Marcel The Shell With Shoes On’s New Trailer Is a Quirky Expansion of the Viral Short

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On’s New Trailer Is a Quirky Expansion of the Viral Short

A24 is no stranger to quirky films, but Marcel The Shell With Shoes On might be its quirkiest yet. Endearing and sweet, the trailer follows the premise of the first viral video, showing a young Marcel (Jenny Slate) who lives with his grandmother as he’s interviewed by a documentarian. After the short film goes viral (which is a clever way to pay homage to the original short film), Marcel is encouraged to go on an adventure to find the rest of his family, all of whom have mysteriously disappeared after an unnamed tragedy.

The trailer is pretty much exactly what you expect from Marcel–a charming, but unsurprising expansion of the original short film. There’s Slate doing her Marcel voice, the challenges of being small in a big world, and a fun cameo from Leslie Stahl (60 Minutes). The original character design, stop motion animation, and fun Borrowers-style set design all come back as well, and there is unfortunately little that’s surprising about this trailer.

Marcel is one of those pieces of media that really embodies the quirky-cute comedy of the early 2010s that took off in a big way–stuff like The Office and New Girl. The massive success of the original short film and the two preceding films means that people already have expectations for what they want out of this wholesome and adorable mollusk, and while they may have been fine watching a few minutes of eccentric dialogue and funny repartee between a shell and a documentarian, the script might struggle with the full weight of the 90 minute runtime. We’ll see though — the tone here is much different to some of A24’s recent fare, so maybe there’s a few surprises to be had.

Image: A24
Image: A24

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On releases Friday June 24, 2022.


Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.