Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2021) review

Director Fleischer Camp (in his feature debut) interviews a tiny little creature named Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate) - who is indeed a small sea shell with a single eye and footwear - and gets him to show him where he lives (in bread), meets his Grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini) and then tries to help him find his missing family members, going so far as to reach out to the 60 Minutes team and get interviewed by Leslie Stahl (playing herself).  It's based on the short he released in 2010 that's three minutes long - which is the proper length for such a twee "premise" - so blowing it up to make a feature film is just a ton of time-wasting padding ... and then it has the gall to try for "sentimentality" in taking out Grandma and having a big "reunion" with the folks.  It's mostly without value, although the fact that Dean and Jenny dated in real life - and have since broken up - does resonate in the scenes with the couple arguing ... and some of Marcel's lines that are aimed at the "documentarian" have a bit of a sting to them.  Save it for your therapist(s), etc.