Review: Finding Nemo
Nov. 10th, 2003 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalI'm of the increasingly certain opinion that Pixar Animation can do no wrong. While Disney, their distributor, flounders with expensive, pretty but badly plotted and paced stuff like "Treasure Planet" (while giving damned little support to their few modern gems like "The Emperor's New Groove" and "Lilo & Stitch"), Pixar has managed to get better and better with every film.
"Finding Nemo" is another notch in Pixar's technical and storytelling expertise. The animation is beautiful, and when not focused on the obviously anthropomorphic fish, close to photorealistic. But the story is what propels things along. The whole focus is on clownfish father Marlin's frantic search for his son Nemo, his only surviving child after his wife (and 399 eggs) are consumed by a barracuda. Nemo, after rebelling against his father's understandable overprotective streak, is caught by a diver and deposited into the fish tank of a Sydney, Australia dentist's office. Incredibly, Marlin (with memory-impaired sidekick, Dory) crosses half the ocean to find his son.
It's a pretty dark premise to start things off. For one thing, the opening, where Marlin loses his wife and children, only to find the one remaining egg and vowing to keep Nemo safe, is about as devasting as Bambi losing his mom. Albert Brooks, the voice of Marlin, has a constantly frantic edge to his voice that cuts through the inevitable gags the occur along the way, keeping the audience focused on the desperate nature of his quest.
There's also another standout scene towards the end, when Marlin temporarily parts ways with Dory. Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneries), up until this point has pretty much been comic relief, a foil to Marlin's constant worry-warting. But the scriptwriters give her a speech, as she pleads for Marlin to allow her to stick with him, that tears at your heart. Because of her memory problems, when Marlin leaves she's going to forget all about him and Nemo, and she doesn't *want* to forget them. It gives her character depth that simply wasn't there before. Or rather, was always there, but Marlin was never allowed to see.
Which isn't to say everything in this movie is doom & gloom. Between the trio of sharks on a 12-step program towards vegetarianism, surfer dude turtles, and the fishtank residents who've developed a deep interest in dentistry, there's plenty of humor to relieve the drama. But the important thing is that there's a depth here (pardon the pun) that's hard to find in *live-action* movies nowadays, much less anything animated.
Sea it now.
DVD Stuff: The two-disc dvd set has the movie in both widescreen and fullscreen formats, with enhanced director's commentary, a trailer for next year's "The Impossibles" Pixar film (which looks to be great), plus one for "Lion King 1 1/2 (aka Disney tries to Wring Profit From a Stone), and Disney's last known traditional animated project "Home on the Range" which seems about as entertaining as a cow flop.
There's also a documentary of coral reefs narrated by Jacques Cousteau's son (which rapidly begins to resemble "Duck Amuck" as he gets unwanted commentary from the Finding Nemo cast), a not-as-funny-as-it-wants-to-be guide to animation at Pixar, and a simple matching game narrated by Crush the Turtle. Its fuller than average for a DVD, but nowhere near the stellar offering of last year's "Monsters Inc." DVD.
"Finding Nemo" is another notch in Pixar's technical and storytelling expertise. The animation is beautiful, and when not focused on the obviously anthropomorphic fish, close to photorealistic. But the story is what propels things along. The whole focus is on clownfish father Marlin's frantic search for his son Nemo, his only surviving child after his wife (and 399 eggs) are consumed by a barracuda. Nemo, after rebelling against his father's understandable overprotective streak, is caught by a diver and deposited into the fish tank of a Sydney, Australia dentist's office. Incredibly, Marlin (with memory-impaired sidekick, Dory) crosses half the ocean to find his son.
It's a pretty dark premise to start things off. For one thing, the opening, where Marlin loses his wife and children, only to find the one remaining egg and vowing to keep Nemo safe, is about as devasting as Bambi losing his mom. Albert Brooks, the voice of Marlin, has a constantly frantic edge to his voice that cuts through the inevitable gags the occur along the way, keeping the audience focused on the desperate nature of his quest.
There's also another standout scene towards the end, when Marlin temporarily parts ways with Dory. Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneries), up until this point has pretty much been comic relief, a foil to Marlin's constant worry-warting. But the scriptwriters give her a speech, as she pleads for Marlin to allow her to stick with him, that tears at your heart. Because of her memory problems, when Marlin leaves she's going to forget all about him and Nemo, and she doesn't *want* to forget them. It gives her character depth that simply wasn't there before. Or rather, was always there, but Marlin was never allowed to see.
Which isn't to say everything in this movie is doom & gloom. Between the trio of sharks on a 12-step program towards vegetarianism, surfer dude turtles, and the fishtank residents who've developed a deep interest in dentistry, there's plenty of humor to relieve the drama. But the important thing is that there's a depth here (pardon the pun) that's hard to find in *live-action* movies nowadays, much less anything animated.
Sea it now.
DVD Stuff: The two-disc dvd set has the movie in both widescreen and fullscreen formats, with enhanced director's commentary, a trailer for next year's "The Impossibles" Pixar film (which looks to be great), plus one for "Lion King 1 1/2 (aka Disney tries to Wring Profit From a Stone), and Disney's last known traditional animated project "Home on the Range" which seems about as entertaining as a cow flop.
There's also a documentary of coral reefs narrated by Jacques Cousteau's son (which rapidly begins to resemble "Duck Amuck" as he gets unwanted commentary from the Finding Nemo cast), a not-as-funny-as-it-wants-to-be guide to animation at Pixar, and a simple matching game narrated by Crush the Turtle. Its fuller than average for a DVD, but nowhere near the stellar offering of last year's "Monsters Inc." DVD.
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Re: Mine, mine! (Opinion, that is.)
Date: 2003-11-11 06:08 am (UTC)Finding Nemo might have been a bit predictable (on the commentary, one of the writers said that the "I hate you" line was veering into ABC Afterschool Special territory) but was paced well and had enough visual flare to keep me interested, even if it wasn't endlessly rewatchable like Monsters Inc.
And yeah, the seagulls make the movie for me. "Mine! Mine! Mine!"