Further raising the bar...

Rating: 9/10 (9 June 2003)

It seems that while watching this movie, it was even harder to suspend the belief that this was a fully computer generated movie. Harder, compared to any previous Pixar work. The fish portrayed seemed so amazingly fluid, so lifelike, so believable (well, other than the talking, but of course, they were talking amongst themselves).
I thoroughly was surprised by this movie. It was much better than I had initially expected. The previews that I had been seeing for perhaps the last six months or so seemed so empty, like you had no idea what the movie was going to be about. Advertising consisted of little clips of the fish that were completely taken out of context. You knew that there'd be something different, based on new levels of animation that were evident... but you didn't have any idea what the movie would be even about. Even to the ads most recently, you'd have no idea. I have no idea why they'd approach it this way. I think that this film is clearly being driven by word of mouth, more than anything. Now that I've seen it, I'm glad it is doing well in the cinema, and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD.
Adding the little feature clip at the beginning (the 1989 short "Knick Knack") was delightful to see. Most people haven't seen this one, and I think it's a good example of where Pixar was, and how they still have the creative knack (no pun intended) after all these years.
Overall, a great way to spend about 100 minutes. Don't forget to stay until the very very end, the credits and accompanying animation are rather interesting.