Amusing, Tender, Beautifully Animated Story Of A Fishy Family Reunion

Rating: 6/10 (25 January 2008)

Nemo is a young clownfish who gets caught by a scuba-diver and taken to Sydney. His father, Marlon, with the aid of a forgetful Regal Tang called Dory, must conquer his fears and set out on a dangerous quest across the Great Barrier Reef to rescue his son.
Although the storyline may be a little reminiscent of other animated features (Pinnochio, Bambi), this is a charming, visually entrancing fable of piscatorial adventures. It's a little too safe for me - you know Marlon is going to find Nemo and nobody cute is gonna die - but the characters are funny and richly observed and it has enough wacky off-the-wall stuff to keep us chuckling, like the Sharks Anonymous meeting, the fishy notes on dental techniques and the moronic seagulls constantly blabbering, "Mine !". Its real strength however is in the imagery; the blues and oranges just leap off the screen as swathes of primary colours and the ocean is simply alive with movement, currents, ripples, bubbles and clouds. Scenes like the jellyfish sequence or the struggle inside the whale are astonishing in their design and visual clarity, and there are some great monster shots, like the barracuda at the start or the anglerfish which nearly eats Marlon. The voice cast of the movie are good, particularly Dafoe as Gill, the slightly-sinister-yet-noble angelfish and Humphries as a crazy shark called Bruce, and the theme of giving children the space to grow is a moving one. Whilst not quite as hip as Shark Tale (made around the same time), this is nevertheless a touching, funny, beautifully animated fable and won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Produced by John Lasseter's Pixar Animation Studios, and dedicated to one of its key animators, Glenn McQueen, who died of cancer in 2002.