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May 30, 2003
By Veronica Mixon
From the opening frame, its clear that
the Pixar folks who brought us Toy Story
films, A Bug’s Life and
Monster’s Inc. have hit
another home run out of the ball park.
Finding Nemo
is no ordinary fish tale but a dazzling
comical underwater romp! Writer/director
Andrew Stanton, who co-credited A
Bug’s Life, explores the
ocean and its inhabitants in much the
same way he did with the world of insects.
The deep blue sea springs to life with
a zany variety of sea creatures in a
colorful watery fantasy. Pixar scores
again!
Find Nemo
centers around an overprotective father,
Marlin (Albert Brooks) and his son,
Nemo (Alexander Gould), who is accidentally
scooped up by a diver in the Great Barrier
Reef. Determined to rescue his son,
Marlin begins a journey accompanied
by a friendly but forgetful fish, Dory
(Ellen DeGeneres) and along the way
becomes a hero. Meanwhile, Nemo makes
friends with the occupants of an indoor
fish tank and develops loads of courage
on his own.
During the treacherous journey, Marlin
and Dory meet a host of characters including
a trio of sharks – Bruce, Anchor
and Chum (voices of “Dame Edna’s”
Barry Humphrey, The Hulk’s
Eric Bana and Mad Max’s
Bruce Spense)who form a support group
to abstain from eating fish. “Fish
are our friends!” they chant even
when Bruce goes berserk from a whiff
of blood. They meet laid back giant
turtle, Crush (Andrew Stanton) who spreads
tales of Marlin’s courage and
of course, bigger fish that want to
eat them.
Meanwhile, Nemo’s befriended
by the fish in his new home –
a dentist’s office tank. There
is the pretty star fish, Peach (Allison
Janney, The West Wing), Bloat
(Brad Garrett of “Every Loves
Raymond”), the excitable
blow fish and Vicki Lewis (Radio
News) as Deb/Flo the damsel with
a identity problem; the bubbles obsessed
yellow tang, Bubbles (Stephen Root);
Gurgle (Austin Pendleton), a royal gamma
who has a fear of germs and Jacques(Joe
Ranft who played Heimlich, the jolly
caterpillar in A Bug’s Life),
the fastidious cleaner. The leader of
the tank gang is the brooding Moorish
Gill (Wilhem DeFoe, Platoon).
He is determined to escape especially
with the aid of outside intelligence
from a clumsy Pelican, Nigel (Geoffrey
Rush, Shine). Through these
characters, we get a curious glimpse
the dentist’s office from inside
a fish tank and the terrors of reckless
child.
The beauty of Finding Nemo
is the glorious beam of lights along
the ocean floor and the fogs float in
the water and the dark, scary recesses
that lead to wondrous things. There
is the debris and the constant swift
movement of the water that drives the
plants and fish along the highway in
the ocean. The Pixar crew has done their
homework! It is a delight to watch!
Ellen DeGeneres steals the show as
the blue tang fish, Dory. She is delightfully
goofy as she explains to Marlin that
she has short-term memory and in the
next breath forgets how they met and
why they are traveling together. While
DeGeneres’s voice is light and
earnest, and her happy-go-lucky approach
to life is uplifting. Albert Brooks
has excellent comic timing and he makes
a good straight man for DeGeneres’s
zany happiness. While Brooks can be
seen in The In-Laws playing
a real-life neurotic father, Ellen DeGeneres
last comic performances in the small
town romance, The Love Letter
and as the wisecracking homicide detective
in Goodbye Lover. Though neither
film was widely seen, DeGeneres was
surprising good. She’s simply
fantastic here and hopefully, she’ll
get more opportunities to show her comic
talent.
Children and adults will be delighted
by Finding Nemo!
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