It's not supposed to be this way. After untold G-rated flicks that alternate between one of about five basic, generic plots, there ought to be a "been there, done that" feeling long before this movie from 2003 hits the halfway mark. Especially when you sense that the basic generic plot is that tried and true formula about the estranged family members who strive to re-unite throughout the whole piece, only to finally come face-to-face at the end. It's not supposed to feel fresh, wondrous, funny and touching. It's supposed to come off as stale and tedious. Right?
No sir! Not in the case of Pixar's Finding Nemo, which is the studio's best offering to date. In the vein of their previous films Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc. and A Bug's Life, the animators have had a field day bringing the underwater world of fishes and animals to rainbow-drenched, 3-D life. The big difference this time around though, is the imaginative way the story unfolds without pandering to familiar dialogue refrains and repetitive plot devices. The folks behind Finding Nemo knew where they wanted to go, they knew their audience would be completely aware of where they wanted to go, then they decided to execute the proceedings in the most original and creative way they possibly could.
Albert Brooks provides the voice of Marlin, an orange and white fish (a clownfish, to be specific) who has become overprotective of his only son Nemo (Alexander Gould) after an unspeakable tragedy occurs. Marlin reluctantly takes Nemo to school for the first time, only to find his son will be going on a field trip with a boisterous sting ray named Mr. Ray (animator Roy Peterson in a delightful voiceover). Naturally, Marlin follows his son and, after an embarrassing disagreement in front of the other school kids, Nemo decides to defiantly swim towards a fishing boat off in the distance. Before he can be stopped, some human scuba divers have scooped up Nemo. Next thing he knows, he is in a dentist's aquarium amidst other exotic fish.
Marlin stops at nothing to get to his son, and his despair forms the emotional anchor of the film, if you'll pardon the pun. Buoyed by the help of the bumbling Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a hippo tang who suffers from short-term memory loss, he encounters all sorts of danger and adventure. Through a series of outrageous happenstances, father and son miraculously manage to come achingly close to reuniting, even though Nemo is in a fish tank and Marlin isn't even near the same continent. Some of the wild highlights include an encounter with a trio of sharks who are battling the urge to dine on fishies, a squad of surfer turtles on their way to Australia, and a whale whom Dory firmly believes she can communicate with verbally.
There are so many magical moments in Finding Nemo that listing them would be harmful to those who have yet to see the film. However, the most gratifying aspect comes not from these moments of levity, fancy or fantasy, but from its non-heavy-handed theme of role reversal. It is arguably Marlin, not Nemo, who learns the most valuable lesson here, and this is a very positive -- and exceedingly rare -- depiction in family films. It reminds the children who watch it that their parents are people too, sometimes flawed, and that often when their parents may seem overprotective or nagging, they do so only to keep their kids safe from harm. For parents and children, I can think of no movie that more successfully portrays for its viewers scenes depicting mutual, familial respect and love.
Lest I forget though, this is also an immensely humourous and suspenseful project too. What good are morals and lessons if there isn't a lot of entertainment behind them? The actors who lend their voices are, naturally, well cast. Of particular note is Geoffrey Rush as the bumbling pelican, Barry Humphries as the PC shark, and, once again, Roy Peterson as the lively Mr. Ray (for a great laugh, check out Mr. Ray's encyclopedia on the DVD extras). In terms of the film's score, I am grateful that Randy Newman does not have a sappy, story-stopping song plucked midway through this time around.
Add all of these wondrous elements up and Finding Nemo is more than the sum of its parts. It is a reminder that animated films can be entertaining from time to time. Even those who don't find the story as ingenious as I did will have a hard time ignoring the visual splendour and meticulous intricacy. With computer animation this colourful and inspired, I look forward to the next Pixar film with a certain amount of anxiety, both positive and negative. There can certainly be no higher plateau for them to exceed now... can there?
