Mar­cel the Shell with Shoes on

Imay seem like some­thing of a back­hand­ed com­ment to say that some­one has a voice for ani­ma­tion, but for all of her achieve­ments in the live-action world (from 2014 rom­com Obvi­ous Child on down), Jen­ny Slate​’s unde­ni­able gift is pure­ly vocal. And despite sparky turns in car­toon series from Bob’s Burg­ers to Big Mouth, no project has cap­tured that as well as her shoe­string break­through, Mar­cel the Shell with Shoes On – a series of shorts released on YouTube between 2010 and 2014, cre­at­ed with Slate’s then-part­ner (and now ex-hus­band), direc­tor Dean Fleischer-Camp.

Mar­cel is a small shell kit­ted out with one over­sized goo­gly eye, two minia­ture sneak­er-shoes, and Slate’s inim­itable voice: high-pitched, equal­ly nasal and husky, light­ly drawl­ing with more than a hint of a croak. The film quite unex­pect­ed­ly delight­ful, much like the orig­i­nal Mar­cel shorts, which played out as 3‑minute grab-bags of gags and skits pre­sent­ed in mock-doc fash­ion, chart­ing the life and world­view of this tiny, chat­ty crea­ture. This fea­ture adap­ta­tion, writ­ten by Slate, Fleis­ch­er-Camp and Nick Paley, broad­ens the hori­zon in every direction.

The mock­u­men­tary fram­ing remains, as Mar­cel is inter­viewed by an (ini­tial­ly) off-cam­era direc­tor (Fleis­ch­er-Camp), explor­ing an exis­tence not dis­sim­i­lar from that of Mary Norton’s ​‘The Bor­row­ers’ (as brought to the screen by Stu­dio Ghi­b­li in 2010’s Arri­et­ty). To sur­vive in the nooks and cran­nies of the immense sur­round­ings of a sub­ur­ban house, Mar­cel has devised a cat­a­logue of hacks and strate­gies, from using a ten­nis ball as a vehi­cle for speedy, chaot­ic trav­el, to rap­pelling from tree branch to win­dowsill in a makeshift shoe ele­va­tor. In a neat twist, the mak­ing of the shorts is fold­ed into the fea­ture, as Dean and Marcel’s own YouTube videos ​‘blow up’, become meme-fod­der, and attract scores of ardent online fans.

Through­out, there’s a pleas­ing hand­craft­ed aspect to Marcel’s world – wire muse­let bot­tle-top­pers unwind into deck chairs, com­pact mir­rors are dressed as beds – that com­ple­ments the live action/stop-motion hybrid nature of the pro­duc­tion. Yet despite the project’s DIY roots, the fea­ture is a ful­ly crewed-up affair, with ranks of ani­ma­tors able to bring expres­sive per­son­al­i­ty to a char­ac­ter that was once charm­ing­ly cobbled-together.

For all the quirks, though, Mar­cel the Shell with Shoes On is shot through with a cer­tain sad­ness. Disasterpeace’s min­i­mal elec­tron­ic score cap­tures a frag­ile qual­i­ty that is equal parts whim­sy and melan­choly. The house itself, we soon find out, is not a home; in Marcel’s words, it’s a ​‘com­put­er hotel’ (or an Airbnb to you and me).

Like­wise, loss and lone­li­ness are nev­er far away: here, the young shell is accom­pa­nied by his ail­ing grand­moth­er Nana Con­nie (voiced by Isabel­la Rosseli­ni, but named after Slate’s own grand­ma). They’re the only two sur­vivors of an event that sent the rest of their extend­ed fam­i­ly to parts unknown. The direc­tor – recent­ly sep­a­rat­ed from his wife – is drawn in, and they become unit­ed in a quest for con­nec­tion and com­mu­ni­ty in an uncar­ing world.

Lit­tle White Lies is com­mit­ted to cham­pi­oning great movies and the tal­ent­ed peo­ple who make them.

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