
The titular hero of the magical animated fable, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is a 1-inch tall mollusk voiced by Jenny Slate who sleeps in a "bread-room" (e.g, on slices of bread.) Marcel lives in an Airbnb that has been rented by director Dean Fleischer-Camp. (He is also Slate's ex-husband, and writer/director of the shorts the feature is based on.)
Dean is making a documentary about Marcel who has lost his community when the previous human residents (Thomas Mann and Rosa Salazar) left. With only his grandmother, Connie (Isabella Rossellini) remaining, Marcel deals with his fears — a dog, a squirrel — but also combats loneliness as he has lost his friends and family. As Dean films Marcel, he becomes an internet sensation, and even attracts the attention of a producer at "60 Minutes."