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.

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