Marcel The Shell With Shoes On Trailer: This Is Your New Favorite Family Movie

Over a decade ago, a series of adorable stop-motion shorts featuring a one-eyed shell wearing shoes voiced by Jenny Slate played a number of festivals to critical acclaim, but blew up in popularity once made available on YouTube. The shorts featured the titular "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" as he's interviewed by an unseen documentarian to discuss his daily life, hopes, dreams, and biggest disappointments. In the years since, Jenny Slate has become a household name and one of the most easily identifiable talents in the world of voice-over. A feature length film of "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" was inevitable, and a refreshing escape from the painfully dramatic era of entertainment we find ourselves in due to, well, the state of everything in the world.

Directed again by co-writer/director/co-star Dean Fleischer-Camp and presented in a similar format to the original shorts, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is a feature length documentary (err ...mockumentary) about a man who befriends the little shell that lives in the Airbnb he's renting out following a break-up. Marcel lives with his grandmother, Connie, and their pet lint, Alan. What develops during his stay is a lovely friendship between two unlikely roommates, and a story where a talking shell is given as much humanity, autonomy, and respect as any human character could possibly possess.

Distributed by A24 in their first family-friendly venture, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" feels right at home with their collection of peculiar yet wholly wonderful filmography. With Dean's help, Marcel has begun a mission to track down the rest of his family who were all separated when the house's previous owners split up during a move. Marcel may have his ill grandmother with him, but he knows the rest of his family is out there somewhere, and no amount of dipping his shoes in honey to help him walk to high places is going to make this an easy task.

Thanks to Dean's documentary videos, Marcel quickly skyrockets to fame, and the humble little shell struggles to make sense of all of his newfound attention. It's already tough being an extremely fragile shell with one googly eye trying to thrive in a world that was not built with him in mind, because as cute as Marcel is, there's always the lingering reality that every day for Marcel is another venture in surviving. There's a deep sadness under the surface of "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On," which makes the moments of joy all the more endearing.

"Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" hits theaters on June 24, 2022.