-Camp in his hunt for his extended family and addresses Connie’s encroaching dementia in a protective and often defensive way. As Fleisher-Camp’s videos of his interviews with Marcel catch fire on YouTube, Marcel’s fame grows, and while at first he can’t quite process the attention, he tries to exploit it for his family-seeking purposes, agreeing to appear as the subject of a 60 Minutes (his and Connie’s favorite TV show) profile hosted by Leslie Stahl. The scene where the CBS crew takes over the house for the shoot is certainly one of the most trenchant comments on media overkill ever set to film. 

Having not seen the shorts, I can’t say whether the feature is better, but the appeal is obviously centered on the interactions between Marcel and Fleisher-Camp, which have a tension that complicates the childish tone of the whole premise. Tying it all to a plot-like structure doesn’t necessarily spoil this appeal, but it sometimes gets in the way. Visually and conceptually, Marcel has a wondrous simplicity that could have only been achieved through a great deal of effort and thought. It’s endearingly entertaining. 

Opens June 30 in Tokyo at Shinjuku Musashinokan (03-3354-5670), Shibuya Parco White Cine Quinto (03-6712-7225).

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2021 Marcel the Movie LLC