MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON is a live action Claymation comedy about a little seashell wearing tennis shoes who lives with his grandmother at a rental house and who becomes friends with a divorced documentary filmmaker, who puts popular videos of Marcel online. A celebration of family and community, MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON is cute, funny, winsome, and sometimes profoundly beautiful and contains brief though implied Christian content, but there are some light profanities and themes of divorce, old age and abandonment.

Marcel has been living alone with his grandmother, Nana Connie, in an Airbnb rental house in Los Angeles for two years. Two years ago, the human couple living at the house, Mark and Larissa, got in another of their frequent arguments. The argument scared Marcel’s parents, brother, aunt, and a gaggle of other seashells and disparate friends, and they hid in a sock drawer. Mark accidentally scooped them all up in a suitcase, and left Larissa for good.

Marcel tells all these facts to the new person renting the house, a documentary filmmaker named Dean. Dean decides to start filming and interviewing Marcel about his life. Sadly, though, Marcel’s grandmother, Connie, who tends a small garden for them, is showing signs of dementia. However, she’s still lucid enough to enjoy watching 60 MINUTES with Marcel, through their next door neighbor’s window. Their favorite person on the program is Leslie Stahl.

Dean’s short interviews and videos of Marcel on the internet become extremely popular. Marcel hopes the videos will help him locate his missing family. He and Dean show the photo Marcel has of Mark and his car. However, the fans of the videos don’t seem interested in helping Marcel locate Mark and find his family.

Marcel’s story takes some funny, amazing twists. However, when Marcel’s grandmother gets sick, her illness distracts Marcel from his desire to find his family.

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON is cute, funny, winsome, and sometimes profoundly beautiful. A good example of this combination is the movie’s central image of Marcel using a sliced open green tennis ball to move from one end of the house to another. The movie also has a few heartwarming, heartbreaking moments. Actress Jenny Slate, who created Marcel in 2010 with her ex-husband, Dean Fleischer Camp, and does a lot of animated voice work for TV and movies, adopts an endearing boy’s voice to play Marcel. Dean plays the documentary filmmaker who helps Marcel find his missing family and neighborhood friends.

The movie is an uplifting celebration of family, community and sacrifice. It also has brief though implied Christian content. [SPOILER] For example, Marcel plays the tune to “Amazing Grace” on his little makeshift horn when his grandmother passes away. However, MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON has some light profanities and themes of divorce, old age and abandonment. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children. The whole family, though, will be delighted by the happy, joyful ending in MARCEL.