If a feel-good movie is what you're after – and who isn't at this time of year – then here's a superb option that may have slipped under your radar. The Rotten Tomatoes rating agrees, with a whopping 98% on the Tomatometer and 90% on the Popcornmeter. So, film fans are pretty much in agreement on this one.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a quirky, funny and entertaining film that all the family can enjoy. But don't think that means this is light and fluffy - there's real emotional depth and poignancy here, as well as tonnes of creativity, not least in the form of the stop-motion animation.
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What's in a shell?
In an art-meets-life-meets-art style, the film tells the story of a documentary maker who decides to start making a movie about a mollusk shell he finds living in his Airbnb. No, really.
Marcel, the super cute one-inch-tall shell, lives with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Living alone they are the mysterious survivors of a group of shells that once made up a community.
What follows is a story about finding a connection where you might not expect to discover. Ready your heart to be warmed and your funny bones to be tickled.
Handmade magic
The movie was the brainchild of Dean Fleischer Camp, who co-wrote, voiced and directed it, and Jenny Slate who co-wrote and voiced it. After buying the shell to make the film, Fleischer Camp found that others in the same store were so different that he ended up 3D printing shells to achieve the look he wanted.
This is one example of the many hurdles they had to overcome to get the film made, which is why it took seven years in production.
And it does feel like a labour of love, and real art – which no doubt helps deliver that genuine heart-warming feeling that's all too rare in family films these days.
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