Review: ‘Marcel, The Shell With Shoes On’

'Marcel, The Shell With Shoes On' is now showing on Neon.

Marcel, The Shell With Shoes On (PG, animation, family, 97 mins). Streaming on Neon.

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp.

“My name is Marcel and I’m partially a shell, as you can see… but I also have shoes and, um, a face… and I like myself, and I have a lot of other great qualities as well.”

Marcel will worm his way into your heart after the first half hour, during which you might think you’ve stumbled into a meditation retreat, so peaceful and lulling is the voice of Jenny Slate as Marcel.

From the opening sequence, when viewers see a sparsely furnished room with a wooden floor and a seemingly stationary tennis ball, it’s clear we have to watch closely. Yes indeed, the tennis ball did move slightly. And now it’s off, rolling down the stairs, through the house… and is a great vehicle for getting get around when you’re Marcel, who’s approximately two centimetres tall and a sort of weird version of a Smurf.

Marcel has a single cat’s-eye-esque eye on one side of his head, a boat-shaped mouth and shoes. He’s a very relaxed, endearingly unsophisticated character who makes remarks with hidden depth. There are nods throughout the film to Winnie-the-Pooh, the classic Swiss Family Robinson story, where marooned people have to become inventive and co-operative, and Marlin’s search for his lost son, Nemo.

The setting is an empty country house Marcel shares with his ageing Nana Connie (voiced by Isabella Rosselini), who loves Philip Larkin’s poetry. There’s another character too, the largely off-screen documentary-maker Dean Fleischer Camp, who’s the film’s director, and who asks Marcel just enough questions to get him to show how he manages, and enjoys, his isolated life.

Originally a three-part YouTube series created by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer Camp, it uses stop-motion animation, each tiny movement being captured in a single frame and meticulously put together. A feature-length film using this technique can take years to make, and this one did, but nothing in Marcel, The Shell With Shoes On seems laborious, mainly because of Marcel’s can-do attitude, summed up in this line: “Sometimes when I get stressed out my shell feels tight, but I have ways of unwinding.” One of them is singing, in a warbling whistling voice that stays in your head for days.

In its final 30 minutes, this gentle, poignantly funny film really ramps up. Nana Connie has died. Marcel mournfully creates a memorial for her, using the queen from a chessboard, leaves, flowers and seed pods. With her gone, he longs to reunite with the rest of his family, who mysteriously disappeared two years earlier. Dean contacts Lesley Stahl from TV’s 60 Minutes, who reports breaking news of Marcel’s family’s whereabouts. Marcel becomes the star of Lesley’s programme.

Marcel dreams big. A miniature mollusc following his dream not only to find his family but also to try hang-gliding may seem a bridge too far, but Marcel shows us that anything is possible. He’s truly inspiring for kids and adults alike.

Must see.

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