MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On

An Animated Feature Film

Marcel is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. But when a documentary filmmaker discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope at finding his long-lost family. A beloved character gets his big-screen debut in this hilarious and heartwarming story about finding connection in the smallest corners.

This feature film is a unique hybrid of stop motion and live action, presented in a documentary-style format. I worked with Production Designer Liz Toonkel and Director Dean Fleischer Camp during the early development of the film to design and build miniature environments for Marcel’s tiny home within the human world.

The project required approaching the sets entirely from Marcel’s perspective — not simply creating beautiful miniatures, but visually building a world that felt authentically quirky to the character and emotionally grounded within the story. Through hand crafted details, scale, texture, and found-object logic, the environments were designed to reflect how Marcel would realistically live, improvise, and interact within the space.

In addition, I crafted practical props that supported the rigging requirements of stop motion performance. The work included unconventional props and characters, ranging from Marcel’s shell families to the lollipop-wrapper parachute featured in the film’s iconic poster.

Film poster for "Marsala: The Shell With Shoes On," showing a small character with a shell for a head holding a red and white paper parachute with a cityscape in the background

Miniature Sets & Models by Siqi Song

Credit

Director: DEAN FLEISCHER CAMP

Animation director: KRISTEN LEPORE

Cast: JENNY SLATE, DEAN FLEISCHER CAMP, ISABELLA ROSSELLINI

Production Designer: LIZ TOONKEL

Miniature Set Designer: SIQI SONG

Awards

95nd Academy Award® Nominee for Best Animated Feature 2023

Golden Globe Award Nominee for Best Motion Picture - Animated 2022

Annie Award Winner for Best Animated Independent Feature 2022

A small, whimsical creature with a large eye, a conical nose, and a bandage on its head, sitting on a cork with a lit birthday candle in the foreground.