Finding Nemo (2003)

Finding Nemo **** (out of 4 possible stars)

Directed By: Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich Written By: Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds Music By: Thomas Newman

Marlin: Albert Brooks 
Dory: Ellen DeGeneres 
Nemo: Alexander Gould 
Gill: Willem Dafoe 
Nigel: Geoffrey Rush 
Deb/Flo: Vicki Lewis 
Bruce: Barry Humphries 
Crush: Andrew Stanton 

Running Time: 1:41
Rated G 

Reviewed by: Michael J. Gold

The wizards at Pixar have outdone themselves once again creating a completely computer generated animated feature film that is simply astounding to look at. All of the small details are there creating an incredibly life-like undersea adventure tailor-made for the entire family. In addition to crafting a compelling story writer/director/actor Andrew Stanton has seen to it that all the backgrounds are lush colorful images filled with interesting bits and pieces to behold.

The story concerns a young clown fish, Nemo (Alexander Gould), who in a momentary fit of anger disobeys his overprotective father, Marlin (Albert Brooks), and ends up in the aquarium of an Australian dentist. Marlin begins an epic journey to try to somehow save his son. Along the way he enlists the aid of Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) a fish, who like Leonard Shelby in "Memento," has problems making new memories.

Dory is something of an innocent goof ball, however, she proves herself to be helpful but extremely useful and keeps Marlin on course. For some reason her memory seems to improve as she continues to assist Marlin and I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps part of her problem was simply that she had Attention Deficit Disorder. Regardless, DeGeneres gives a tour-de-force performance making Dory an incredibly likeable and offbeat character with many very genuinely funny moments.

When Nemo finds himself in the dentist's salt-water aquarium he meets an assortment of other fish who seem to have a little bit too much knowledge about which pet store they've come from. All except for Gill (Willem Dafoe), who like Nemo was captured out in the ocean and brought back to live in the aquarium. Gill and the other fish believe that they weren't meant to live in a small, glass fish tank and have worked out an extremely ingenious escape plan even if they haven't quite thought it all the way through. Their plan would also seem to be quite daring since after getting out the window, they must also cross a busy highway in order to reach the ocean.

Half of the fun in watching, and subsequently re-watching a Pixar film is looking for the links to previous films: a Woody and/or Buzz doll innocently placed on a floor in the background or the Pizza Planet truck driving down the highway outside the dentist's office. I wouldn't be at all surprised to start seeing fish tanks appear in Pixar films with Marlin, Nemo and Dory in the aquarium. More importantly, however, "Finding Nemo," like all the other Pixar films, has the good fortune to have a really good story to tell that will amuse children while entertaining and astonishing adults.

Copyright 2003 by Michael J. Gold 

Michael Gold

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X-RT-RatingText: 4/4