Dean Fleischer Camp’s Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a lovely, unexpectedly insightful, and incredibly funny animated film. Camp and his co-writers (Jenny Slate, Elizabeth Holm, and Nick Paley) effortlessly capture the beats, rhythms, and spontaneity that you find in traditional documentaries – and yet the rigorous craft and skill it takes to combine the stop-motion animation with live action, all while still making room for improvisation, is stunning. Slate’s performance is outstanding, bringing so much heart and soul to a character that could all-too-easily be written off as cutesy or insubstantial. The camerawork has a warm, rich, and textured look that comes from this marriage of stop-motion and live action, and it captures the light in such a way that it mirrors the film’s own inner warmth and sense of peace and harmony. It’s delightful to see the way the film interrogates the role of “filmmaker” throughout (in its own very subtle and gentle manner), constantly challenging the notion that Dean, the human filming Marcel’s life, can remain a detached and uninvolved observer. The film also provides a sly skewering of the ways social media can push us into performing for one another, making shows of connection without every truly knowing or being known. And really, community is at the core and the essence of the film – can you ever find it again once it’s been lost? This theme is expertly threaded throughout the film – whether it’s Marcel’s quest for his family or Dean coping with the loss of his marriage. This is a lovely, joyous film.