Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Plot

Following the end of his marriage, documentary filmmaker Dean moves into an Airbnb and discovers Marcel, a one-inch-tall talking shell living in the home with his grandmother, Nana Connie, and Alan, his pet ball of lint.

Inspired by Marcel's whimsicality, resourcefulness, and fascination with the world, Dean begins filming Marcel's daily activities, most of which consist of gathering resources from the backyard in order to support himself and Nana Connie. Connie is wise but has some dementia. She tends to her garden assisted by insects she has befriended. Marcel and Connie share their mutual love of 60 Minutes and Lesley Stahl.

After Dean uploads his first video about Marcel to YouTube, it quickly becomes a cultural phenomenon. Marcel is both flattered and overwhelmed with his newfound popularity, lamenting that his family is not around to celebrate it with him. Marcel explains to Dean that there used to be an entire community of shells on the property, including Marcel's mother, father, brother, and aunt. The shells would take shelter in a sock drawer when the house's previous owners, Mark and Larissa, started knocking objects over while fighting. Following one fight, Mark accidentally packed the shells into his suitcase while moving out, leaving Marcel and Connie the only ones left on the property.

Dean helps Marcel produce a livestream on the Internet asking for help in locating his family. The livestream gains a substantial number of viewers, but after Marcel shares his location with viewers, the house becomes a popular area for influencers. Marcel becomes dismayed after realizing most of the people who saw his videos are fans desperate to be associated with him but largely uninterested in helping him.

The constant attention to the house quickly begins to bother Marcel, who is worried about Connie's deteriorating health. Marcel convinces Dean to drive him around the city in search of Mark's car but is overwhelmed to discover how large and vast the world outside his house really is. Realizing that the world is too big to likely discover the car on his own, a discouraged Marcel returns home to find Connie has fallen off the top of a washing machine and cracked her shell. Marcel tends to her wounds and grows more protective of Connie.

Cast

Jenny Slate as the voice of Marcel

Dean Fleischer Camp as Dean, a documentarian who is a semi-fictionalized version of Fleischer Camp himself, as revealed by blurry shots of a clapperboard showing his full name and of a computer screen showing a real-life photo of him and his ex-wife Slate

Isabella Rossellini as the voice of Nana Connie, Marcel's Italian grandmother, who calls him "Marcello"

Rosa Salazar as Larissa Geller

Thomas Mann as Mark Booth

Lesley Stahl as herself

Shari Finkelstein as 60 Minutes producer

Sarah Thyre as the voice of Catherine, Marcel's mother

Andy Richter as the voice of Mario, Marcel's father and Connie's son

Nathan Fielder as the voice of Justin, Marcel's brother

Jessi Klein as the voice of Judy, Marcel's aunt

Peter Bonerz as the voice of The Maestro

Jamie Leonhart as Shell Family (voices)

Conan O'Brien as himself

Brian Williams as himself

Jesse Cilio as Darwin

Production

Chiodo Bros. Production (known for the 1988 cult classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space) led animation, with Edward Chiodo as animation producer and Kirsten Lepore as animation director. Stephen Chiodo was the film's supervising animation director. Bianca Cline led live action cinematography, while Eric Adkins (Mars Attacks!, The PJs) led stop-motion cinematography.

Release

The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2021. It was also shown at SXSW in March 2022.

In November 2021, A24 acquired the distribution rights. The film was released in select theaters in the United States on June 24, 2022, before releasing nationwide on July 15. The film was released on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on September 5, 2022.

The film was released on February 17, 2023, by Focus Features and Universal Pictures in the United Kingdom.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, the film made $169,606 from six theaters in its opening weekend. It then made $262,022 from 22 theaters in its second and $322,167 from 48 theaters in its third. Playing in 153 theaters the following weekend, the film added another $567,918, bringing its four-week running total to $1.7 million. The film expanded to 590 theatres in the second wide weekend, grossing $874,302 with the average revenue on $1,481, finishing eleventh at the box office. It continued to gross $671,361 from 821 theaters in its third wide weekend and $345,484 from 498 theaters in its fourth wide weekend, both times finishing fourteenth at the box office.

Critical response

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 193 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The critical consensus reads, "Poignant, profound, and utterly heartwarming, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is animated entertainment with real heart." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Accolades

On July 20, 2022, Dean Fleischer Camp said that even with the film having animated characters living and interacting with a live-action world, it will be eligible for consideration to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 95th Academy Awards in 2023. He went on to say that in order for it to be considered, he and A24 will have to submit documentation to prove that it has met the requirements in which "animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time. In addition, a narrative animated film must have a significant number of characters animated." On November 9, 2022, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially deemed the film eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature category. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost to Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio which would also win the Oscar afterwards.