Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: a film review by Alex First

Marcel is an extraordinary, original work with Best Animated Feature at the Oscars written all over it.

It is a delightful tale that is beautifully told.

Marcel (the voice of Jenny Slate) is a one-inch-high shell that came from a large community of shells.

Now only he and his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini) remain.

Into their Airbnb residence and lives steps an amateur documentary filmmaker, Dean (Dean Fleischer-Camp).

After engaging in conversation with Marcel, Dean decides to make a doco about him, which he posts on YouTube.

To say that that goes viral is an understatement.

It attracts the interest of 60 Minutes and Marcel’s favourite reporter on the program, who sets about interviewing Marcel and Dean.

Meanwhile, Marcel reveals his desire to find his family, a search that ends up going global.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On became an unexpected internet sensation when the one-eyed mollusc made his YouTube debut in 2010.

He earned millions of fans globally, spawning two more online shorts and New York Times bestselling books.

With a screenplay by Dean Fleischer-Camp, Jenny Slate and Nick Paley, Fleischer-Camp also directs and edits the film alongside Paley.

The film is something special.

The stop-motion animation is state-of-the-art.

Melding it so seamlessly with live action and such natural dialogue is a work of genius.

I was left astounded at the sheer creativity and masterful execution.

Marcel is such a charming, unassuming, easily relatable character.

He doesn’t hold back on his emotions and is forthright, honest and honourable.

The delivery by Jenny Slate and Fleischer-Camp appears so effortless, as Marcel and Dean interact without pretence.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a trailblazer, a movie unlike any other I have seen.

It is wonderful, warm and wondrous.

Rated PG, it scores an 8½ out of 10. Running time 89 minutes