Animation pioneer Max Fleischer was the first to let audiences in on the creative process; his live-action presence opposite his pen-and-ink prodigy, Koko the Clown, delighted viewers. A century later finds Dean Fleischer-Camp (no relation) sharing the frame with Marcel, a one-eyed mollusk with two red shoes. Rotoscoped Koko would do his best to fluster Uncle Max. Giggling in delight at his own stop-motion seashell, Fleischer-Camp made it too easy to spot the pea in his shell game. It began as a YouTube series created by the director and his then-wife Jenny Slate. The shorts hit big and this feature length release plays like a series of videos strung together. Isabella Rossellini delights as Marcel’s world-weary grandma Connie while Slate gives voice to the monocular conch. Her squeaky-throated delivery was more in need of subtitles than early Guy Ritchie. Marcel felt like an equally benign, albeit more enlightened variation on Barney with enough topical asides thrown in to appeal to adults. Am I the only one not going slugnutty over Marcel? I wish I was more enthused, but a little moralizing, a lot of sentiment, and a self-aggrandizing celebratory cameo by 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl did me in. (2022) — Scott Marks