Review: A big heart and one googly eye in ‘Marcel the Shell’

It’s boom times for googly eyes. Within months of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the metaphysical sci-fi comedy whose panoply of metaverses memorably included one that made magic out of a pair of stones and some plastic eyeballs, arrives “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.” Marcel is an inch-tale seashell with a single googly eye, a pair of Polly Pocket shoes and a very big heart. “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” which opens Friday in theaters, is a feature-length, stop-motion animation film based on the YouTube shorts made by Jenny Slate, who voices Marcel with a snuggly high pitch, and director Dean Fleischer Camp. One comes from the athlete Marcel calls “Whale Jetski”: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Marcel’s unpredictable references and tastes are part of his charm. “Marcel the Shell” may verge, or even tip, into cloying territory — such is the ever-present danger of googly eyes.