The adorable little one, with Slate’s voice, now hits the big screen in a live-action, stop-motion feature film. Marcel is based on a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini) and his fluffy, Alan. Formerly part of an eccentric shell community, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. However, when a documentary filmmaker (played by Fleischer Camp) discovers them, the short film he publishes online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope of finding his long-lost family.
“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” is much more than a sensation on the Internet that has gone viral. Put a clear focus on the pros and cons of sharing your life online, while representing caregivers who have lost loved ones unexpectedly and find themselves wondering how life will continue to thrive without them. Slate and Camp go even deeper when they address the way and the time a child will take to protect themselves when they are not feeling safe at home.
The sharp precision of the stop-motion animation of “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” blends perfectly with the live action footage and is fascinating to behold. But my favorite part was watching “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl infiltrate the keynote interview bringing Marcel together with his community and the joy surrounding Connie and Marcel in the process. It really speaks to the heart of the child even to the most cynical adults.
Marcel’s physical aesthetic of having an eye, a shell for a body, and endless perseverance is both contagious and admirable. However, the poetic justice and license to include Philip Larkin’s poem The Trees propels the dramatic thrust of this story, summing it up in one fell swoop:
Signs of novelty are also sewn into what has become extinct. Everything changes all the time. I love being alive, especially in late spring, when the flowers come back. But you can’t enjoy the daffodil without honoring what’s dead so it can grow back. If you want to truly grow, you need to be able to know and allow for what change is like and how it really feels.
“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” will make your spirit fly and remind you that you enjoy the people you love, inhale some fresh air and respect the earth every second as if it were your first time. It’s a reminder to embrace all stages of mourning and see our dark chapters as changes that somehow make us better on the other side.
Available in select cinemas on June 24, with a nationwide expansion.