I liked the three short Marcel web videos from the early 2010s, but the announcement of this movie caught me by surprise. The shorts mostly consisted of monologues with almost no plot and rarely a second character on screen. How could the makers fill 90 minutes? When I saw that the answer was streaming on Netflix, I immediately opted to find out.
Marcel (Jenny Slate) is a walnut-sized seashell with one eye, a mouth, two stubby legs, humanlike language capacity, and a childlike demeanor. He's been living with grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini) at an Airbnb, unnoticed by humans until amateur documentarian Dean Fleischer Camp (as himself, more or less) moves in, discovers him, and persuades him to star in the aforementioned YouTube series. After gaining a fandom, Marcel hopes anew to find the rest of his large family, who were accidentally packed up when prior tenant Mark (Thomas Mann) left in a hurry. Imagine his dismay to learn how large the world is and how unhelpful most fans are.
You're probably thinking, "Of course they don't help; they think he's fake!" I'm not so sure. Despite all the tenants who appeared not to see the living shells, the humans who meet them express no surprise and do not inquire about their origin. Nor do the shells fear human attention. Clearly, we're supposed to take it all in stride too.
The same factors that made the shorts a hit are in play here. Marcel is quite the cutie in looks, voice, and behavior. Much of the humor stems from him navigating an environment made for much larger people, such as by rolling around in a tennis ball. And unlike the Borrowers, he has no arms, requiring extra resourcefulness. Also, the stop-motion animation blends remarkably well with the live action.
At the same time, there's a lot more drama. In addition to the previous family separation, Connie is ailing. Marcel worries enough to limit his actions, and that worries her in turn. I never thought I'd find the story so poignant.
We learn late in the movie (without importance to the plot) that Dean came to the Airbnb in the first place because of a breakup. Mark had left for the same reason. In reality, Camp and Slate had gotten divorced since the end of the web series, which would explain the slight pall.
All other reasons for a PG rating are subtle. Marcel himself usually doesn't pick up on them. At worst, little kids may sense that they missed a punchline.
MtSwSO couldn't hope to win against the more solid competition that year, but I'm glad it exists. See it when you want emotion over intellect.
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