“Marcel: The Little Shellfish in Shoes,” a unique mockumentary film combining stop-motion and live action, will be released on June 30, 2023. The film actually features music by the late Hiroshi Yoshimura, a pioneering composer of Japanese ambient music.
How does ambient “sound” in this unusual work? Yuji Shibasaki, music director and music critic, will give his interpretation. This is the third installment of the series “The Music Selection Creates the Movie.
This article contains descriptions about the contents of the film. Please be forewarned.
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The Story of “The Talkative Little Shellfish with Shoes”
The images, the story, the music. It is a lovely film that makes you want to embrace it all in its entirety.
Marcel is a chatty and curious little shellfish. One day, when Dean, a filmmaker, moves into the house where he lives with his grandmother, he begins to film Marcel’s daily life and make a documentary film. One day, Dean uploaded part of the video to YouTube, which became a big hit, and Marcel became popular all over the country. Marcel calls for a search through YouTube to find his family, who have been separated, but at the same time, his previously peaceful life undergoes drastic changes. ……
The role of Dean is played by the director, Dean Fleischer Camp himself. He first came to prominence with a short film that became the basis for this film, which was sequentially released on YouTube between 2010 and 2014. Since then, he has been featured in Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” and is an up-and-coming filmmaker with great promise.
The film, “Marcel: The Little Shellfish Wears Shoes,” was nominated for the 95th Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the 80th Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Film, and the 50th Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Film. The film has received glowing reviews, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature Film, and three awards at the 50th Annie Awards.
© 2021 Marcel the Movie LLC.
The first thing that draws you in when you see the film is Marcel’s adorable form and gestures, and his chattiness. Marcel, who prefers a peaceful life to his grandmother’s, is not the diplomatic and vivacious type, but through his encounters with Dean and other people, and through his knowledge of the outside world, he develops the courage to take a big “step” forward. In this sense, this film is both an authentic Bildungsroman and a film with a universal theme that can be superimposed on the steps taken by each of us.
© 2021 Marcel the Movie LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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A skillful expression of the “sound” surrounding the 2.5 centimeter long protagonist.
In addition, what makes this film special is that the acute sensitivity to various “sounds” is skillfully expressed in the film. In order to emphasize the auditory experience of Marcel, who is only 2.5 centimeters long, one could, for example, have used a gimmick such as making the sounds that humans make loud and piercing. In this film, however, the various sounds are processed naturally and skillfully designed. Wind, footsteps, insect wings, sounds of traffic, and voices coming from somewhere. All of these sounds are arranged with delicate acoustic manipulation so that they do not differ from the impression of the soundscape that usually surrounds us.
In the case of a video work with such a sound design, the selection and arrangement of the music used in the film requires a more meticulous attention to detail than usual. In the case of documentaries, it is not uncommon to eliminate all music in order to avoid such difficulties, or, conversely, to add music in a very dramatic manner for dramatic effect (although, of course, there are many excellent works in this category as well). This film, however, skillfully meets this difficult challenge.
