Finding Nemo (2003)
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Finding Nemo Movie Review
Finding Nemo is a 2003 family animated adventure film directed by Andrew Stanton and starring Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres. It’s the fifth Pixar movie and not my favorite.
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“Just keep swimming“
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The plot is pretty good. The film obviously explores two themes and it does explore them really well. One is overprotective fatherhood as portrayed so well by Marlin. They showcased so well how a past tragedy can influence a father’s overly protective nature in the future. Also of course with Dory the film presents short-term memory loss which is, needless to say, one very brave subject matter for basically a children’s film and thus the movie is consequently quite brave and daring.
But the overall story, apart from those themes, is not great. We get one big adventure, but that’s basically it. Most of the adventure is, per usual for the studio, filled with too much action scenes and not enough smaller moments or dialogue. And the silliness prevailed way too much for my liking. So even though I do admire its brave themes, I still find it to be one of the most childish of all Pixar films, even too childlike for me and I usually like that.
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I did like the big adventure here quite a bit and its spirited, fun nature is definitely wonderful. There are quite a number of beautiful scenes here such as most of the scenes with Dory (the highlight is that final talk with Marlin which is heartbreaking) as well as some of the shark scenes and the aquarium moments. The film is certainly both endearing and fun, but again too silly as evidenced by its constant refusal to present any real danger as sharks here are “on a diet” and most of the sea feels way too safe for my liking. The film is basically anti-Bambi in its approach and execution.
Let’s comment on the characters. One of the standouts is Marlin who’s just such a deep, incredibly well developed character. His issues are so well realized here and his journey is immensely emotional and at times even difficult to sit through. I found his character the most real of the bunch and that is in no small part thanks to one hell of a performance from Albert Brooks.
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Nemo is okay. He’s your typical child and the relationship between the two is great, but Marlin is much more memorable. Naturally Dory steals the show whenever she’s on screen. Ellen DeGeneres gave one standout performance in a career-defining role for her. Dory is consistently memorable, fun and very funny at times, but also never reduced to as a joke. She felt like a real character, her short-term memory loss condition is so well portrayed and she’s not only charismatic and fun, but also quite endearing and you just care and root for her instantly. She’s certainly one of Pixar’s finest creations.
All of the other characters are admittedly clunky and the movie has way too many sidekick or minor characters for my liking. All of the aquarium gang is memorable as a whole and I loved their dynamic, but individually they falter. Nigel the pelican is amusing and of course the sharks are silly, but likable with Bruce being the highlight. Darla is underutilized and your typical Pixar evil kid and I just hate Crush and Squirtle. The turtles here are so obnoxious and Crush is certainly the most detestable of the bunch. They are portrayed basically as hippies and thus the movie successfully lost its timeless nature.
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Finding Nemo has some of the best animation of any Pixar film so far. Truly the work done here is maybe even more groundbreaking than the work done in ‘Monsters, Inc.’ The underwater world is beautifully brought to life thanks to a vivid, colorful color palette, excellent animal designs that are cartoony but also somewhat realistic, and a lot of highly memorable imagery such as the jellyfish, the dark depths of the ocean and all of the fish species look awesome. The film has terrific world building and its world is gorgeously brought to life by these highly talented animators.
Finding Nemo is strongly directed by talented Andrew Stanton and so well acted across the board with each voice actor or actresses giving a great performance. The emotion is definitely felt and never cloying as the scenes with Dory earn their emotion thanks to strong character work. The dialogue is also pretty good, but the humor is too silly and meant for children (excluding Dory who is frequently very funny) and its various silly situations and developments, especially with the seagull, are overly cartoony even for a cartoon. It is the lightest, most childish Pixar film probably of them all and thus far from my favorite. It is more in line with the first ‘Toy Story’ meaning that I admire it more than I truly love it.
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Finding Nemo is wonderfully brought to life thanks to groundbreaking for its time, stunning underwater animation which is pleasingly colorful. The world building is superb, the adventure elements are excellent, the emotion is earned and the character development is very strong with the highlights being Marlin and Dory. Parental anxiety and short-term memory loss are well explored with these two terrific characters. But the other characters are less memorable and some of the situations are too silly and unbelievable leading to a good Pixar film, but one that is more family-friendly than others and thus far from my favorites.
