While attending a friend's wedding, Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny
Slate had the inspiration for their utterly charming and unexpectedly poignant
lo-fi animation, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. "We were in a hotel
sleeping six to a room because most of us were really broke," Slate
recalls, "and I was beginning to feel really small." I'd been doing
this little voice all weekend, so I started talking like Marcel: "I'm just
feeling really squished here," I said in a squeaky, slightly forlorn
voice. "We were both dissatisfied with our jobs," Fleischer-Camp
adds. "We were coming from... well, I'm not going to be dramatic about it.
It's not like we were down." "I was depressed," Slate says.
"I'll say it."
Just a tad, sure. We were at a point in our lives when
anything we created would have a layer of gravity to it. And the true magic of
[the film] for me is that it has this layer of gravity while remaining about an
adorable little shell."
Marcel follows that little squeaky-voiced seashell for just
over three minutes as he describes his life ” everything from parties with his friends
to high cholesterol to regrets like never owning a dog. (Marcel simulates the
experience by dragging a small piece of lint through his hair.) The short is
also endearingly self-assured, with Marcel insisting that he likes himself and
"possesses a lot of great qualities." "It's a little raw and
embarrassing," Slate says of Marcel. "You shouldn't tell others how
much you like yourself."
Fleischer-Camp has worked as a director and editor since
graduating from NYU Film School, and her short films have screened in galleries
and alternative comedy venues throughout Brooklyn. Slate has appeared in
television shows and films, but she is best known for her role as Stella on
HBO's Bored to Death and the 2009 season of Saturday Night Live.
Marcel was shot in Fleischer-Camp and Slate's Brooklyn
apartment, premiered at a local comedy show, and was posted online at the
urging of friends. "I didn't want it on the Internet," Slate says.
"These shorts we make for comedy shows are sacred things, and I didn't
want Marcel to get spit on all over in the comments section beneath the
video."
She didn't have to be concerned. The hits exploded within
days, and festivals began to invite the film: AFI, where it premiered;
Sundance; and, finally, their favorite, the New York International Children's
Festival. Now, the duo is working on two Marcel children's books, and they hope
to finalize a deal for a Marcel TV show soon.
Both laugh at their sudden fame as short-form animators.
"We made it just for the sake of making it," Slate says. "After
all, I'm a film and television actress, and Dean is a feature director."
"I'm a very inexperienced animator," Fleischer-Camp adds. "It's
not an impersonation. I'm a guy who drew and painted a lot, but I'd only done
live action before this." "I have this mission to explore Jenny's
darker side, so I'm writing this love story about rabies," Fleischer-Camp
says of the feature. Macaulay, Scott
