Finding Nemo

Rating:
Summary: More Pixar Genius!
Review: As usual, Pixar has brought us another wonderful, intelligent, mind-blowing CGI movie that pacifies children and adults alike. Though the overall mood is somewhat depressing, the humor and smart plot are flawless. The story is that of a clownfish named Marlin who is out to find his son, Nemo, of whom he is extremely overprotective. Nemo has been captured by human divers and put in an aquarium at the dentist office, where he makes new and interesting friends. Meanwhile, Marlin makes new friends en route to Sydney while on Nemo's trail. Great overall theme, great characters, great attention to detail. This is one that the whole family will absolutely love!

Rating:
Summary: Nemo...from a 20-something viewer
Review: "Nemo" might be the most graphically spectacular Pixar effort--they get plenty of opportunity with the colorful underwater landscape--but not the best computer-animated film out there.

Warning to parents with kids below the 8- or 7-year-old line: there are parts that might startle and be a bit scary for you child. The opening sequences are evidence of this--audiences are immediately introduced to death, a monster and the disruption of the family image. Later on, there are the scarier, big-sharp-fanged monster scenes that sent quite a few kids in the audience crying.

That aside, the film is an enjoyable watch, although on the cutesy side. The jokes range from hilarious to adults (fishes in a dentist's aquarium arguing over correct procedures and dental equipment) to the ones only a child could split sides over (Ellen Degeneres' Dory character singing a song to cheer up Nemo's dad Marlin) to ones that everyone will crack up over (octopi embarassingly "losing their ink" when frightened; an underwater explosion sends up a bubble that makes it look like a pelican farted).

Very good, clever film, but a little too cute, and it scared some of the younger kids in the theater. Recommended fully even for 20-somethings and baby boomers; definitely parental guidance for the younger uns.

Rating:
Summary: Pixar hits grand slams every time, for everyone!
Review: The crew at Pixar has put together another winner. The combination of John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton coupled with the heart-winning plot and dazzling computer generated animation keeps cranking out box-office winners such as Toy Story (1 and 2), A Bug's Life, and Monsters Inc.

Each film has broke barriers in the computer-generated world. Toy Stories were the first of their kind, an entirely CG movie. A Bug's Life broke the barrier of computer engineered plants. Monsters Inc. perfected the way a computer can portray fur and hair. And now Finding Nemo has perfected the way a computer can generate water. Pixar is truly a pioneer in the field of computer-generated movies, as well as always creating a movie that is safe for all ages, and enjoyable too.

THE PLOT: An over-protective clownfish father Marlin loses his son Nemo to a diving expedition, and engages in relentless sea-wide pursuit of him. On the way, he meets up with Dory, a forgetful Regal Blue Tang fish, who, despite an tremendously bad memory, manages to help Marlin decipher his only clue: a divers' mask dropped in the ocean. Dory manages to remember the address (P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney), and journeys with Marlin. On the way, they find dangerous tunnels, hungry fish, hungrier sharks (who form a support group to keep from eating fish), and a squad of totally awesome sea turtles.

Meantime, Nemo has found himself inside a fish tank in a dentist's office in Sydney, Australia. Stuck in the tank with him are Deb, Peach, Jacques, Bloat, Bubbles, and Gil. Gil teaches Nemo a little about self-reliance, initiates him into the tank fellowship, and then the group attempts to escape their situation - before the dentist's cruel niece comes to claim her present.

THE BAD: With Pixar films, you can always expect a short "BAD" category. The only things that are bad are a few boarder-line jokes (some fish-kids think the boat is called a "butt", and then they say "it looks like a big butt!") and a few scary moments, like the attacking shark that might scare kiddoes, but only for about five seconds, or the other scary fish that try to take a bite out of Marlin and Dory. No naughty words (unless you count the expression "Crickey!" as bad), and only a couple of sentences about hoping the dentist will go to the bathroom so they tank group can attempt to escape. ("That's his fourth cup, it can't be long now" and "he just grabbed the Readers' Digest, we've got 4.6 minutes!) Otherwise, nothing else negative.

THE GOOD: Pixar knows how to put together great family films, and this one is no exception. Virtually the whole thing is good, for kids, and even adults can find something to laugh about.

MY THOUGHTS: Of course, most people know that Ellen Degeneres is the vocal talent for Dory. Yeah, she may be kind of unpopular, but she did an okay job at playing Dory. (However, she was reluctant to admit the gender of Dory when talking about the film on a behind-the-scenes clip on TV) You can expect something different from Pixar every time, but never any disappointments. My humble opinion: Excellent movie. Go and see it, bring the kids, bring the kids' friends, bring the kids' friends' parents!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Movie
Review: This is one of the greatest movies I've seen. The 11 kids all loved it and the 7 adults in our party were captivated by the cool graphics, the messages and the story line. I recommend it for every age from 4 to 137. Under 4 may find a couple of scenes a little intense but nothing unsavory. Over 137... WHAT A WAY TO GO! For all else, don't miss this one.

Rating:
Summary: catch and release
Review: pixar's latest, finding nemo, begins by meeting disney's quota for the death or absence of at least one parent with the seemingly kid-unfriendly scene of marlin losing his wife and all but one of his children to an eel. due to the circumstances surrounding the birth of his only son (nemo), marlin attempts to protect him, sometimes suffocatingly, from everything outside the four tentacular walls of their anemone home. further complicating the matter is nemo's small ("lucky" if you ask his dad) fin, which makes it difficult for him to swim long distances. despite, or because of, those hurdles, nemo longs to venture outside his father's grasp and is unwavering in his desire to begin school with its concomitant autonomy.

of course, as soon as nemo breaks free into the open ocean, he is scooped up by a diver and placed in a dentist's office aquarium, where he is to be presented to an unruly girl who resembles sid from toy story. in the tank, he joins a bevy of luckless sea creatures, including a pink starfish suctioned to the glass, a scarred angel fish who desperately wants to escape, and a french shrimp who meticulously cleans the artificial habitat. marlin begins the journey through the great barrier reef accompanied by dory, a blue tang fish voiced by ellen degeneres. along the way they are helped and hindered by sharks who have (mostly) sworn off eating fish, pothead sea turtles, the bright bait of an angler fish, self-serving gulls, a forest of jellyfish, the belly of a whale, and dory's own short-term memory deficits.

the movie has many opportunities to address bigger issues, but it's satisfied with patrolling the shallows. nemo's disability isn't treated as a detriment, necessarily, but it's exoticized somewhat. the travails of captivity are mentioned, but only in a superficial manner. after the credits rolled, children, rather than organizing boycotts against pet stores, were heard screaming, "mommy, i want a clown fish. can we take one from the great barrier reef?" the replies: "well, it is a protected area, but anything for you, my dear." three sharks bring their terrified fish buddies to a meeting where they announce that fish are friends, not food, before being tempted toward a more carnivorous diet when they sense blood in the water. it's a way of decreasing the impact of their ecological footprint, perhaps, and it works as a joke, but the filmmakers are reluctant to either focus on the details implicit in such a decision or expand their sights to encompass other areas worthy of criticism. i did, however, like the references to marlin's perceived comic ability solely based on his reputation as a clown fish. the idea that others would assume he was funny was understated and portrayed deftly enough that it made a statement about the problems of stereotyping.

i realize i shouldn't be harping on the lack of social imperative in a (children's) movie, so i will concentrate on the humor. many of the jokes were repeated throughout. dory's forgetfulness was made evident at every turn, making me wish that i had received some sort of blunt trauma to the head so that i wouldn't be burdened by memory, or at least that she could have been relegated to the role of an ancillary character. the sea turtles' speech, which relied upon a surfer's lexicon, grated from the beginning and steadily got worse. sure, i've been known to occasionally pepper conversations with "dude" or "man," but this was ridiculous. it should be said, the majority of the audience didn't seem to be as negatively affected by the repetition as i was: the man across the aisle from me joyfully said, "wow, it's still funny," when a frightened young octopus inked itself for the nth time.

the film does succeed sometimes, mostly when it concentrates on nuance. the scene involving the sharks and the one involving the angler fish are imaginative, but they continue past their expiration date, as does almost every scene. the best sequence occurs when the fish escape from the tank, only to bob on the surface of the water inside their plastic bags, unable to achieve true freedom from their confines. the monosyllabic sea gulls are consistently funny, especially in the scene where a crab is offered to them until he divulges the secret he is concealing. interestingly, these gulls appear to be a homage to aardman entertainment (and wallaby way is the street on which wallace and gromit live), and there are a few other visual references to pixar films, past and future. in my opinion, the viewer would be better served renting chicken run and actually paying attention to it this time.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: All I can say is that I took my nephew to see this movie and I loved it. I'm a 36 year old GROWN WOMAN and I laughed more than my nephew did. LOVED IT..

Rating:
Summary: A fishy tale.
Review: I honestly expected more from this film. I had spent many minutes watching teasers for this film, because I had to sit through previews at movies. I thought it looked imaginative. Although this was the case in terms of visual effects, the story was sub-par. At best.

I love Pixar, and in my opinion they make the best films for Disney. My favorite of which was probably A Bug's Life. My review was most likely swayed by the masses of little kids and rock head parents.

In the beginning, Marlin, Nemo's father, is having a conversation with Nemo's mother. Nearly instantaneously, a barracuda comes out of no where. In a dash to save her eggs, the mother lunges for a cave. Marlin tries to stop her, but is attacked by the large fish. The scene fades out, and fades in on Marlin. Plug your ears for this. On top of the fact that there are no funny scenes for the next fifteen minutes, let alone the rest of the movie, you will be swamped by nearly twice that time by kids asking their parents 'Where are the eggs? Where is the mother?' I felt like turning around and yelling in their faces ' She's dead! Can't you read between the lines? Jeezus, you would think the your parents wouldn't take an infant here!" And the scary part is, I like kids.

On top of this, there is no 'bad guy'. This movie floats along for two hours on a course for no where, like a piece of driftwood with holes, plot-holes, that is. Later on in the movie, Willem Dafoe's character, some forgettable fish whose name I have already forgotten, tells Nemo that 'All drains lead to the ocean.' WHat the hell is that? Drains lead to water processing factories where all waste, i.e. Nemo, will be burned in an incinerator.

All in all, the reason this is even entertaining is the attention to detail. I give serious kudos to the animators.

Rating:
Summary: So this is a good movie?
Review: The digital animation is remarkable. Jaw dropping in spots. Just look at all the specks of plankton hovering in the water and you can guess where a good chunk of the ...budget was spent. The characters are gorgeous looking, too, for the most part. The great white shark drips with detail--from its endless rows of razor sharp teeth to blotches of torn flesh on its nose. The cute characters--there have to be cute characters--are perfect, like the little pink squid that inks itself. But cutting edge animation and beautifully realized fish do not a movie make.

What's missing here is heart. And a clear theme. And a story that grabs you. It's like the most exhorbitantly wrapped Christmas present that turns out to be a box of styrofoam peanuts. Well, that's not totally fair. There is something in the box, but it just doesn't live up to the wrapping. Not even close.

The movie starts out well enough. There is enough death and mayhem in the first ten minutes to suggest that we might have a classic on our hands. And, I must admit, all the terror-struck children in the audience ("Why did the mommy leave?") were enough to shake up even the most jaded viewer. Yes, this was a movie that wasn't going to take it easy on the little ones. Life is tough. Grow up!

And, in fact, the movie has a number of scenes that weren't throttled down in fright value just to keep kids from having nightmares. When the great white gets high on a whiff of blood and goes on a rampage, we had kids in the audience shrieking with terror. And there are some genuinely funny moments, including the now staple entertainment of breaking wind, to balance the mortal fear. I liked the seagulls in particular. But they simply aren't good enough. Nothing close to Toy Story, A Bug's Life, or even Monsters, Inc.

And the story, such as it is, doesn't hold a candle to Pixar's earlier films. I suppose the main message is that life is good, bad, and dangerous, but that being overly protective is just as likely to get your kids in trouble as letting them loose to swim fancy-free. That message is there, winding its way inconsistently, through the muddled messages this movie provides. They other is that human beings--fishermen, reef collectors, dentists, dentists' children--range from awful, to violent, to mean, to stupid. There isn't a single redeeming human in the whole film. In fact, one message of this movie is that the whole planet would be better off without us. Which may be true, but this is fantasy. Indulge us a little bit, Pixar.

The voice characterizations are good, if not memorable. Ellen DeGeneres does the best job of the lot, though her character and it's short term memory loss--a joke that gets run into the ground--isn't enough to carry the film.

This is movie for little kids. Not much there for adults, which makes me wish for kids movies like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Pixar's many treats. Pixar well knows that you can entertain kids and adults at the same time, but they seem to have misplaced the formula.

Rating:
Summary: The folks at Pixar do it again!!!
Review: Thoroughly enjoyable in almost every possible way! A delightful (if mildly predictable) story told with great verve and BEAUTIFUL graphics. Pixar's movies are all gorgeous to look at and all get 5 stars in my book. However, I give TOY STORY 1 & 2 A++, MONSTER'S INC an A+, NEMO an A and A BUG'S LIFE an A- / B+.

There's nothing really WRONG with NEMO in comparison to the TOY STORY movies, for example, but on an emotional level, it didn't quite deliver the same whammy. No true "tears in your eye" moment for me. (Unlike the transporting moment at the very end of MONSTER'S INC when Sully goes back to see the little girl and is greeted by "Kitty." The look of joy on his face has never been matched by a real-life actor.)

I will say the opening scene was wrenching. We see Marlin (the male clown fish, voiced so well by Albert Brooks) and his spouse Coral, frolicking in their new home, a lovely anemone with a view. Their hundreds of eggs lay just below, waiting to hatch. In the middle of their carrying-on, a fearsome looking barracuda appears. The eggs are clearly threatened and Coral naturally runs to save them. Marlin knows this could be mistake, tries to intervene and is knocked unconscious. When he awakens, he's ALONE. Man, it's a chilling moment...I imagine it could be upsetting for some kids. Naturally, he discovers one surviving egg, which turns out to be Nemo. We skip ahead a few years and Nemo is ready for school, but his father is unbearably overprotective of the little tyke with the one short fin. And Nemo gets into trouble and is captured by fishermen.

The movie goes back and forth from Marlin's journey to find Nemo and Nemo's life in the fish tank in a Dentist's office, where he makes some new friends.

Marlin is befriended by a blue fish with short-term memory loss (Ellen DeGeneres) and their interactions are hilarious. The memory device is a real treat...congrats to the person who thought that one up!!!! The run into some amusing sharks, some terrible jellyfish and some really cool sea turtles, among others. Their adventures are great to look at, but feel just a tiny bit predictable. But still very enjoyable, don't get me wrong.

Nemo's new world, on the other hand, is one delight after another. His tank-mates are all wonderfully realised characters, and they ways in which they interact with the dentist's office are quite ingenious. They hatch a risky escape plan that adds lots of edge of your seat drama.

Another great touch: seagulls are depicted as the "rats" of the sky, and they are dangerous yet absolutely hysterical. One of the movie's other really successful imaginative leaps.

I HIGHLY recommend the movie for all ages.

And there is also a brief, early Pixar short film before hand that is a hoot as well...a wordless wonder...

Rating:
Summary: Excellent movie, both in storyline and animation
Review: This is the very first movie that I took my 4 year old to see. From beginning to end she was glued to the screen. Never once did she want to get up or fuss.
This is a story about a father and his son who get separated and the journey embarked by both.
Heartwarming, humorous, and filled with absolutely beautiful colors of the sea.
Highly recommended, both for theatre and for home! I can't wait to add this one to my daughters home library.