What is it with Disney's obsession with killing parents?!?

Rating: 3/10 (24 January 2004)

I mean, HONESTLY! This is supposed to be a kiddie flick, right? So, in classic Disney fashion...five minutes in, two days short of hatching, Mum is devoured by a barracuda -- along with 499 of our title character's siblings. WHY??? This movie made me squirm (pun only gently intended). I can't remember a time I've been more uncomfortable watching a film so blatantly marketed at children.
I'm a playwright, folks, an award-winning one at that. I GET the concept of conflict as a dramatic device...but must we keep our cutesy-poo lead in constant peril (sharks, nets, aquarium filtration systems, etc.) I'm really disappointed in how gratuitously MANIPULATIVE this feature is, and saddened that the filmmakers think so very little of the audience to foist such drivel on us, disguised as a family film. Sure, it was lovely to look at...but I can't say much more in its favor. I would NEVER recommend this unnecessarily violent, surprisingly distressing, unintentionally maudlin, unbearably sentimental movie for a child -- or an adult.

WHY this film continues to rake it in at the box office, and why critics predict this as an Oscar favorite is beyond my abliity to understand. I'm no crochety grump, either (well, at least I wasn't BEFORE I watched this dreadful film). This is just another classic example of Disney lackeys putting FORMULA ahead to STORY and SENSE, all in pursuit of the bucks. Walt must be spinning in his cryogenic chamber at the thought of his name being sullied by association with this horrible film.
Parents: do your kids a favor: If they love the little fishies...take them to a real aquarium instead of subjecting them to even one minute of this bizarre and misguided cash cow with mouse ears.
I want the last two hours of my life back.