Almost everyone can the first time they met Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, a tiny half-shell wearing shoes and sporting the cutest voice, who likes to tease his cameraman with punchlines about his size. This weekend, audiences can finally see in theaters for a feature film instead of at home in 4-minute YouTube videos. Writing partners Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate, who also voices Marcel, teamed up with Nick Paley to flesh out the story and take it to a whole new level.
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On introduces the shell's entire family - mostly by omission, but more on that when you watch. The family focus is on Marcel's grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini, Blue Velvet). As she and her grandson are left to fend for themselves in an Airbnb home, they go unnoticed by every human that es through until amateur filmmaker Dean (played by Fleischer-Camp, who also directed) takes an interest in their way of life.
Screen Rant spoke to Slate and Rossellini about the evolution in Marcel over the 7 years it took to get the film made, the improv process and how it added sincerity to the characters, and which original Marcel The Shell With Shoes On lines had to remain.
Screen Rant: I saw Marcel the Shell when the shorts first came out, and it revolutionized my life. However, I did not ever expect it to make me cry, which this film actually did. Did the nearly decade-long trajectory to this film help inform that older, wiser, more bittersweet approach?
Jenny Slate: Even though the movie did take seven years to make, the character that is there was recorded at the start of that seven years. I think he always had that depth and complexity, but because we had way more time to spend with him, we just were able to give it more space and to show more.
But I do think that, over the years, being able to continually return to the process of making this film has certainly deepened me and clarified who I am - at least to myself as an artist. And that's really something that's very valuable.
Isabella, what was the process of crafting Connie like for you? I've heard that there was a lot of improv and getting to play off each other.
Isabella Rossellini: It was very interesting. It was improvised on a base; it wasn't that I invented it all. There was a base, and we knew where we were going, but we had to improvise. And I think it gave very enormous spontaneity to the voices, and also spontaneity to the live action. Because if there is great sincerity behind it, the characters you are drawing come alive.
It was interesting to see this process, which is something that most animation does. They record the voice first, and then they edit and they illustrate it. I was unfamiliar with it, and I was surprised how long it takes, how much work there is, and the patience [required]. Every time you do a film, as an actor, you always feel like, "This takes at least five months of my time," and I know a director will be at least two or three years. But this took so much longer. This very simple, naïve and wonderfully wise film took seven years.
And it gives you time to become wise, because sometimes when you work very fast, you might miss a point. And then later you say, "I could have done this. I could have done that." The fact that it's so slow technically allows you to say, "Ah, I can reach in here. I can make these words a little bit better in this scene." I think that the depth is also due to the fact that Dean was given time.
I also love that there are some lines that came directly from the original shorts. Were there lines for you, Jenny, that you felt you had to have in from the very beginning?
Jenny Slate: I think it was really important to me and to Dean that we kept all of the things that people ed about Marcel, so that [it feels like], "We know what you about him, and he's still here. And we still think that the way that you guys met is part of your story." Most people have a story with Marcel; they discovered him on the internet, and it's all tied in.
But there's just so much audio that is cut from this because we couldn't fit it in. But there's one part where Marcel goes into a tiny one-second rant, when he's frustrated about how weird it is to test to see if other people are into the word peace. And that was just me - I don't even know if I knew that we were recording. It was just because I would stay in character, and it would be at any moment, we could use it.
We were just recording, recording, recording - but I just giving my own opinion about people who are super jazzed on themselves for g their emails "peace," as if they're the one person that just figured that out. That peace is cool. It almost got taken out, and I was like, "Please leave it in. Please just leave it in that one. I feel like I really want it to stay."
I absolutely am glad that you did.
Jenny Slate: Yeah, it's good to see him be a little bit grumpy sometimes.
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On Synopsis
Marcel is an adorable, 1-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother, Connie, and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. However, when a documentary filmmaker discovers them, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of ionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope of finding his long-lost family.
Check out our other interview with Marcel The Shell With Shoes On director I Want You Back.
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is currently in theaters.
