‘Marcel the Shell’ lightens the heavy toll of a harsh world

At 1 inch tall, Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate) is a garrulous shell with a decent shoe game who lives alone with his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini) when a budding filmmaker (Dean Fleischer Camp) finds out their family is missing. After the filmmaker posts a video of Marcel, fans help the pair reconnect with their lost loved ones. Sprung from a three-minute viral hit in 2010 created by director Camp and actor Slate, “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” is an endearing stop-motion animation feature about grief, risk and togetherness. “What I find inspiring about Marcel is he doesn’t take any obstacle or loss super personally,” Camp says. “He doesn’t feel like it’s an injustice and has faith that he’ll find a way through it.” Marcel takes that leap, with some encouragement from his nana, and appears on a “60 Minutes” episode that leads to him reuniting with his family. The moment is charmingly captured with the camera pulling out, revealing dozens of shells on a bed watching the episode a laptop. “I love that shot because you see not just his individual bonds but them all cheering as a community and cheering for a happy ending in a kind of harsh world,” Camp says.