Finding Nemo

Fish are friends, not food. But do they make for a captivating movie? Dive into our full review of Pixar's latest computer animated wonder.

Pixar is establishing the kind of reputation that makes reviews of its films an unnecessary pat on the back. It's almost enough to just say 'It's Pixar!' and be done with it. The studio is in the middle of a run of hits the likes of which partner/distributor Disney can only dimly recall by looking deep into their vault. Heaven knows what Disney will do with all the empty floor space in their stores when their partnership with Pixar ends in the not too distant future.

Yes, Pixar has done it again. It has nudged the world of computer animation just a step further while creating a whole new world for us to venture into. Finding Nemo takes us to an underwater world teeming with life, full of the witty sort of characters that populate the rest of Pixar's library. Pixar's continuous struggle to one-up it's own work is all the more admirable when you realize that the studio has long since left any competition behind and have only themselves to top, which they do again and again with every release.

Finding Nemo takes us beneath the waves off the coast of Australia. Nemo (voiced by Alexander Gould), a clownfish with a deformed 'lucky' fin, has grown up under the smothering overprotective fin of his father, Marlin, voiced by Albert Brooks with all the hapless neuroses that name conjures to mind. It's Nemo's first day of school, and although the only thing Marlin really feels his son needs to learn about the ocean is how dangerous it is, Nemo can't wait to explore the wonders of the deep.

Not surprisingly, Marlin can't handle the thought of his young son facing the world outside his cozy anemone, and winds up humiliating Nemo in front of his classmates while trying to keep him from the dangers of the ocean. The embarrassment of being so coddled spurs Nemo to perform a reckless stunt to prove he is more capable than his father allows. Unfortunately, this stunt is what lands him in the aquarium of a scuba diving dentist.

From there we flip between Marlin's courageous attempt to rescue his son and the slower paced but more humorous moments with Nemo adjusting to life inside the fish tank. The scenes with Nemo serve to temper the urgency of the movie, as Marlin charges from life-threatening episode to life-threatening episode, while Nemo has much more time to plan his course of action while watching the dentist, who is actually by all indications quite a decent bloke, go about making his living.

Marlin is soon joined in his quest by Dory, a blue tang voiced with nearly ever present cheerfulness by Ellen DeGeneres. Dory suffers from very poor short term memory, and her inability to hold a thought in her head for any useful amount of time provides a steady stream of laughs throughout the film, keeping the tone light despite all the very real danger Marlin and Dory find themselves in.

Marlin and Dory make for great comparisons to the classic comedy teams, with straight man Marlin nicely offsetting the apparently random stream of consciousness that is Dory's Swiss cheese mind. As for the voices behind the characters, Brooks and DeGeneres exemplify Pixar's strength in casting, particularly DeGeneres, whose masterful timing and air of flightiness solidly ground the film as a whole in comedic territory. Brooks also fits the material perfectly, although he is perhaps flirting a little too closely with typecasting here. Oddly, Brooks makes for a more believable father here than when he played a similar role in the recently released The In-Laws.

The cast is bolstered with Willem Dafoe as the only other denizen of the dentist's aquarium that has ever seen the ocean, Geoffrey Rush as a pelican so taken by the heroics of Marlin's quest that he joins the cause, and Vicki Lewis as a fish driven to schizophrenia by the confines of her tank. Other notable actors lending their voices to the film include Brad Garrett and Allison Janney as fish tank regulars aiding in Gill and Nemo's escape attempt, and Elizabeth Perkins in a small role that explains Marlin's overriding concern for Nemo's safety. And kudos to those of you who spotted Dame Edna and The Hulk in the cast! Director and co-writer Andrew Stanton takes a page from the Lilo & Stitch playbook by adding his own voice to the proceedings as surfer dude Crush, neatly shaving off the salary of one more voice player from his movie's budget.

The animation is every bit as gorgeous as you would expect from Pixar. The studio succeeds in making it appear as if everything and everybody is being constantly pulled and pushed by the invisible currents beneath the waves, and the creatures that live in the ocean are constantly in motion as a result, just like you would expect them to be in the real world.

The script is chock full of witty puns and one-liners, and keeps the pace lively, although by the end you may be wishing that Marlin would hurry up and find Nemo already. On top of all the jokes, the writers also slide in a touching story of a father and son learning things they didn't know about each other, which is rare enough in any film, to say nothing of an animated feature.

Finding Nemo is a solid effort that has plenty to keep everybody in the family interested, and makes for a great viewing experience even if you don't have kids. The writing here is a notch above most of what you'll find in the theatres this summer, and the film makes for great counter-programming for those weekends where you just don't feel like watching things blow up all day. Although, to be honest, there really is no escape from things going boom in the summer time.

Rico Rodriguez
Film Critic, Kikizo Movies