Not Pixar's best

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2003)

For once I find myself in a minority. For once, I was expecting
more. For once, I am undecided about getting the DVD of a Pixar
film.
Description of characters and plot points are plentiful in other
reviews, so I'll cut to the chase:
The general idea was good, execution was decent, but too much
went wrong. Dory and her lack of short-term memory (how does
she remember she has that problem?) were more annoying than
endearing. Jar-Jar Binks provided more comic relief. I had more
fun with the tank residents speaking dentistry-ese with the pelican.
I never quite "got" Nemo's disability (if indeed there was
something to "get"). The only purpose I saw in it was to give Marlin
an extra excuse for being overprotective - what, having your wife
and all your other children killed isn't enough? - and to give Nemo
a kinship with Gill. I am not acquainted with Albert Brooks enough
to compare his fish character with humans he played. But to be the
character that Marlin is, given that they are very small fish and there
are very big things out there with very pointy teeth I can't blame him
too much. (Then again, overprotective parents have been around
forever as movie devices.) Willem Dafoe did an excellent job as
Gill.
I expected to see more of the sharks, especially given the line a
shark says in the trailer that he doesn't in the movie. I wanted to
see more of the sharks, lots more. But I did like that whole chase
sequence sparked by the whiff of blood.
And after all those scenes with the turtles, sounding like they were
straight out of the late '80s/early '90s, I was extremely disappointed
to not hear a "Cowabunga!" or even a slight "Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles" reference. (Four young turtles could've had eyes in the
four TMNT colors, for example.) Pixar never seems to miss a shot
at a movie reference, this one fell in their lap, and the pun was
ignored. The other movie references that were included,
especially "Psycho" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" were
great, and I did get a kick out of the shark being named "Bruce" (cf.
"Jaws").
Finally, the seagulls were absolutely hilarious. I wish there had
been a way to give them more screen time, because those scenes
were of the Pixar we know and love.
The animation and supporting characters carry this movie more
than the plot, and I'm disappointed that Pixar spent so much time
on the former while seeming to have problems with the latter.
6/10: It's not necessarily "Swim away! Swim away!" but not "I've got
to find Nemo!" either.
PS: I recently read a newspaper article that was half-devoted to
pointing out that "Nemo" was the name of the captain in "20,000
Leagues Under the Sea." If this needs to be pointedly discussed,
something's not quite right with the world.