Fabulous Fish Tale!

Rating: 9/10 (12 February 2015)

This is a fun-filled Disney/Pixar movie that is pretty much on par with the Toy Story trilogy. It's a story about a clown fish named Marlin, who swims through the vast ocean in search of his son, Nemo, who was taken by a diver for a pet. Along the way, he meets a blue tang fish with short term memory loss named Dory, who joins him in the search. What follows is an incredible adventure full of dodging sharks, riding with turtles, swimming past jellyfish and trying to go through other obstacles to search for Nemo, while he himself tries to deal with life being somebody's pet.
Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich did a great job in directing this movie, grasping the audience's attention from the start with a dramatic intro, followed by one adventurous scene after the other, making the plot very fast-paced and exciting. The story quickly identifies the issue of Nemo being pretty rebellious and the issue of worrying about his father's fear of the vast open sea. The tide turns within the story as Nemo is fished out of water and Marlin ends up taking the sea on to find him. All these plot elements and unpredictable moments make this an edge-of-the-ride film from start to finish.
The entire voice cast did a great job in their respective roles, making the characters very lovable. Ellen DeGeneres did a hilarious and upbeat job in voicing Dory (you could see Ellen's humorous personality in the fish) and Willem Dafoe did a mysterious yet caring portrayal in voicing Gill, who tries to keep a lookout for Nemo. I especially enjoyed seeing the every day human traits and dialog being acted out in these sea creatures, making the movie that much funnier. In addition, the music score from Thomas Newman is quite spirited and the animation team did a spectacular job in capturing the splendor of the sea.
I thought, though, the story goes too fast at times, leaving little room for the audience to generate sympathy during the more tense and solemn moments, and I thought some of the characters acted a little too excited. But overall, it's a very fun and heartwarming Disney tale that is great for the entire family!
Grade A-