Movie Mondays: Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo is fantastic. I need to just open with that right now. Finding Nemo is not only an amazing family film it’s the best Pixar film we’ve talked about yet. It's not the absolute best one ever, that one is still a way's off, but it’s in the top 5. I know I just outright spoiled the review, but I don’t care. I love this movie and I want to talk about it.

But I'm getting ahead of myself so let’s back up a bit. Finding Nemo is the first Pixar film to be directed by Andrew Stanton, unless you don’t count him co-directing A Bugs Life that is. Stanton is someone I’ve mentioned a few times already because he was the main screenwriter for every Pixar film I've reviewed thus far. We know he’s a good writer, but this was the film that was truly his baby. Finding Nemo was inspired by a lot of things in Stanton’s own personal life. More specifically his love of marine life and his relationship with his own son. He combined the two aspects of his life and came up with Finding Nemo.

The film centers on a clown fish named Marlon and his young son Nemo. Both are living in the Great Barrier Reef and it’s Nemo’s first day of school. Marlon, however, is very overprotective of Nemo and is afraid that something might happen to him, something Nemo is incredibly frustrated with since he never gets to do anything. This is a dynamic that is very easy to screw up, but they managed to pull it off by making both characters motivations relatable and believable.

We see Marlon’s backstory in the opening of the film. How his wife and children were taken from him in a barracuda attack that left him and Nemo as the sole survivors. He’s protective of Nemo because he doesn’t want to lose the only family he has left. This is made more believable given that Nemo has a bad fin which means he can’t swim very well, in a sense it’s like he has a disability. So you 100% get why he’s protective, even if he takes it a bit too far.

On the other hand, Nemo has gotten to the point where he wants to see the rest of the ocean, but Marlon doesn’t think he’s ready. Nemo is so frustrated by this that he outright tells his dad that he hates him. Is that a bit harsh? Maybe, but you can understand why he’s like this. Kid just wants a little more independence even though he can’t swim as well as the other kids. His dad doesn’t trust him enough to let him do anything, you would be mad at your dad too if you were in Nemo’s position.

This all comes to a head when Nemo swims out into the ocean to touch a boat to get back at his dad, only to be captured by a deep-sea diver. This sends Marlon into a frenzied rush to get his son back causing him to run into a blue regal fish named Dory. Dory decides to go with Marlon to help him out, though it’s more like she’s following him since he’s the only one there. See, Dory has short term memory loss which causes her to forget things almost instantly, so she’s sort of roped into the adventure by accident.

Now the two fish must now venture into the ocean to find Nemo, running into a variety of obstacles and colorful characters along the way. But while that is going on, Nemo finds himself trapped in a fish tank in a dentist's office. He meets a group of other fish, including another from the ocean named Gill who wants to escape back home. Gill and the other fish in the tank agree to help Nemo escape, especially when they discover that he is about to be given away to the dentist's niece, Darla who tends to kill any fish she gets her hands on.

Now that I think about it, the plot isn’t too dissimilar to Toy Story 2. Both feature a character being kidnapped with another character going after them, the kidnapped character interacts with a cast of colourful characters and there’s a ticking clock with Nemo about to be given away to the dentist's niece standing in for Woody being sold to a museum. The two aren’t one-to-one the same but they share a lot of similarities. But, for as much as I love Toy Story 2, I think Finding Nemo is the better movie.

In my Toy Story 2 review I talked about how Buzz’s side of the story was mostly there for comic relief and that most of the interesting character stuff was on Woody’s side. Finding Nemo doesn’t do this, it makes both sides of the story equal. Both sides go through their own arcs with Marlon learning to take more risks and Nemo learning to be more independent and both have their own set of funny and memorable characters. Neither side is treated like the B story. That, and it’s a more engaging story on an emotional level. There's also something heart-warming about a story of a father trying to rescue his son. You can’t help but root for the poor guy, he goes through all this shit just to save someone he loves. It's beautiful.

But the plot isn’t just engaging on an emotional level, it’s also great on a technical level as well. This is a very tightly constructed plot. Every scene is a natural progression of what came before it and nothing just happens for the sake of the plot. Things are set-up well and lead to a satisfying pay off. It's also phenomenally paced. There isn’t a single wasted scene in the entire film, they're all important to the story and each help in developing the characters. But more importantly, they’re also very entertaining.

Finding Nemo has a lot more action set pieces than previous Pixar films. Most of those would usually save the action for the finale but here it feels like every scene has a big action sequence. This would get tiring but thanks to the film knowing when to have these sequences and when to slow down it never does. The action is consistently fun, and the sequences are varied enough to avoid repetition. It also helps that the movie doesn’t dawdle on a particular scene for too long. The plot is constantly moving forward and introducing new events and characters.

That’s the part people remember the most about the movie, it’s cast of memorable characters. There's a trio of sharks that are trying to give up eating fish, there’s a sea turtle named Crush who talks like a stereotypical surfer dude, there’s a group of fish that form different shapes and the tank gang that Nemo meets in his story just to name a few. I love pretty much every character in the film, they all have something funny and memorable about them and each have simple but distinct personalities.

Both Marlon and Nemo’s respective character arcs progress naturally through the film. While they don’t spend much time together, what little time they do have sets up their relationship well. It feels like a real father-son relationship. I also like that both ultimately inspire one another to become better even when they are miles away from each other. The bond between them is just that strong.

Dory doesn’t really have much of a character arc and is mostly there for comic relief. Though she does help with Marlon’s character growth. Dory is the complete opposite of Marlon. Whereas Marlon is paranoid and cynical, Dory is optimistic and friendly. She also has a childlike sensibility and often tries things without thinking of the risks, so she helps Marlon to learn that you need to take risks in order to succeed albeit in an indirect manner. It's also nice to see a movie with a male and female lead where the two don’t get romantically involved. It's refreshing.

Nemo’s equivalent to Dory would be Gill. Gill is a fish from the ocean like Nemo who tries to help him escape. He takes on a mentor role to Nemo that’s the exact opposite of his dad. While Marlon is always discouraging Nemo from trying to do anything that might hurt him, Gill encourages him to do things even if they are dangerous so lang as it helps their escape attempt. He isn’t a bad guy though he just wants to get out. He even gives up on his plan when it almost kills Nemo. Later, though, Nemo works up the courage to successfully pull it off when he hears what his dad went through to get to him. If Dory teaches Marlon to take more risks, Gill teaches Nemo to do things on his own despite his handicap.

All of this is helped by the brilliant voice acting. Andrew Stanton has gone on record saying that Albert Brooks who plays Marlon saved the film. Brooks is a very funny man, my first exposure of him was when he played Hank Scorpio in The Simpsons, but Marlon isn’t supposed to be funny. That's the joke he’s a clown fish that isn’t funny, but Brooks does such a good job that he becomes funny in how unfunny he is. He really sells Marlons nervousness in a way that feels believable, and I can see why Stanton thinks highly of the performance.

And then there’s Ellen DeGeneres as Dory. I am aware of the issues surrounding this individual, but this was made long before the issue occurred, and it would be unfair for me to critique the performance based on the actresses' actions years after the fact. With that out of the way I think DeGeneres is great as Dory. She has the right amount of energy for the character, and she manages to pull off being absent minded without going full on stupid. The character has a childlike enthusiasm the DeGeneres gets down perfectly. I can see why Dory is the breakout character for many people.

Nemo is voiced by Alexander Gould who was 9 years old at the time. I know child actors aren’t usually very good, but Gould doesn’t do too bad here. All the child actors in the movie did a good job, which is surprising. What black magic do Pixar possess to get not one but several decent child actors? My main issue with child actors is that they’re clearly acting, it never comes off as natural it’s always feels like a performance. I never got that in this movie.

The supporting cast is also fantastic. The standout for me is Wilem Defoe as Gill. Sadly, he doesn’t get to go crazy like most Wilem Defoe performances, but he’s still good here. Gill is supposed to be this worn-out old man who has been through some shit, he even has battle scars from past escape attempts, and Defoe is one of those actors that can perfectly pull off that kind of role. As for the rest of the supporting cast, well there are too many to go in depth, but I'll go over a few of the more recognizable ones. There are a lot of good actors here, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Geoffrey Rush, Elizabeth Perkins, Vicki Lewis, and our old pal John Ratzenberger. Even Andrew Stanton gets in on the action as Crush. The whole cast does an excellent job, but did you expect anything else. It’s a Pixar film, I expect the acting to be good.

I also to expect the animation to be superb, and guess what, it is! Given that the entire cast is comprised of fish I'm impressed how expressive the character animation is. Have you seen fish? Not exactly known for their emotion. Here the characters are very expressive while keeping them as fish. They don’t try to humanize them, which is good because Shark Tale would show why that is a terrible, terrible idea. And at least there’s a wider range of fish to give us some visual variety.

The character animation may lack the speed and zaniness of Monsters Inc but it’s still quite excellent. Because the characters are all underwater the animators had a lot more to work with and they definitely take advantage of that. The characters move with a level of freedom we haven’t seen in the previous Pixar films yet never to a point where it looks bizarre. The characters move with the correct amount of weight and the various species of fish and marine life move in the ways you would expect while being exaggerated just enough to allow for more expressive animations. As well as to allow the character to be funny without them looking weird.

But what impressed me most about the movie was how it handled its environment. To me there are two sides to the ocean. One a serene ecosystem filled with natural beauty and the other a vast foreboding emptiness that fills you with dread. Finding Nemo manages to pull off both.

There are some moments of the movie that can be kind of terrifying, well for a family friendly film anyway. There’s something about these two tiny fish being stuck in the middle of this vast emptiness that makes me feel nervous. I've never liked the ocean because there’s something terrifying in the idea of being stranded with nothing around you and Finding Nemo captures that feeling well. Also, that angler fish scene is scary. The angler fish alone is scary enough but when you combine that with the fact it takes place in pitch black darkness, some kids are going to get nightmares.

But when this movie shows off the natural beauty of the ocean it’s drop dead gorgeous. This might be the prettiest Pixar film yet. You can tell Andrew Stanton is a fan of marine life because he went out of his way to make it look as vibrant and colourful as possible. There are some scenes here that have a relaxing serenity to them that you can just zone out to.

I also have to give this movie credit for having a nice variety in the environments. The coral reef, a fish tank, sunken submarine, the deep ocean trenches and even the mouth of a whale. There's a lot of unique locations to visit in an ocean setting and Finding Nemo goes through pretty much all of them. The animation is truly beautiful, and it holds its own even compared to more recent Pixar films.

You know what else is beautiful, the music. Finding Nemo is the first Pixar film not to be scored by Randy Newman. Instead, the music was composed by his cousin, Thomas Newman who is a respected film composer in his own right. There are some beautiful tracks here that really help the films mood. It’s in the more serene moments where the score truly shines, some of the sequences are as breath taking as they are because of the music. It's one of the better scores in a Pixar film.

Given the sweeping praise I've heaped on this movie you can probably tell that I really like it. The story is heart-warming, the animation s vibrant and colourful, the characters are lovable, the comedy is great. It has all the elements of a great family film.

To be honest, there’s only one flaw I can really think of, that being the climax. You know how in some old Disney movies there’s a scene where they think a character is dead but they’re really just unconscious and everyone gets really sad and just mopes around. That's the entire climax. The problem I have is that it just feels unnecessary, it’s meant to add drama, but it rings hollow because you know it’s not going to last. It also leads to the third act break-up which only further pads out the movie.

That's my main issue with the climax, it feels like padding. It doesn’t even last for very long, the moping around lasts for about 2 minutes so I don’t know why they even bothered. Even the big finale is only just ok. Granted it is a great culmination of the character arcs, but with how good a lot of the other action sequences were it comes up short. It's funny because in all the other Pixar films we’ve looked at the finale was always one of the best parts and yet here it’s one of the weakest.

Finding Nemo would go on to inspire a lot of imitators and would spawn tons of merchandise and theme park attractions, Crush’s Coaster is amazing by the way, but that’s not why it’s enduring classic. It's a classic because it’s a story of a father going to the ends of the earth to save the only family he has. It's a story about how the bonds of family will drive us forward and make us stronger, how even the most cowardly can work up the courage to save someone they love. It's heart-warming, funny and thrilling all at once. It's the first true masterpiece in Pixar’s catalogue and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Finding Nemo is a phenomenal film and one of Pixar’s best. It's also one of the most popular Pixar films of all time, I would argue it’s just as popular as Toy Story and that’s very high praise indeed. At the time of its release, it was the highest-grossing G rated film of all time. It was praised by both critics and audiences and it’s only gotten better with age.

Next time we’re going to be looking at the first Pixar film to have an entirely human cast and the first to be directed by an outside director. It's the most action heavy Pixar film yet when I look at The Incredibles. Until next time, remember to stay safe and have fun.