The forms and styles in animation do not stop growing, and the uniform aspect that has been imposed by Disney and Pixar with the computer technique is being challenged. Sony and Dreamworks, from that same technique, are doing incredible stylized exercises that are forming a different personality. But the most interesting and grateful trend is the resurface that is living the stop-motion.
Animation with a more traditional look is having a very powerful revival thanks to Netflix, with productions like the Oscar-winning ‘Pinocchio by Guillermo Del Toro’ or the long-awaited return of a master like Henry Selick. Even from the independent, incredible jewels come out that, in addition to being exquisite in technique, they disarm you emotionallyas is the case with ‘Marcel, the shell with shoes‘.
hello conch
A truly gem with A24 stamp which stands as one of the most emotional and special animated films that we will be able to enjoy this year. Released here discreetly in the domestic market, being able to be seen streaming through Movistar+, it is likely to go unnoticed. However, it totally deserves the chance you give this lovely doe-eyed shell that was nominated for an Oscar in the animated category.
In the film we find a filmmaker named Dean, just like the writer-director Dean Fleischer-Camp, who moves into an Airbnb after a separation. There she meets a tiny shell with eyes, little shoes and the ability to speak, who lives there with her grandmother and is fascinated by the little things in the house as well as by the new tenant who visits them. The filmmaker decides to film this shell in her chores and releasing her reflections, becoming an online phenomenon as soon as he decides to publish the videos.
Fleischer-Camp created the concept and the first Marcel shorts together with Jenny Slate, co-creator and voice of the character as well as ex-wife of the director. Their apparently amicable separation plays a role in a film that knows how to be meta-referential, also introducing a fascination with the original shorts. With that inquire into our online behaviorcreating phenomena through things that are cute to us to counteract the pollution that often populates social networks.
‘Marcel, the shell with shoes’: the confusing search for happiness
They are details of interest, although that is not where the enormous heart of this little film resides. The story with a family that served as previous tenants, as well as the fragility of the grandmother’s character (with the beautiful voice of Isabella Rossellini), makes ‘Marcel, the shell with shoes’ an overwhelming reflection on family, loss and the distraction with little things to get away from sadness.
Fascination with the everyday in the midst of a succession of bitter and beautiful moments, reflecting the lights and shadows that life sometimes throws at us. Fleischer-Camp tells us about it with a beautiful delicacy, mixing the mockumentary with stop-motion animation details as modest as they are exquisite. But what stands out the most is the care of an innocent character who becomes a great representative of modern existential concerns and our confused search for happiness.
In Espinof | The best animated movies of all time