Warning! Not just another Pixar Fun Film!

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2003)

In `Toy Story: we were treated to a hip, fresh view of life from the toy's point of view. Ditto for `A Bug's Life'. `Monsters Inc' rounded out Pixar's penchant for getting inside the head of the imaginary and creating an intriguing world that.sucked us in and took as for a great ride.
Enter :'Finding Nemo'. It is here Pixar has dropped the ball. Do we get a fresh, unique perspective of life from the Fish point of view? Nope. Fish swim, they are afraid of predators, and well, that's about it. The ocean is a dangerous place, a theme repeated with boring redundancy throughout the film. The plot slogs along from one anxiety invoking mishap to the next, with little humor intervening. What little humor there is comes across as weak. The scene with sharks in an AA type meeting swearing off fish as meals simply doesn't work. I guarantee you will check your watch in the first 30 mins, then regularly thereafter.
I understand kids movies are to be simple and funny, with the occasional sad parts and near misses. This is more near misses and sad parts, and I just expected much more from Pixar in terms of story and imagination. The animation is absolutely breathtaking, and the acting is excellent. Too bad the underlying skeleton is so weak.
I see the next Pixar film, slated for November, is `The Incredibles.' It has a different writer, so hopefully we'll have shot at getting things up to snuff.