Albert Brooks plays Marlin, a clownfish who loses his wife and all of his
un-hatched eggs to a predator attack. In the aftermath, he finds one surviving
egg and names it Nemo--which was his deceased wife's favorite name--and raises it
by himself. The time comes when little Nemo is old enough for school, but Marlin
is so overprotective of his only child that he smothers him. Instead of letting
the boy go off on his own, Marlin chases after the manta ray/school bus that
serves as Nemo's mobile classroom. His suffocating nature inadvertently drives
Nemo to venture out to the deep part of the ocean, where the little fish defies
his father by touching the bottom of a boat. However, when scuba divers abduct
Nemo, the nervous Marlin, who has rarely left his home since losing his wife,
now moves heaven and earth (or should that be heaven and water?) to find him.
He meets Dory, who, as voiced by the marvelous Ellen DeGeneres, is a happy-go-lucky
fish with a short-term memory problem. Finding a scuba mask that fell off the
boat of Nemo's abductors, Dory helps Marlin to decipher the writing on the back,
which turns out to be the address of the owner, located in Sydney, Australia. As
this unlikely pair set off to find find Nemo, they meet sharks trying to go
straight, a forest of jellyfish, and a pack of surfer-dude turtles, among other
denizens of the deep.
While Marlin and Dory brave the vast unknown that is the ocean, Nemo winds up as
another captive in a dentist's fish tank. He meets a crazy collection of fellow
fish inmates, all led by Gill. Willem Dafoe voices Gill, and he plays his role
like a lifer in prison who knows all the angles. He's always got an escape plan
brewing, and it involves the water filter--which Nemo is just the right size to
squeeze into and sabotage. Time is running out for the new fish on the block,
because the dentist plans to give Nemo to his young niece, who is a little
psychopath (in fact, the theme from Psycho plays whenever she is either mentioned and/or
onscreen) who is known for killing every fish her uncle gives her.
During the course of this immensely enjoyable movie, Nemo learns self-reliance
while Marlin, a clownfish who was never very good at telling jokes, learns to
lighten up and enjoy life. Created by the mad geniuses at Pixar, Finding Nemo
is another home run that is filled with some really hysterically funny moments.
The movie is a joy to watch, with characters that you care about. It is, without
a doubt, an instant animated classic. The DVD is a classic in its own right, as
well. It's a two-disc set that's loaded with features, including both a wide
screen and full screen version of the film. There are also the mandatory "making
of" documentaries, all which show the process of making a completely CGI feature
like this. There's also "Knick Knack" a classic short CGI film made by the Pixar
crew many years ago. It's about a snowman trying to break out of his snow globe,
with hilarious results, all set to the music of Bobby McFerren. One other
feature that this set has is a series of underwater scenes--both in the ocean and
the aquarium--which you can watch for as long as you like. They are basically
underwater landscape scenes, with no music, just sound effects of the water.
These scenes are great stress-fighters and can be very soothing to watch--I
should know, since I almost nodded off while viewing one of them. They're a very
pleasant addition to an already great DVD. --SF