Finding Nemo

Disney Pixar splash out into a whole new world of computer animated fun and heartfelt emotion with this gorgeous new underwater adventure. Get the scoop in our full preview.

Pixar say this is their best flick yet. And although Disney did release 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and is known for their Nemo related submarine ride at their theme parks, this movie is not related to Captain Nemo. The "Nemo" in this movie is a fish.

As ever, a celebrity cast provides the characters' voices, including Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) as Gill, Ellen DeGeneres (TV's "Ellen") as Dory and Pixar regular, John Ratzenberger (Hamm the piggy bank in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Yeti in Monsters, Inc., and the flea in A Bug's Life) as Bubbles, Barry Humphreys (Dame Edna Everedge), as Bruce the Shark, Alison Janney (CJ in TV's The West Wing) and introducing Alexander Gould, as Nemo.

Situated in a richly detailed underwater kingdom - the colourful and warm tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef, Finding Nemo tells the story of Marlin, a neurotic clown fish (voiced by Albert Brooks), who loses his mate and most of their spawn after a fairly intense shark attack in the opening sequence of the film. Miraculously, one egg survives and Marlin names it Nemo, honouring its mother's last wish and vows to protect it with his life for the rest of his days.

Several fish years later, Marlin has become a loving, but overly protective father, too scared to let Nemo leave the safety and seclusion of their quiet cul-de-sac home, though it's clearly time for the youngster to start 'school'. Marlin relents but, fearful of the ocean and its unpredictable risks, he feels unable to let Nemo out of his sight for more than a minute without rushing to his side. Like all young fish, the curious Nemo is eager to explore the mysterious reef and when he ventures out into unsafe waters, on a dare from his friends, Marlin furiously reprimands the youngster, who defiantly rushes off. Nemo then gets captured by scuba divers and, horrified, Marlin cannot get to him in time.

Although all seems lost, the fearful Marlin has no intention of shrinking from his promise and heads off on an epic journey, into the vast ocean, to find his son. He is joined on his quest by an aquatic Good Samaritan, Dory, a Regal Blue Tang Fish with the biggest heart in the ocean, but the memory of... well, a goldfish. As the two fish go through many adventures, encountering numerous dangers along the way, Dory's eternal optimism continually forces Marlin to find the courage to take risks and overcome his fears.

Meanwhile, Nemo has ended up in a dentist's fish tank, overlooking Sydney harbour, with several other tropical fish, lead by the maverick Gill, a tough, scarred, one-finned fish, who was raised in an overcrowded breeding tank and who dreams of one day breaking out and escaping to the wondrous ocean.

A prime example of Pixar's inventiveness is the way they've turned not the aquarium, but the entire dentist's office into the fishes' little universe. Since they've nothing else to watch all day, they've become experts in dentistry, engaging in jargon-laden observations as the dentist drills away at patients' teeth. They form an engaging, gently lunatic collection of supporting characters who welcome Nemo, offering him a key role in their extremely far-fetched plan to escape their watery jail.

Director Andrew Stanton has said that the idea for Nemo came to him in the mid Nineties, when his son was five years old. They were walking in the park and Stanton spent the whole walk going, "Don't touch that" and "Don't go there", until he realized that he was wasting these precious moments with his son. That realization swam around in his head and finally evolved into a fish-out-of-safe-water tale. He was nervous when he presented his concept and drawings to John Lasseter, Pixar's Creative Executive, but he needn't have worried as Lasseter loved the idea and Stanton was delighted to get the go-ahead from Disney and Pixar to make the movie.

"Going underwater was a huge challenge", said Producer Graham Walters. "Just think of all the surfaces and currents, plant life and particles, shifting light beams and eerie murk. You have to convince the audience there's something between the camera and the subject matter, not just air." Before designing the film, Andrew Stanton and his fellow animators flew to Hawaii to become certified deep-sea divers and then installed a fish tank in Pixar's offices. To conceptualize and the create the film's complex, fluid environment, animators broke down each subject into primary elements, e.g. light, beam, murk, analyzed them and had them gain and lose color as they moved back and forth through the sea. "When you put all that together," says Stanton, "whoomp! You're underwater."

Pixar CEO Steve Jobs commented at their February 2003 press conference: "Finding Nemo is almost complete and it may be the best film our studio has produced to date. The story is funny and very heart-warming and it is clearly the most stunning animated film ever created... it's jaw-dropping."

From the snippets we've seen, it looks as though Finding Nemo will certainly live up to these expectations. The animation is everything you'd expect from Pixar (and possibly a little more); the underwater world is breathtaking and beautifully rendered, the story is absorbing and the characters are funny and loveable. Stay tuned to Kikizo for more as we get it, on what's sure to be a huge hit.

John Gold
Film critic, Kikizo Movies