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Finding Nemo - 5/30/03 - G - 101m
Albert
Brooks - Marlin
Ellen DeGeneres - Dory
Alexander Gould - Nemo
Director: Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
Written by: Andrew Stanton
JEF
There’s some good things to say about Finding Nemo, and
a few disturbing things to question about Finding Nemo. I almost went
with a green light for this movie, but because this movie is supposed
to be geared towards children, I’m going with a yellow light –
parents should be warned.
Note: Minor Spoilers below.
Storyline:
Nemo is the main character here of course. He’s a young fish, anxious
to explore the world around him. Yet his father Marlin is a classic example
of an over-protective parent. Both are little orange and white “clown
fish”. One day on his first day of school, Nemo wanders off with
some friends from the rest of the class, and is soon tempted in going
out into the “Open waters” away from their protected coral
reef. Nemo wants to prove he’s not afraid and does just that, only
to be captured, and taken away. His distraught father then must start
his adventure into the giant unknown in search for his son.
I’m also going to talk a bit about one scene in the beginning that
may be considered a spoiler but I think parents should be warned. In the
first scenes of the film, Marlin is with his wife, and we’re shown
that they are soon to be proud parents with their 400+ eggs ready to hatch
any day now. In a tragic event, a Barracuda eats all the eggs (except
one), and the mother! At least the animators were kind enough to spare
us the gory details, but still a traumatic event to witness. If you’re
a fan of Disney films/animations, perhaps you’ve picked up on a
theme by now. Disney likes to “eliminate” one or more of the
parental figures in many of his films. I went online to see if I could
find a sort of explanation for this and came up with nothing. Perhaps
it just makes for a good story? Perhaps Disney was an Orphan himself?
I’d really like to know why Disney films seem to have this habit
of using this plot element in their films. Ok, That’s the first
element of Finding Nemo that ruffled my feathers. The second was the sharks.
Marlin and Dory (Marlin’s somewhat ditzy companion in this adventure)
meet up with “Bruce” a great white shark. He brings them to
a meeting with two other sharks as his friends. The meeting with the two
other sharks is set up like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. I just found
this element in poor taste. To treat alcoholism as a comedic storyline
in a children’s cartoon just seemed wrong. There was one scene (which
they showed in the trailer), where Dory gets a cut, and the blood manages
to float up and gets snorted by Bruce like a drug. This is Disney we’re
talking about right? This is a cartoon made for children right?
Finally one other small attempt at humor that rubbed me the wrong way,
was a scene where one fish starts to swear by saying… “Sh__”
Like he’s going to curse, and they twist it like “Shhh…
some-ones coming”. Again, does Disney feel they HAVE to put these
little “secret” adult tid-bits in their movies just so the
parents can all look at each other and nod and giggle that they get it,
and their kids didn’t? Guess what, most kids nowadays probably got
it too.
Ok, I’m done with my soapbox rant now. Granted probably most of
the kids who will enjoy this movie, will not pick up on these points.
The adults, who go see this film, will be able to see it’s an attempt
from Disney to add a little “Dark Humor”. Personally I was
disappointed in Disney.
So… onto the plus sides…
Pixar is an amazing company. Founded by Steve Jobs, the current head of
Apple Computers (Go Apple!) has created this animation company that is
heads above all others in both talent and technology. To see this movie
on the big screen and to see all the color and detail, and effects and
then to realize that it was ALL created with a computer is amazing. How
to get a flat 2d surface like a computer monitor/movie screen to make
it look like a fish are swimming underwater, rather than just floating
in space is quite a feat. Visually Pixar has done it again, and have created
an amazing world to look at.
The jokes/sight gags were funny. I think my favorite characters were the
seagulls. But there were plenty of pieces to this movie that just made
ya snicker or laugh.
Finally, the voice characters were well done. Albert brooks played the
perfect part of a nervous father. Ellen DeGeneres, who I sometimes find
annoying, did a nice job playing the ditzy “Dory”. Alexander
Gould also did a good job playing “Nemo”. And of course Disney
used a few standards like John Ratzenberger, and Brad Garrett. One interesting
note that I read somewhere was that apparently Albert Brooks was not happy
with the entire process of voicing his character Marlin. Apparently the
need to repeat a single line almost 70 times was enough to zap the fun
and creativity out of his acting for this role.
So all in all, this movie was fun, cute, nice to look at. But because
of a few choice elements that I felt would be inappropriate for children,
I could not recommend this movie with a green light. But if you think
your kids would be young enough that these elements will go over their
heads, or old enough to appreciate “dark humor” then maybe.
Jef
Finding Nemo
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Finding Nemo
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