Great Animation! See it in Digital Projection!

Rating: Null/10 (4 June 2003)

This was a great movie with beautiful scenery, incredible animation, and Pixar's unique brand of humor. I understand two of the writers of this movie were once writers for Conan O'Brien. The comedic exploitation of the characteristics of different fish species was brilliant. I'm a saltwater aquarium hobbyist myself, and found all the different fish traits in the movie quite funny. I especially liked the bit about the flounder not being able find the kids hiding from him on his other side (as flatfish have eyes on one side only). Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres fit their characters PERFECTLY. I can not picture anyone other than Brooks doing Marlon. The funniest thing in this movie has to be the seagulls. All they ever say is "MINE!".
The computer-generated scenery in Finding Nemo is breathtaking. Every shot is milked for all the visual splendor it is worth. The jellyfish scene was awesome. My only complaint is that Pixar, being on the leading edge of CGI animation, should try to make PEOPLE more realistic. It doesn't matter so much with cartoon fish, but if a small independent firm in New Zealand is capable of creating Gollum, then Pixar should be able to make some seriously photo-realistic people.
This is not exclusively a movie for kids only. It caters to all audiences, which I think every movie should do. There are even some references to other movies that only film buffs will pick up. My favorite was the "Psycho" reference whenever the Dentist's HORRIFYING niece showed up. And then there's Bruce the Shark (a Jaws reference) smashing through a wall yelling "Here's Brucey" with the splintered wood framing him exactly as it did Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
Finding Nemo is the best animation I've seen in a long time. You HAVE to see this on a DLP projector, it's worth going a few minutes out of your way to see it at a theater that has one. The colors are strikingly brilliant and the picture is crystal-clear. Finding Nemo was created digitally, and should thus be seen in it's native digital format.
I give Finding Nemo a 9 out of 10.