Read the script for “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” by Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer Camp and Nick Paley

By Judy J. Beasley Last updated Jan 15, 2023

Meet Marcel, the mini mollusc behind the mockumentary of the year.

Runaway hit animated movie”Marcel the shod shellracked up nominations at the Critics Choice Awards, Spirit Awards, and Golden Globes, and won Best Animated Feature at the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle awards. Jenny Slate voices the titular creature, with Isabella Rossellini also lending her voice to the adorable feature based on a trio of previous shorts and a series of bestselling storybooks.

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Slate co-wrote “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” with director Dean Fleischer Camp and Nick Paley. The stop-motion animation feature follows Marcel as he struggles to grow up alongside his grandmother (Rossellini) and Airbnb guests in the house he lives in.

Exclusive to IndieWire, you can now read the full script for ‘Marcel the Shell With Shoes On’ here.

While “Marcel” may seem like a kid’s movie, the animated feature’s expanding adult fanbase has cemented its status as a certified Oscar contender.

“I think maybe it’s because we all have a heart and a mind inside,” Slate told IndieWire at the New York Film Critics Circle. “Whether you’re very young or very old or somewhere in the cycle of life in between, it’s so good to have your soft, tender heart stirred. And I think our film does that. You you’re never too old to be activated this way.

Writer-director Fleischer Camp agreed, saying, “I think Marcel is a character that resonates with people because he copes in a world that wasn’t made for him. And I think everyone understands that from childhood, because you are literally too small for everything and everything is made for adults. And then you get older, and I know I was surprised to find that in fact that’s still the case as you get older. The world just isn’t for you, for more complicated or weirder reasons. And I still find Marcel very inspiring because he’s not frustrated by that. He deals with everything with a neutral attitude. This is exactly what he considers life. He sees it as an obstacle, it’s not personal, just like the next obstacle, and he will overcome it as he did the last in this endless series of obstacles he knows as life. And I think everyone can get something really important out of it.

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