Marcel – The Shell with Shoes On (2021), directed by Dean Fleischer Camp

A documentary within a documentary, this film was Oscar nominated and won several awards for best animated feature. It follows the life of a one-inch shell, Marcel, who lives with his grandmother in an Air B&B, and his friendship with filmmaker Dean. The old-school stop motion animation is brilliantly intertwined with live action to make the film visually very appealing. But the messaging about the importance of making connection is laid on pretty thick and the story is twee and, at 90 minutes, too long. Isabella Rossellini is wonderful as the voice of Grandma Connie, but it probably would have been better to cast a boy actor as Marcel, rather than co-writer Jenny Slate.