Not Monsters, Inc., but still enjoyable

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2003)

I took my 2 kids to see Finding Nemo this morning. As Bruce Almighty would say, it looked B-E-A-utiful. Unfortunately, the storyline was not up to par with Pixar's previous efforts, and I thought the funny was few and far between (that's right, I said 'the funny'). I enjoyed Albert Brooks, who always gives a stellar performance, as well as Ellen DeGeneres. Brad Garrett using his Robert Barone voice as the blowfish was a great choice, but unfortunately there was too little of the witty action that you normally see in Pixar movies, and instead there's quite a bit of the tense action that you usually see in a Jurassic Park movie instead of a Pixar animation. I would rate this movie as being better than A Bug's Life, which I didn't care for, but not as good as either Toy Story 1/2 or Monsters, Inc. The teaser for Pixar's next movie and the animated short before the main feature were both great tho, and when all was said and done, I'm still not sorry that I went to see it. My 9 year old daughter didn't care much for it, but my almost 3-year old son liked it quite a bit. In the end, I would say to see it, if nothing else but for the incredible animation that is definitely a benchmark for pure CG movies (excepting Final Fantasy, but I don't hold that in the same category with Pixar or Dreamworks films). Enjoy it for what it is and you'll be fine.