Marcel The Shell With Shoes On Release Date, Cast, And Trailer - What We Know So Far

Today, Jenny Slate is one of the most well-known comedic actresses. After Slate joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 2009, one of her earliest breakout roles came in 2013 when she played Mona-Lisa Saperstein on "Parks & Recreation," who often participated in Tom Haverford's (Aziz Ansari) get-famous-quick schemes with her brother Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz). Since then, she's had major on-screen roles on TV series like "Kroll Show" and "Lady Dynamite," and voiceover roles on "Big Mouth" and "Bob's Burgers." Meanwhile, Slate frequently appears in movies as well, like a supporting role in 2018's "Venom," and a co-starring role in the 2022 romantic comedy "I Want You Back" (via IMDb).

However, one of Slate's earliest roles is quite a bit different than her usual fare, and now, he's getting his own movie. In 2010, Slate and her then-husband, filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp released a stop-motion animated short film on YouTube that introduced the world to Marcel, a one-inch tall anthropomorphic snail creature who lives in an Air B&B. Since then, Marcel has charmed millions of people and spawned a children's book series.

A "Marcel The Shell With Shoes On" movie has been in the works for several years, and now the premiere is just months away. Here's everything we know so far.

As reported by Deadline, "Marcel The Shell With Shoes On" will premiere in theaters on June 24, 2022. The film saw its world premiere in September 2021 at the Telluride Film Festival (via Entertainment Weekly). One month later, distributor A24 acquired the rights to the movie.

As fans of "Marcel The Shell With Shoes On" no doubt remember, Marcel originated in 2010 as the main character of a mockumentary short about his life, which debuted on YouTube and racked up over 32 million views. Since then, the film version has reportedly been in production since as early as 2015. According to director, co-writer and co-star Dean Fleischer-Camp, much of the film was improvised off of the script written by himself and co-writer Nick Paley (via The Daily Dot).

One early good sign for the feature-length Marcel? The film has already been reviewed by nine professional critics, and all of them agree that it's worth a watch. It currently enjoys a flawlwss 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While it's unlikely to remain at 100%, it's still a good early indicator that the film will be a critical hit, at the very least.

Jenny Slate ("I Want You Back," "Parks & Recreation") reprises her role as the talking mollusk. Isabella Rosselini ("Blue Velvet," "Death Becomes Her") plays Connie, Marcel's grandmother and his only other shell-bound companion at the start of the film. Dean Fleischer-Camp plays a fictional version of himself, a documentary filmmaker who discovers Marcel and helps make him world famous. The cast also includes Rosa Salazar ("Alita: Battle Angel," "Bird Box") and Thomas Mann ("Kong: Skull Island," "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters"), although their roles haven't yet been announced. 

Several real-life TV personalities have cameos as themselves, including NBC News anchor Brian Williams, late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien, and "60 Minutes" journalist Leslie Stahl. In the trailer, Marcel and Connie are shown to be big fans of Stahl's, calling her reporting "fearless." 

Currently, those six are the only performers listed on IMDb, but based on the trailer–more on that below–the cast is no doubt much bigger. 

Distributor A24 released the trailer on April 5, 2022, and it's available on YouTube.

The trailer should be familiar to fans of the original YouTube shorts–in fact, the first third of the film largely follows the same beats as the Marcel shorts. First, it introduces Marcel, his grandmother Connie, and their pet piece of lint named Alan. The one-inch tall shell-people live in a life-sized house, making everything appear gigantic to them. Via narration, Marcel says that shells typically live in communities of about 20. He and Connie used to live among a large group of shells, but since then a "mysterious tragedy" has scattered them all far and wide.

The story begins when filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp discovers Marcel while staying at an Air B&B and decides to make a movie about him. As Marcel opens up about missing his family, Dean suggests that Marcel make a YouTube video plea for information about his missing relatives. After that video goes viral, Marcel embarks on a cross-country road trip to find them. The trailer ends with a big, happy reunion.