After the disappointment of Monsters Inc, Pixar strike back with a vengeance

In The Beginning…

Pixar ventured into the unknown when they took the brave step of creating a wholly computer-generated animation with “Toy Story”. Looking back it seems like merely natural progression, but at the time it was a big gamble. They followed this up with the wonderful “A Bug’s Life”, the excellent “Toy Story 2”, but then a couple of years ago produced the slightly disappointing “Monsters Inc.”. So before I saw Finding Nemo, my expectations were slightly mixed – would Pixar manage to revive the superb quality of the second and third films, or would it be another disappointment?

In actual fact, neither of these. What they have done here is surpass everything they had done before, and set a new standard in the world of computer animation.

The Plot

Marlin is a clown fish (he doesn’t do jokes though), who at the beginning of the movie loses his lady fish and 400 eggs to a shark attack. Only one egg remains – this hatches into the eponymous Nemo. Due to his experiences, Marlin is hugely over-protective as Nemo grows up, to the point that Nemo ends up hating him – as he tells his father just before being caught by an Australian scuba diver. Consumed with tragedy and guilt, Marlin goes off in search of his son. Along the way he bumps into a slightly crazy fish called Dory, who has a short-term memory problem, a problem that leads to some hysterical scenes. (Albeit recent scientific research seems to contradict the theory that fish have extremely short-term memories! – but that doesn’t matter). At the onset of their voyage, they meet the members of “Fish-Eaters Anonymous” – a group of sharks who are trying to kick the habit. More hilarious scenes. And then…

The storyline is just superb. The jokes – both visual and verbal – come thick and fast, and come off extremely well. Like the jokes in “Antz”, they are also at a level where children can appreciate them on one level and adults on another level – something which always makes an animated film much better. There is the occasional sad or scary moment, but they’re not enough to make young children watching it upset. The plot is pretty basic – Marlin trying to save his son – but is handled with skill and plenty of inventive flair.

The Visuals

The visuals are awesome. The underwater effect is superb (and could not possibly be replicated with traditional techniques, I feel), and the lighting effects are absolutely brilliant. Considering that most of the characters are fish, their faces are marvellously expressive. The characterisation is great and the voice-acting (refreshingly done by unknowns – or at lest, unknown to me) is exceptionally good, with just the right expressiveness and brilliant comic timing. And… oh dear, I’ve run out of superlatives again…

Overall

Finding Nemo is quite possibly the best animation ever. (And yes, I am including the all-time classics here). It’s funny, sweet, action-packed, and is just as enjoyable for adults as for children. Or maybe (and I hesitate to say this)… even more enjoyable for adults. I loved it.

As you can probably tell.

The one final thing to do is compare it to the other Pixar animations, and some of the other good animations coming from other studios in recent years. So here are my ratings out of 100:

Finding Nemo – 100 – yes you saw right – I love it. Nothing could be better, in my opinion.

A Bug’s Life - 95 – was my favourite for ages until Nemo came out. Very funny, great animation, good characters, hilarious out-takes at the end.

Antz - 92 – extremely funny for adults, still a lot in there for kids. Animation not quite as good but still good. Woody Allen voices the star character perfectly.

Ice Age - 89 – very nice animation, great storyline and funny moments. Endearing characters.

Toy Story 2 - 86 - Funnier the original and of course improved animation. Great parody sequences of Star Wars and other films.

Prince of Egypt - 84 – Novel angle on a biblical theme. Bonus points for originality. Contains a brilliant sequence where wall hieroglyphics come to life.

Toy Story - 79 – Where it all started. It was good but pales in comparison to some of the later offerings.

Monsters Inc - 66 – Had its moments but overall was disappointing. Could have done a lot more with the promising storyline. Not actually bad but too much for small children, not much there to keep adults and older kids entertained.



Update 24.10.03

Having just seen it a second time, I can tell you that it is even funnier second time round – partly because you anticipate what’s going to happen. Oh, and adults seem to find it much funnier than children... There were also a few things I hadn’t noticed first time round – little touches like, the first time Nemo looks out of the fish tank at his new surroundings, there’s a toy of Buzz Lightyear on the floor.

You'll probably have heard by now how good Ellen DeGeneres is voicing Dory, but an honourable mention should go to Geoffrey Rush, who voices Nigel, a bird with an interest in dentistry... (Oh all right it's not too much of a spoiler - Nemo ends up in a fish tank in a Dental Practice, where the fish and the aforementioned Nigel take an intensely knowledgeable interest in proceedings - though I think I found that funnier than most people since I work in the medical field...)

A note for parents - the opening scene is quite upsetting to very young children, but they seem to get over it quickly enough.

Oh, and the end credits are quite funny if you bother to stay and watch - I haven't the first time! Especially the bit right at the end...

Er... just thought you’d like to know all that! :-) If you didn't... why did you bother to read it??!?

Dave

Slightly sane, mostly harmless

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Finding Nemo made joint number one in my Top Ten Animated Movies List

See Also:

CaptainD's Top Ten Films of 2003