I happened upon the trailer for Marcel the Shell With Shoes On a few weeks ago and was instantly mesmerized by its inventiveness. Fortunately the film came to our neighborhood cinema last week where I was able to see it on the big screen. The film is a triumph in both human, animal, and cinematic inventiveness. Marcel, voiced by Jenny Slate, is a snail living alone with his grandmother, Connie, voiced by Isabella Rossellini, in an Air B and B his family and friends were forced to evacuate. When filmmaker Dean moves in long term when recovering from a separation with his wife, he begins to document Marcel’s tiny world, the rich life that it contains, and the search for the community that was forced to abandon it. The stop motion animation blends perfectly with the live action footage, and documentary seamlessly washes into very imaginative fiction. This film is a labor of love more than a decade in the making resulting in one of the most innovative and creative things I’ve seen in a long time. I would recommend watching the feature first, then going back to see the short films where you can see the work in development. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On is visually stunning, human, hilarious, emotional, and imaginative. Slater and Rossellini are brilliant. See it for yourself.