Marcel the Shell with Shoes On debuted a new trailer this week. A24 gave viewers a look at the warm little tale of a shell who’s feeling a bit lonely. Jenny Slate voices the children’s character and Dean Fleischer-Camp has directing duties this time around. Marcel has been making younger audiences smile for a decade now. Slate’s character first appeared in some short films on Vimeo and that led to two children’s books. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: Things About Me in 2011 and 2014’s Marcel the Shell: the Most Surprised I’ve Ever Been. So, while a bit of a niche ask, there’s kids who saw this entire fascinating ride from the absolute beginning. The Internet was a much different place near the turn of the previous decade. Some of that sweetness makes it’s presence felt in the short trailer for the A24 film. (It also helps that this fits right in that groove of strange serene movies that the studio likes to employ.) Check out the clip down below.
Slate actually talked to Marie Claire about her character. It’s a big jump to a major release, but she’s excited to see what audiences think of such an honest little shell. Marcel is very frank and clear-eyed, despite being sweet and family friendly. Viewers have noted there’s a bit of melancholy quietly flowing underneath the surface.
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“I feel like I would describe Marcel as … I was writing to a friend yesterday that [creating Marcel is] like I’m putting a hand down into the richest, darkest part of my psyche and trying to pull out the thing that I really want people to see about me, and what I’m like, and how I think, and what I need, and it comes out this way,” Slate described. “I really, really, really value it.”
“[Creating Marcel is] like I’m putting a hand down into the richest, darkest part of my psyche and trying to pull out the thing that I really want people to see about me, and what I’m like, and how I think, and what I need, and it comes out this way,” she added during the interview. “I really, really, really value it.”
The actress also mentioned, “I just hope that it exists in people’s lives as if something … a glowing orb landed in your backyard in the middle of the night, and you just looked at it for a while. I think I guess I hope it allows people to feel that they are entitled to their own moments of contemplation.”
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On features performances by Isabella Rossellini, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, and Lesley Stahl. You can check out the little character for yourself when the film releases on June 24.
Will you be checking out Marcel? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!