Starring Albert Brooks, Ellen Degeneres, Alexander Gould, Eric Bana, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett
Plot Summary The latest creation from the team of Pixar and Disney
about a clown fish named Marlin who is in search of his son Nemo who has
been captured by a human. Marlin is joined by the hilarious, memory-impaired
Dory.
Let me just put my testicles aside for a second and say that this was one cute movie. Ok, testicles back on. Disney and Pixar has once again created a masterpiece with another computer generated animated feature. They've done toys, bugs, and monsters. Now it's time for...fish.
Finding Nemo is a tail (haha...pun?) ok nevermind...a TALE of a little clown fish named Nemo who gets captured by those darn humans for their personal enjoyment. His overbearing and paranoid father overcomes his fear of the open sea and sets out to find his only son. The movie starts kinda sad with the death of Nemo's mom and all of his other caviar brothers and sisters. This incident causes Nemo's dad Marlin (Albert Brooks) to become ultraprotective which leads to Nemo to become the rebellious guppy.
Every character in this cartoon was entertaining. Even the freaky little metal mouth fish killer girl. But my favorite has to be Dory, voiced by Ellen Degeneres. I've always though Ellen was an extremely funny comedienne. She really brings a lot of herself into this character which makes it very Ellenesque. Throughout the movie, I could picture Ellen saying all the lines. The lack of a short term memory was a hilarious addition to her character.
The story of the movie sends a message that I'm sure many kids and parents can relate to. Growing up, there were numerous occasions where I felt my parents just needed to loosen the leash a bit and let me live my life. The movie tells parents that sometimes it's good to let children learn for themselves, and at the same time, it tells children to listen to their parents or else they can be captured and forced to live in a fish tank.
So if you're looking
for a nice, funny, wholesome family flick, then Finding Nemo is the movie
for you. Can't really go wrong with 99% from rottentomatoes.com. Don't
listen to that one fruity reviewer who said only kids will enjoy this
movie. It's laughs a plenty for audiences of all ages. Oh yea...the short
film was good too...as always.
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Scuz:
Oh “Finding Nemo,” how do I love thee? Let me count thy ways…
A feel good
movie to the bone, Pixar’s fifth full length feature film is full
of heart, humor, and humanity (which is really not that surprising since
Disney has a way with those three qualities quite like no other). But
then again, I may be biased here because I LOVE FISH. Frey is correct
in the fact that I do have a major fish fetish and think most species
are the most beautiful, fascinating, and interesting creatures in the
world. So seeing fish and awesome CGI mixed in one was like heaven for
me. The story is not too shabby either. Though I think the main storyline
(Fish father loses fish son) was a bit contrived, the supporting cast
and their antics were phenomenal. It has a huge array of eclectic characters,
all of which could have had their own freaking movie. Ted the squid that
inked. Crush the surfin’ sea turtle. The pooping seagulls. Darla
the insanely ugly little girl fish killer. And Jacque the cleaner shrimp
dude! *cheesy French music* Wee!
The personalities that these fish embody are just freaking awesome. And
who would have known that I’d be gushing over actors that show no
facial expression, or even face for that matter through the whole film.
The classic example in this film is Dory, voiced by the ever funny Ellen
Degeneres. Ellen totally makes this film by making humanizing Dory and
adding her own random humor. She’s a breath of fresh water, heh,
in comparison to Marlin whose overbearingness can get rather annoying.
The matching of the actors to the characters is exactly on cue and you
can see them (in some cases physically) within their fish counterparts.
And just because we haven’t seen enough freaking sweet ass CGI from the Matrix for the year, Disney has to show you what realism is all about. The setting for this film is GORGEOUS. Usually the setting for Pixar is cute and sort of just there, but in this instance, it almost IS the movie. The water, the reef, just the overall precision in every frame is insane. You can see everything in great detail from the scales of each different living, breathing creature, down to even the dead floating pieces of fish poop in the water. And if that weren’t enough, they decide to go on land and into a stunning salt water fish tank with reflections, refractions and every other “r” related math problem you can think of. It’s loaded with so much color that you can even leave the acid pill at home to get the same trip. Spectacular.
And as usual, Pixar always incorporates morals into their stories as well. “Toy Story” was about friendship, “Monsters Inc” preached bravery, and “A Bug’s Life” encouraged you to fight back. “Finding Nemo” revolves around the process of growing up and letting go. It’s a nice theme for over protective parents who need to trust that their kids can make wise choices. And it also teaches kids that if you can’t, you will be transported around the world and potentially BE DECIMATED BY PSYCHOTIC LITTLE GIRLS. So listen to your parents kids.
So of the five films, Pixar has had five huge successes and I foresee that the trend will continue. They have an amazing way with reinventing technology and being genuinely funny and heartwarming as well. If you liked any of their previous stuff (and don’t loathe fish), then you will love Finding Nemo.
P.S. Damn it. Like Frey I forgot to mention the short in front. “Knick Knack” was made in 1989 and shows you that Pixar was fantastic from its early conception as a company more than 10 years ago. One of their best shorts ever. Oldie but goodie baby.