Marcel the Shell with Shoes On review – overbearing melancholy and insufferable cutesiness

Within the first minute of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, my partner leaned over to tell me that they wanted to “stomp on that annoying shell.” This is by far a minority opinion, seeing as the A24 produced mockumentary charmed audiences across the Atlantic last year, hitting the ground running as one of the major contenders in the race for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. But I do think this flippant comment offers a window into why Dean Fleischer Camp's whimsical feature might not be as readily embraced this side of the pond, over-sentimentalising a formula not entirely dissimilar to Aardman’s Creature Comforts but replacing the deadpan observational comedy with overbearing melancholy and insufferable cutesiness.

Adapted and expanded from Fleischer Camp's viral 2010 short of the same name, the co-writer/director once again appears as a fictionalised version of himself, with the feature adding some renewed lore about how he first came to encounter Marcel (once again voiced by co-writer Jenny Slate). Here, he discovers the anthropomorphic shell living in the AirBnB he’s moved into following his divorce, learning that he and his grandmother Nana Connie (Isabella Rossellini) have been left behind after the wider shell family were accidentally packed in a suitcase by the house’s former owner. Fascinated with Marcel’s story, Dean begins filming him and his initial videos gain widespread popularity online, which both hope will be the next step towards reuniting Marcel with his family.

The most interesting aspect of Fleischer Camp's film is what exists between the lines. Whereas the earlier shorts were more directly comedic, successfully aping the Creature Comforts formula as the one-inch-tall Marcel answered questions about the more surreal aspects of his day-to-day life (from using raisins as beanbags, to jet-skiing on toenails), the feature is decidedly more melancholic.

That's because Fleischer Camp and Slate were previously married, divorcing in 2016, making this return to a project they last visited in 2014 all the more intriguing – especially considering the director’s onscreen counterpart is going through a divorce, and his former wife’s counterpart is harbouring a sense of loss for their missing family. Meanwhile, Slate’s character rises to fame entirely through the hands of the screen surrogate of her former husband, becoming a household name even though her character’s new adoring fans don’t take the time to engage with their domestic troubles. At times, it can feel like the closest children’s entertainment can get to couple’s therapy.

But while the meta-textual aspects of the drama are certainly intriguing on a surface level, they’re seldom explored with greater depth. Powerful themes including Nana Connie’s dementia are similarly alluded to, but never thoroughly unpacked; it’s a film that wants to hit audiences in the feels by taking every last conceivable shortcut to the big emotional punch. I can’t imagine children enjoying this more than the non-sequitur packed earlier short films, which demonstrated that this character was more engaging before his world was developed, even if the stop-motion animation is considerably more accomplished here.

Even looking back to that short, there was an underlying melancholy to Marcel’s otherwise easy-going existence, which it still managed to balance more coherently alongside his wonder at the world and playful sense of humour in three minutes than the corresponding feature manages in 90. As to reaffirm the curse of the Saturday Night Live sketch spin-off movie, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is further proof that YouTube characters seldom translate into feature length efforts.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is released in UK cinemas on 17 February.