Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (short film series)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a 2010 American trilogy of stop-motion animated mockumentary short films directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, who co-wrote the script with Jenny Slate.

Summary
The films show the everyday life of Marcel (voiced by Slate), an anthropomorphic seashell outfitted with a single googly eye and a pair of miniature shoes.

Production
The character of Marcel came at an unexpected time. Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer Camp were attending a wedding and were sharing a single hotel room with a group of friends. As things began to feel claustrophobic and tensions rose Jenny Slate began voicing her needs in the voice that would come to be that of Marcel. Upon returning home Dean Fleischer Camp worked with found objects, eventually settling on  Polly Pocket shoes, a seashell, and a single googly eye

Release
The first film premiered theatrically at AFI FEST 2010, where it was awarded Best Animated Short and was an official selection of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. It won the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at the 2011 New York International Children's Film Festival.

Two additional shorts were released in 2011 and 2014. The first sequel "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Two", was posted to YouTube on November 14, 2011. The second sequel, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Three", was posted on October 20, 2014. Each was accompanied by a tie-in storybook featuring Marcel.

Feature-length adaptation
Slate and Fleischer-Camp announced in 2014 that they planned to create a longer film about the character. The feature-length film, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2021, and stars Jenny Slate, Thomas Mann, Isabella Rossellini, and Rosa Salazar.