Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

"Marcel the Shell with Shoes On," which began as a three-minute short film on You Tube in 2010, has gained a lot of fans over the years. Now this tiny and witty animated character has an 89-minute movie of its own. In this podcast episode, HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano agree that this surreal comedy has a fresh quality amidst so many standard-issue animated movies. If Mike likes it less, it's because he thinks the short sketches wear thin when assembled in a feature-length movie. Marie and Mike also talk about "Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank." The premise behind this comedy is to make an animated samurai version of Mel Brooks' live-action 1974 western spoof "Blazing Saddles." Marie and Mike share their disappointment with a movie that only sporadically engages with its source material, and in which the samurai plot and the animation itself are nothing special.