morality tale

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2007)

I am interested mostly of the effect of this movie on young kids, not on the adults dragged along.
Most of animations are terrifying -- being stuck in the mouth of a whale, being surrounded by flocks of seagulls, being caught in a net. Animation's ability to exaggerate makes these events shocking. I remember being five watching Snow White terrified out of my mind hiding under my seat. Perhaps today's kids are more jaded.
The movie sees human activity through fish eyes, and the mindless destructiveness of human activity. Just as Bambi put children off hunting in my generation, Finding Nemo should work against commercial fishing for this one.
Nemo and his father are repeatedly caught in totally hopeless situations, but the both refuse to surrender and by the skin of their teeth prevail. This is great conditioning for kids. Dory's ditzy lack of understanding of the danger takes a little of the edge off the terror, even though logically she is adding to the predicament.
I laughed when it turned out the arch villain of the show was a little girl who liked to buy pet fish then not care for them.
As an adult, the schmaltzy opening between Marlon and Coral was just so anthropomorphic it put me off. I would have preferred a slightly more realistic representation of fish "thoughts". The characters were just too crass to be clown fish. It just did not fit.
That's an odd criticism coming from someone who found a Meercat in the Lion King doing the hula was the funniest thing I ever saw.
One final comment. Albert Brooks as Nemo's father sometimes appeared to be channeling the late Sterling Holloway.