The least of the Pixars

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2003)

Out of all of Disney's co-attempts at modern cartoonism with their Pixar partnership, Finding Nemo was the least appealing, and least captivating. The story describes a father and son clown fish who are separated when the boy is kidnapped from their coral housing, and the father so bluntly [as the title projects] searches for "finding Nemo," and that is your entire movie plot. [Now, spoilers]
The search is endless and takes the fun out of Disney and Pixar. Whereas Toy Story was also based on the "eternal search quest" type of story model, at least the characters were beloved, and captivating. Yes, Nemo is a cute fish who the audience love due to his strong nature, and messed up fins, but he can hardly carry the film on his own. Disney even hired Ellen DeGeneres in to voice Marlin's [Nemo's father, Albert Brooks] trip companion, Dory. But it's hard to not look at the fish and think of Ellen. Personally, I know that when I watch a cartoon, I want to be taken away in the art and not refer back to real life and the pop culture surrounding it.

The rest of the cast is mostly ho-hum, and the story just drags on until [literally] the fish comes home. It was certainly a good attempt, but by the nature of the too-cool surfer turtles that Nemo meets along his way, it's clear that these movies' goodness has abruptly started to head down that dreary road where the creators are trying to appeal to everyone, and just starting to scare half the audience into other interests.