Finding
Nemo. Walt
Disney Pictures presents a film directed by Andrew Stanton.
Written by Stanton. Running time: 101 minutes. Rated G
(for some scary images).
Featuring the voices of Albert
Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe,
Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Austin Pendleton, Stephen
Root, Geoffrey Rush. |
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Finding
Nemo
1/2
Despite
advances by Dreamworks and Fox, Disney is still the king of
distributing the best animated films. This perhaps would not
be the case, however, if it weren't for Pixar Studios and
Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. But because of the way Disney
has botched marketing for Miyazaki's outstanding films, the
majority of Disney's money comes from Pixar's movies, and
their latest, Finding Nemo, is every bit as good as
their previous outings. Amazingly, Pixar is still batting
1,000.
As
technology increases, as do the quality of the computer-animated
fare. Just two years ago, we were marvelling at the realism
of the visuals in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
In 2002, we had Ice Age, which was impressive, if not
up to the level of Final Fantasy. Finding Nemo is the best-looking
animated movie yet. Ask any animator what the hardest thing
to make look real is, and they'll say water. The water effects
in Finding Nemo are just about perfect. The humans
don't look realistic, but it is deliberate - this is a movie
about fish, not people.
Finding
Nemo starts on a decidedly bleak note. Clownfish Marlin
(Albert Brooks) and his wife have just moved into a brand
new sea anemone, and a shark attacks. Marlin's wife and all
but one egg are eaten. Finding the remaining egg, Marlin the
fish Nemo, and promises to always protect his son. Several
years later, at his first day of school, Nemo (Alexander Gould)
is caught by a group of divers and brought to live in a fish
tank in a dentist's office in Australia. The other fish in
the tank include a royal gramma, a starfish, a puffer fish,
and a highly scarred butterfly fish named Gill (Willem Dafoe),
whose lone goal is escape. Back in the ocean, Marlin sets
off to find Nemo. Along the way, he meets up with a Memento-fish
of sorts, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a hippo tang that suffers
from short term memory loss.
Finding
Nemo manages to accomplish something very few animated
features do (and something every Pixar feature to-date has
accomplished): the film equally enjoyable for children and
adults. Children will delight at the bright colors and physical
humor, and adults will find something to like in the more
sophisticated humor. Either way, Finding Nemo is every bit
as humorous as any previous Pixar film.
The
voice casting is absolutely perfect. Albert Brooks plays wonderfully
to type as the constantly beleaguered Marlin. Ellen DeGeneres
is hilarious as Dory - about eighty percent of everything
she says is very funny. The rest of the cast is made up of
an assortment of well-known and lesser-known actors. Willem
Dafoe is effective as Gill, and his voice matches the fish's
design perfectly. Outside the leads, the biggest name is Geoffrey
Rush, who voices a helpful pelican.
As
with most animated films, Finding Nemo carries an important
message. It's not delivered heavy-handidly, so we never feel
as if the moral is being forced upon us, but even the smallest
children in the audience will understand what the movie is
trying to say. The themes presented in Finding Nemo
- how parents can drive away their child, and how, despite
the child's wishes for freedom, the care of a parent is extremely
important - are slightly more mature than in many children's
films. There is also a (less obvious) theme of racial acceptance,
as fish of all types work together to help Marlin and Nemo.
Not
only is Finding Nemo the best animated movie and family
movie of 2003 to-date, it is also one of the best films to
have been released so far this year. Some animation purists
may scoff at computer animated films, but as long as Pixar
is around to release such high-quality entertainment as this,
you certainly won't hear me complaining.
©
2003 Matt Noller
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