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 The shorts originally made all but entirely by married couple Slate/Fleischer-Camp who now command a small army of film technicians as unmarried couple Slate/Fleischer-Camp, without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:
Post a Comment