Finding Nemo

"Just keep swimming, just swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming… What do we do, we swim…swim…swim." Disney and Pixar did a wonderful job creating an underwater classic, Finding Nemo, full of action, witty comedy, adventure, and sharks that won't eat fish.

The plot is based on the modern American family. A widowed father is over protective of his only son, Nemo, because he doesn't want to lose the only family he has left. Nemo thinks his dad, Marlin, is too protective of his deformed fin and wants to break free and show him that he is a good swimmer. During his class, Nemo and his friends go out to the drop off and dare each other to swim as far as they can and touch the boat. As Nemo is "breaking free", he gets caught by an Austrailian diver and rushed away from his yelling father and friends. The rest of the movie is Marlin's quest to find his son and bring him home safely. He stumbles along the path of a very forgetful fish named Dory who becomes his traveling buddy. They encounter many obstacles along the way, including sharks that have an AA type meeting where they vow not to eat fish anymore. This encounter is particularly hard for Marlin, since his wife and most of her eggs were killed by a barracuda. They run into Jelly fish while they are looking for a special current to take them to Sidney. I thought this scene was especially funny when Dory talked about her Squishy. While in the current they meet up with surfer-like sea turtles, which are also very funny. I think Marlin learns a valuable lesson from Crush and Squirt about letting children grow up and being confident enough that they can take care of themselves. Meanwhile, Nemo is in a tank in a dentist's office making new friends with all the other wacky fish stuck in there with him.

The animation and character voices were amazing. I think it would be very tough to draw under water scenes, but this was amazing. Even when the fish were out of the water, they were glistening so you could tell they were wet. You could see the emotion on the fish's faces, and it was obvious that the animators really studied the way that fish move in the way they swam throughout the movie. Ellen DeGeneres did an amazing job as the voice of Dory. Who else could play someone so spastic and forgetful? The voices of Crush, by director Andrew Stanton, and Squirt were amazing.

One review that I read talked about how Nemo and Marlin began to understand each other better. I think that there is a good moral hidden in this film that Disney and Pixar do not blatantly lay out. A parent can't be too over protective of their child or they might rebel. The love between family members is a huge bond, and you should be willing to do anything to try and save your loved ones. But you also can't hold them back because of a disability that they might have. In this movie it was Nemo's fin. He learned to swim with it even though his dad didn't think he could. So I agree with the other reviewer that both Nemo and Marlin came to understand each other. Also, Marlin figured out that he had to trust Nemo to be out on his own and not be so protective.

In my opinion, Finding Nemo is a wonderful movie. It has something for every age. Comedy, hidden morals, and an action packed plot to save a loved one.