Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, February 11, 2023

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON (2021)

Capped by a surprise Oscar nom. (Best Animated Feature 2022), MARCEL successfully jumped from viral youtube short to full-length film without losing its sophisticated charm, modesty of form or naïf weirdness.  Set in a Live Action world, but featuring thimble-sized star Marcel (and support) in Stop-Motion, it’s something of a Home Alone story, as Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate), in mockumentary style, tells its life story & current quotidian amusements to Dean Fleischer Camp’s interlocutor.  The little thru-line that passes for a plot: hunting up the rest of the ‘Shell Gang’ that went missing when tenants moved out and left Marcel behind.  It’s a Family Film, literally.  The shorts originally made all but entirely by married couple Slate/Fleischer-Camp who now command a small army of film technicians as unmarried couple Slate/Fleischer-Camp, without losing sight of the endearing character traits & slight, wistful tone that made the little episodes so memorable.  And no worry about snark setting in with the bigger budget either since Marcel has always displayed an over-sized measure of goofy snark for such an under-sized entity.  (Not the only playful use of scale here.)  The only danger comes in possible oversell.  But the film is proud of its thimble-sized ambitions and all the better for it.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Dean Fleischer Camp seems a clever choice for his next project, the Live-Action remake of LILO & STITCH/’02, the final hand-drawn success of the Disney Animation renaissance that began with THE LITTLE MERMAID/’89.  (MERMAID itself coming out this May in a less than promising Live Action remake.)  Get a head-start by watching the delightful LILO original.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/07/lilo-stitch-2002.html

No comments: