Finding Nemo

This is the first children's cartoon I have seen in probably 5 years. Dreamworks has done some great movies in the past and I was really looking foreword to seeing this one. It isn't the kind of movie I'd want to watch over and over, maybe even not ever again, but it was definitely worth the 2 hours I spent watching it.

Plot
The movie starts out with these two clown fish, two young newlyweds from the look of things, who just bought their first 'house'. They're both very exited with all 400 eggs they have that will be hatching soon.

Unfortunately, some big mean fish comes and eats away all the eggs except one. The fish also eats the mother clown fish. Even after all these years someone has to die in the Disney movies huh?(bambie, the lion king, etc.). Anyway, the father fish, Marlin, makes a promise that he'll never let anything happen to Nemo, the only egg left.

In the next scene it's Nemo's first day of school and he wanders off from the rest of the class. Divers catch him and take him away to a fish tank, in a dentist's office in Australia. There, Nemo meets a bunch of fish that came from pet stores and they try to come up with a way to escape from the tank.

Meanwhile, Marlin is devastated and travels all over the ocean in an effort to find Nemo. He gets into all kinds of trouble with sharks, jelly fish, and gets lost in the bottom of the ocean. Some of the scenes were pretty scary for me, because I wasn't sure how he was going to get out of it. Time and time again Marlin gets stuck and has to defy the odds to escape.

Marlin also runs into a fish named dory, who seems to be pretty stupid and has short term memory loss. Even though Dory isn't the brightest fish in the ocean, she's very sweet. Dory is the only friend who really sticks with Marlin no matter what.

Art and such
This movie is obviously completely computer animated with the latest technology. All the art in this movie is excellent. Looking back to 5 years ago when I watched movies like The little mer(?) maid or Toy story, I was blown away by the vibrant color and realistic look. The artists did an excellent job on some of the ocean scenes where the shadowing makes it look more real then seeing it with your own eyes would.

Entertainment Value
Like I said in the beginning of this review, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie and was mildly entertained by it. However, I didn't finish it feeling like I hadn't lived until I saw that movie, like some have made me feel before. I think being a young adult I'm at the age that least appreciates these types of films. I believe children of any age would enjoy this film up to at least 12-14 years (whether they'd admit it or not). Adults also would enjoy it enough to see it with their kids. Truly a movie for the whole family.

It did have it's fair share of funny parts, although I wouldn't call it hilarious. It was somewhat original in the way most of the comedy was delivered. I think this movie would have benefited a lot if they would have just added a slight bit of adult humor here and there into the character's lines.

Overall, I think this movie is definitely worth seeing once. Don't expect it to be the greatest movie you'll ever see though.