Marcel the Shell: Community, courage, and change
“Guess why I smile a lot? Uh, ‘cause it’s worth it.”
- Marcel the Shell
These days, it’s rare to find a family-friendly movie that is beautifully made, deeply vulnerable, and still genuinely funny, accessible, and adorable. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On manages to accomplish each of these tasks with a grace and sweet magnificence that breaks the boundaries of the mockumentary genre.
The film was co-created by actress Jenny Slate and director Dean Fleischer-Camp based on a series of Marcel-based YouTube shorts that the two produced from 2010-2014. Marcel, a one-inch tall shell voiced by Slate, was brought to life by stop-motion, a film technique involving moving a figurine or other form of media little by little to create the ultimate effect of an inanimate object moving fluidly and independently. In an interview with Datebook, Slate revealed that the origin of the voice came from attempting to communicate with her five male roommates in a stuffy hotel room she was sharing with friends to save money for a wedding they were all attending. Of course, she could not have known then how much this voice would come to life in the following years—production for the film took seven years and was finally released to the public on Jun. 24, 2022.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On has maintained this sense of stunning and nuanced creativity throughout its decades of production. Slate’s now famous voicing of Marcel creates a child-like sense of wonder in the intimate, meticulous efforts that created the film that audiences now adore.
When I first saw Marcel the Shell with Shoes On this past summer, I was instantly struck by the distinctive energy that Marcel’s character created. Marcel is charming, quick-witted, and infinitely optimistic despite the hardships that we come to learn he has faced. Marcel reflects poignantly on the loss of his family and shell-community during an upset between the couple that lived in the house Marcel once occupied, relenting this loss while maintaining hope for the community’s recovery. Marcel and Nana Connie, who were both unaffected by the fight, find clever and distinctive ways to keep up with the responsibilities that were once easily accomplished with the collaboration of their community.
Though Marcel and Nana Connie manage their lives well enough on their own, they are constantly reminded and saddened by the loss that they have experienced; however, when Fleischer-Camp, who plays himself in the movie, discovers and starts to document their little lives, Marcel and Nana Connie go viral and their lives change almost instantly. Fleischer-Camp receives an email from the producers of “60 Minutes,” Marcel and Nana Connie’s favorite television show, asking Marcel if he would star on the show with the promise of exploring all leads on where his family might have gone.
At first, Marcel is extremely hesitant to accept the offers—as Nana Connie grows older, he worries for her and believes that having producers and cameras in the house would overexcite her and damage her health. The most moving part of the film occurs when Nana Connie responds to Marcel’s worries: Marcel asks his grandmother, “But what if everything changes again?” Nana Connie responds, sweetly but surely, “Marcello, it will.”
This specific moment of the film is what makes me cry every time—Nana Connie’s selflessness and love for Marcel outshines all else as she teaches him to accept the constant changes in his life, wanting him to embrace hope for the future while understanding that there will be costs along the way. This encouragement breaks open the audience’s hearts, reminding them, too, that change is constant and, if resisted, can put a halt in the growth, love, and adventure that life is meant to bring about. This boundless, unexceptional love is what defines Marcel the Shell with Shoes On as the heart-warming and life-changing film that it is.
Marcel and Nana Connie’s devotion show the audience what it means to radically embrace love and hope in a manner that accepts one of the hardest lessons that we as humans have to learn—that suffering is inevitable, and that there is inherent pain that comes with change. Nana Connie shows Marcel that this inevitability is not one that we can hide away from forever and that there is so much to appreciate and love in this life, regardless of our fear to change.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On adopts a revolutionary philosophy on love and acceptance, as well as community and connection. I assure you that you will giggle, cry, and find yourself caught up in every word of wisdom that these shells have to offer. Marcel is a character that you simply cannot miss.