Marcell The Shell with Shenzhen tells the story of a tiny shell who searches for his long

lost family.

He's voiced by Jenny Slate and rendered using stop-motion animation.

It's a feature-length movie based on a series of viral YouTube shorts.

I'm Stephen Thompson and today we are talking about Marcell The Shell with Shenzhen on Pop

Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

Joining us today is Greta Johnson, host of the Nerdet podcast from WBEZ.

Hi Greta.

Hey Stephen, I'm so excited to be here.

I am so excited to have you.

So the character of Marcell The Shell began as a three minute YouTube short that went viral

back in 2010.

In it we meet a shell who talks about his life mostly via a series of one-liners about

how tiny he is.

Marcell was created by Jenny Slate and director Dean Fleischer Camp.

In the short, Marcell is interviewed by Camp who stays off-screen.

Additional shorts came out in 2011 and 2014 and Marcell even got two books spin-offs.

Now Marcell The Shell is the subject of a 90 minute movie.

It's also a mock documentary and this time Camp appears on-screen as a filmmaker who

discovers Marcell while living in an Airbnb.

As Camp interviews Marcell for a YouTube short of his own, we learn that Marcell was once

part of a thriving community of shells but a traumatic event left Marcell alone in the

...