By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Andrew Stanton | Lee Unkrich
Starring: Albert Books | Alexander Gould | Ellen DeGeneres | Willem Dafoe
Country: united_states
Year: 2003
Running time: 103
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0266543
Howard says: “If you can get past the first 10 minutes of Pixar’s latest, you’ll get a movie that is on par with their four other feature films. FINDING NEMO turns out to be a big, adventure film with a lot of laughs and a heart that is barely on the good side of manipulation. Once the adventure starts, the emersion into the film begins and doesn’t let you go.
“The movie plays up on over-protective parents, kids overcoming their disabilities, friendships conquering obstacles, addicts joining together to be better people (uh, fish), building self-esteem, realizing and accepting strengths and curmudgeons learning to lighten up. All this in an animated, family-oriented, ‘G’ movie? You bet! Pixar are the masters at the making everyone happy
film. They give the parents being dragged into the theater something to enjoy as well.
“If only they had done something with that beginning. The films opens in a fish suburbia complete with happy families, beautiful
homes and a peaceful way of life all with no hint of sardonic humor. Yes, there are people who think that is heaven, but what about those who make fun it? At least give them something to chuckle about. It’s Utopia for the Family Values set and completely out of character for Pixar.
“It’s at this point I thought they had finally produced their first sub-standard film. That is until a barracuda changes the main
characters lives forever and Albert Brooks goes into, well, Albert Brooks mode. Marlin (Albert Brooks) has a son, Nemo, who has an underdeveloped fin and therefore can’t swim well. This combined with the catastrophe at the beginning of the film causes Marlin to smother Nemo. Nemo, finally fed up, rebels, ends up being caught by a diver and spirited away. Marlin sets out after Nemo and that’s when the film finally picks up with some adventure and some laughs.
“And when that laugh level is revved up, it’s supplied by the scene-stealing Ellen DeGeneres as a blue tang named Dory. Dory
is basically an idiot savant. She has a severe short-term memory loss problem. Now fish are believed to have no short-term memory so the jokes on the surface play on this; however, in a scene where Dory is faced with being alone without friends again, you wonder if it’s a form of denial. She says in the scene that she doesn’t want to forget anymore and that having Marlin around helps her remember because he is the only one that has stuck by her. Does she really have this problem or is it that she is so disappointed with no one understanding her that she hides everything? The scene is multi-layered and heart wrenching. Ellen plays it surprisingly well as if she identifies with what Dory is going through. That’s what makes the scene work so well. Many of us have gone through the same thing and know how she feels.
“There are many, many memorable scenes in the film as Marlin attempts to find Nemo who is now in a fish tank in a dentist
office. One of the scenes is supplied in a superb performance by William Dafoe as Gill, an angelfish in the tank with Nemo who is from the ocean (not a pet store) and dreams of escaping and taking his new friends with him. He devises a scheme to get them out that is hair-brained and daring, but with one little plot hole that the film plays up to hilarious effect at the end. Another great scene is with a trio of sharks that have sworn off fish in the most unlikely AA meeting imaginable. Their motto: ‘Fish are our friends and not food!’
“FINDING NEMO is grand and exciting adventure that once it gets beyond it’s slow opening turns into exactly what you expect
from the masterminds at Pixar. A film that is imaginative and visually stunning with big adventures for everyone no matter how old they are on the outside.” 4 cats
Laura says: “Marlin (Albert Brooks) is a sad and wary clown fish after having lost his wife and 299 unhatched babies to a vicious barracuda at the edge of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The one child saved, Nemo (Alexander Gould) has an unformed fin, so dad is doubly overprotective of the lad. On the first day of school, Nemo’s embarrassed and challenged by his father’s hand- wringing in front of his classmates and rashly swims out to a boat in deep water where he’s promptly scooped up in a diver’s net. Distraught, Marlin sets out after the boat, picking up an unlikely companion, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang with short term memory loss, on his way to FINDING NEMO.
“Disney’s PINOCCHIO meets MEMENTO in the latest charming, computer animated film from executive producer John Lasseter’s Pixar. FINDING NEMO doesn’t reach the heights of TOY STORY or MONSTERS, INC. because of a more familiar storyline, but its underwater marvels and fish tank politics will keep audiences alternating between delight and dread when they’re not helpless with laughter.
“Marlin presents his wife Coral with their new pink anemone home at the edge of a drop off and she accepts his embrace of the grandeur of the ocean. After the deep issues tragic danger, though, Marlin is practically paralyzed with fear, rarely venturing far from safety. His excitement of vast possibilities is reborn when Nemo gets his first look at the big blue, but Nemo’s curiosity ironically lands him in a the fish tank of a dentist’s office overlooking Sydney Harbour.
“Meanwhile Marlin’s anguished panic is offset by the spirited optimism of Dory, even if she can’t quite remember what they’re doing from one minute to the next. The duo will face a trio of sharks, underwater mines, deep sea angler fish, the Eastern Australian Current and the belly of a whale. And that’s just before a series of surface adventures begin. Even though he’s confined to a tank, Nemo must be indoctrinated by swimming through a ‘ring of fire’ at the summit of Wannahawkaloogie and brave an escape mission within the tank’s filtration system before his own literal fish-out-of-water experiences.
“Pixar animators went the Disney route in their study of fish to capture natural movement. This is exhibited in large scope by the darting of schools of silvery fish and in detail by the gradual blackening of Bruce the shark’s eyes when he smells prey. Lasseter describes three different textures used for the fish bodies as ‘gummy, velvety and metallic’ and while the fish look sensational underwater, they have the unfortunate cast of vinyl when shown on the surface. Supervising technical director Oren Jacobs defines lighting, particulate matter, surge and swell, murk and reflections and refractions as the properties that make water look
like water and Pixar delivers. Directors of photography Sharon Calahan and Jeremy Lasky have developed a complex and beautiful lighting scheme to recreate the sensation of snorkeling on a sunlit day. Composer Thomas Newman (ROAD TO PERDITION) delivers an aural backsplash that never overwhelms the visuals.
“As usual, vocal talents have been meticulously cast. Brooks appears as a worrywort dad for the second time in as many weeks, but he’s much better matched here with DeGeneres, who is FINDING NEMO’S biggest catch. The concept of a fish with short-term memory loss sounded dubiously annoying, but DeGeneres just swims off with it. Her infectious good nature and naive screw-ups are made totally endearing. Then, there’s that whale singing… Other denizens of the deep include Barry Humphries
(a.k.a. Dame Edna) as Bruce and fellow Aussies Eric Bana and Bruce Spense as his hammerhead and mako self-help buddies, director Stanton as surfer-dude-speak sea turtle Crush and John Ratzenberger as an entire shape-shifting school. The tank is ruled by Willem Dafoe’s Gill, a maimed moorish idol who yearns to return to the sea and his more satisfied pet store inhabitants Brad Garrett as puffer fish Bloat, Austin Pendleton as Gurgle, a worried royal gramma, Vicki Lewis as damselfish Deb and Allison Janney as Peach, the tank’s lookout starfish. Comic amusement is provided by Stephen Root as a yellow tang that obsesses over tank bubbles and Joe Ranft as Jacques the fastidious cleaner shrimp. Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush is a helpful pelican who connects the two different worlds. Nine year old Alexander
Gould has just the right amount of pluck for the voice of Nemo.
“FINDING NEMO finds some familiar elements from past Pixars. Darla, the dentist’s bratty niece who may be Nemo’s destiny, is
a female replay of TOY STORY’S Sid while the colorful fish tank accessories evoke the 1989 short which precedes the film, KNICK KNACK. But the expert storytellers at Pixar are still unsurpassed in the genre, as evidenced by their clever, elevating use of the bathroom joke with a juvenile octopus who squirts black ink when scared, the bubble from an underwater explosion being misinterpreted by one of a pair of pelicans floating on the surface and a couple of crabs battling over waste from a water treatment plant. The message in this delightful family entertainment even addresses both parent and child. Dory spins Marlin’s vow to never let anything happen to Nemo into a pronouncement of an existence devoid of experience, while Nemo learns that his fearful father’s love will endure any danger.
“FINDING NEMO is a colorful, suspenseful and fun two-fold family adventure.” 4 cats
Robin says: “This amiable, beautifully visualized fish-out-of-water (well, in-the-water, really, but, you know…) story that offers few, if any, plot surprises, but is such a good natured little film that it should do well with younger and older kids, their parents, grand parents, aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins. Heck, this should appeal to just about anyone with a sense of whimsy and fantasy.”The ongoing teaming of Disney and Pixar has always been successful and each of their collaborations can be rated very good on up. FINDING NEMO will not be an exception. While the fishy characters, for the most part, are anthropomorphized with typical human traits, the environment that they live in – the deep, blue sea – is an amazingly realistic looking place. The computer graphics create a visual world that you would actually see if you dived down 50 feet on a coral reef – the waters in which our heroes live have the look and feel of reality.
“The by-the-numbers story: the inquisitive and impatient son challenges an overly protective father’s authority. The child, Nemo here, is snatched away because of his rebelliousness and it becomes the sole mission of his milquetoast father, Marlin, to overcome his fears and many adversities along the way to rescue his beloved son. Both learn much along the way and new, deep friendships are made. FINDING NEMO is an honestly nice family film that blends virtual reality with its fantasy world.
“The characters that populate the world in which Marlin must travel to save Nemo and the boy’s world of captivity in a fish tank in the dentist’s office are richly diverse. Brooks is a perfect choice of the whining, insecure dad who proves his real mettle when push comes to shove. Dory (voice of Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang with short term memory problems, is lovable, charming and funny as she promptly forgets everything – except for the one crucial bit of information that will help Marlin find his son. The rest of the supporting cast is well matched with the vocals suiting the fish to which they are paired.
Nemo, as voiced by nine-year old Alexander Gould, has the right little boy quality, with intelligence and courage. The rest are just as well suited. Barry Humphries (known to most as Dame Edna) is amusing as Bruce the shark who is on a 12-step program to stop devouring fish. Willem Dafoe as Gill, Nemo’s fellow inmate and much-scarred veteran of many escape attempts from the doctor’s aquarium, is the sensei of his young friend. Helmer Andrew Stanton voices Crush, a 150-year old sea turtle, who is the epitome of ‘you are as young as you feel’ surfer dude who helps Marlin on his quest to get to Sydney and find Nemo. Joe Ranft, who voiced the lovable chubby caterpillar in A BUG’S LIFE, is a riot in his small (no pun intended) but effective characterization of Jacques, the cleaner shrimp. There are many, many more familiar names in the voice cast.
“Technically, FINDING NEMO combines the familiar look of traditional cel animation but fully rendered with CGI and in all its vibrancy. The computer graphic work allows a level of realism of the undersea world that makes you want to grab a mask and fins and go down for a look yourself.
“The early screening of FINDING NEMO was preceded by the 1989 Pixar creation KNICK KNACK, a marvelous early use of CGI that also displays the storytelling talents of its creators that have wonderfully been magnified to feature length miracles. NEMO isn’t the best of the Disney/Pixar collaboration but it ain’t shabby.” 4 cats