Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” is a mockumentary comedy-drama that beautifully talks about life and perseverance in the most nonchalant manner. Presenting the story of a literal one-inch shell named Marcel, the film makes use of stop-motion animation for the protagonist in an otherwise live-action setup. Jenny Slate, who had originally come up with the idea of Marcel along with Dean in 2010, stars as the voice of the shell. Overall, “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” has such heartwarming perspectives on life, yet with much calming simplicity, that it is certain to be a memorable watch.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
The story revolves around an amateur filmmaker named Dean, who moves into an Airbnb house while in search of a new residence. At this house, Dean meets with our titular protagonist, Marcel, who is a one-eyed shell but with shoes on and the ability to speak. Although he used to live in the same house with a large extended family, Marcel only has his elderly grandmother, Nanna Connie, by his side at present. Since the two are left without a community, they have come up with unique and interesting ways to get things done, although they need to work very hard in such ways. Marcel, for example, ties a rope to a mixer grinder to shake the branches of a nearby tree to make the fruits fall down. Or, the inventive shell has carved out a hole inside a tennis ball to make himself a round car that takes him places faster. Although Marcel agrees that this is not the most reliable vehicle to move around in, as he often lands up in places where he does not intend to go, the energetic shell is always positive and loving towards himself and life. He even keeps a lint as a pet, which he tugs along at times. But what has happened to their family? While a loving couple used to live in this house around two years ago, they had a terrible falling out, leading to the man leaving the place and the woman then selling it. From the day that the man had left, Marcel’s family had also mysteriously disappeared. As Marcel suspects, the two events are probably linked to each other.
Impressed and intrigued by this whole affair and personality of Marcel, Dean decides to make a documentary video about the shell and his life. Making one such piece, where Marcel introduces himself and whatever he does around the house, Dean uploads it to YouTube, followed by a couple more videos. What he does not imagine, though, is the fact that the videos become viral in a short time, and Marcel becomes an internet celebrity with thousands of fans trying to reach out to him.
How Does The Film Talk About Human Life In Bits And Pieces?
Through its 90-minute duration, “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” touches upon numerous aspects of human life without being pushy about any of them. To put it slightly in context, Jenny Slate and Dean Camp came up with the idea of Marcel back in 2010 and subsequently made a stop-motion animation video about it. This video, in which Marcel, voiced by Slate, introduces himself and his life, was released on YouTube and had actually gone viral. There were more short video sketches that followed, and a book was also released on Marcel. While this whole thing is adapted for this 2021 film, notes on internet popularity and the negative side of it in current times are also cleverly touched on. After Marcel becomes popular on social media and gains lovers and followers, there is an immediate attempt to reach out to him in the real offline world. Someone on social media manages to find the house Marcel and Dean are living in and tells the world about it online. What follows is a frenzy of people who flock to the place daily to make videos themselves, shoot dance videos in front of the location, or leave messages of love and support for Marcel. The idea of becoming famous and popular overnight on the internet is also scary at present because it leaves one with no privacy at all. In an age obsessed with the task of coming up with new content quickly, everything can be content. This is what happens when a few youngsters seem to break into the house one day while Dean and Marcel are out. Marcel’s old grandmother, Connie, is gravely injured during such an act, as she was startled and scared when the break-in happened and fell from a considerable height. This left Nanna Connie with a crack on her shell and gravely sick, and Marcel discontent with his whole popularity on the internet. At one point before any of this happened, though, the shell also commented on how the loving comments on him on social media made it seem like a community, but it was not really a community at all. Now hurt by the accident and sickness of his grandmother, Marcel asks Dean to take down their previous videos, or at least not make any new ones.
With the injury of Connie and her subsequent treatment, a beautiful relationship between her and Marcel is presented. The young shell denies taking part in any of the internet shenanigans anymore and instead focuses his whole time and effort on looking after his grandmother. This care is not just physical but mental and emotional as well. Although Connie does start to recover physically, Marcel notices that she has stopped expressing happiness and joy. To help her out with this, he tries numerous things that they used to do as a family together or just the two of them as part of their entertainment. He tries all that he can to make her feel as comfortable and normal as she was before the accident. But what his young mind is unable to comprehend is that Connie was shaken up more by her old age than by the accident. The idea of the need for a community is also largely present in the film, and Marcel’s main intention throughout is to try and find his family. For this reason, after his few videos had gone viral, the shell appeared on a live video in which he asked for help from his fans to track down his lost family. For this, he had drawn images of the members and also shown photographs of the couple who used to stay in the house before their eventual separation. Marcel was sure that the man must have taken away all the shells with him when leaving while he and Connie were left behind. Although the internet could not help much with this, help from a bigger source now came their way in the form of the news magazine TV show “60 Minutes.” The producers of the show get in touch with Dean and Marcel, asking for an interview with both of them and also promising to use their platform to try and find the missing shell family.
Marcel and his grandmother were huge fans of the show, especially the host, Lesley Stahl, and would regularly watch it on television. In fact, it was while sitting down to watch “60 Minutes” one night that they suddenly realized that the rest of the family, who were also great fans of it, had not come to watch it as they regularly did. This then led to the discovery that they were missing from the house. Even though this is an opportunity that Marcel would have grabbed with both hands in a different situation, the young shell vehemently opposes this interview at present. The reason he gives is that having so many people in the house again would upset Nanna Connie’s health once again, and he does not want to do that for anything in the world. Marcel is genuinely ready to sacrifice meeting an idol of his only to ensure that Connie is not disturbed once again. However, such love is met with equal love and sacrifice from the other side too. Once Connie learns from Dean that the real reason her grandson rejected the interview was her bad health, she starts to act like she is all fine and recovered now. Even though it hurts the old shell to move around and do activities, she goes through them with Marcel only to make him believe that she is back to being totally normal once again. Finally, Marcel agrees to the interview, and the whole team arrives at the house, including Lesley Stahl herself. It is during the interview that Nanna Connie passes away in a quiet and calm manner. This, too, is beautifully presented by the film, as Connie reads aloud lines from Philip Larkin’s “The Trees,” which celebrate the dying as the promise of the new that is coming. Connie passed away in her corner of the house in quiet happiness, knowing that her grandson was now surrounded by so many people and all their love. While for Marcel, their separation from the family was only about loss and grief, for Connie, it was also about seeing her young grandson live through this grief, along with the pains of her own. Till her last breath, Connie ensures that her bad health does not get in the way of Marcel’s advancement in life and that she does not make her grandson obligated to take care of her and tie him down in the process. It is she who pushes him towards new situations and teaches him that life is always going to change and that he should learn to live with this change.
Ending Explained: Does Marcel Find His Family At The End?
After grieving Connie’s death and also making a memorial in the garden for her, Marcel continues to live with Dean in the house for some time before the filmmaker also moves away. But within this time, something marvelous also happens through the “60 Minutes” interview. The producers of the show get in touch with the woman who used to live in the house based on the details and descriptions provided by Marcel. This woman, Larissa, had left the country for work but returned only to help the shell out, and she also got the producers in touch with her ex-boyfriend Mark, who was the man living in the house that Marcel remembers. Together with the producers and Dean by his side, Marcel visits Mark’s current house and finally finds his long-lost family. Both sides are ecstatic about this reunion, and Marcel’s parents are also interviewed by Dean at the end. They all return to the Airbnb house and continue to live there happily as a family, as a community finally brought back together. If Marcel and the talking shells are to be considered as something or someone symbolic, then there can be multiple possibilities without anything particular hinted at by the film. The shells are terrified every time the human couple in the house has an argument or fight, and it is this fight and separation that leads to them getting separated, too, without any fault of their own. This perhaps holds a strong resemblance to an innocent child getting pushed into unfamiliar situations when their parents go through a process of separation. At other times, especially with regards to his compassionate concern and his supreme perseverance, Marcel is also the ideal adult human who keeps pushing towards their aim but also remembers to love and appreciate themselves and others around throughout the way.
There is also a nice arc to the character of Dean, who also gets recognition due to his videos about Marcel. When the amateur filmmaker first moves into the Airbnb house, he does so because he has recently separated from his wife and therefore had to move out of their house. While in search of a new place of his own, Dean started to live in this particular house and make friends with Marcel. In one part, he mentioned that he and his wife had just grown apart and out of love in the process of life and had mutually decided to end their marriage. By the end of the film, Dean moves into a new house of his own and also invites Marcel there one day. There is indeed a feeling that Dean, too, has learned to enjoy himself and life in general from Marcel, a reminder that the shell with shoes on leaves with all of us.
