Everything that a family film should be.

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2016)

Back in the summer of 03', my mom took me to see Finding Nemo and I remember being wowed by the animation, but now that I'm watching it again, I find myself loving the story, the humor and the morals so much more.
The film opens with a glorious shot of the open ocean with two clownfish named Marlin and Coral appreciating their new home when a barracuda attacks them, knocking Marin out and eating Coral and almost all their eggs expect one that Marlin names Nemo. As the result of this traumatic event, Marin has become overprotective of his son and while on a school field trip, Nemo is kidnapped by scuba drivers. Marin then sets out to find his son, teaming up with a forgetful yet friendly blue tang named Dory. Along the way they encounter vegetarian sharks, a forest of jelly fish, chilled out sea turtles and hungry seagulls.
The story in Finding Nemo uses the same blueprint Toy Story used, where two characters, one being tense and the other being naïve are hurled into a situation and are compelled to undertake this journey through a realm with animals that know a lot more than the humans in the movie are aware of.
Pixar has always done a great job bringing complexly to each of their characters. They aren't made silly just for the sake of being silly. Their habits are often characteristic of an actual emotional disruption in their character. Marlin isn't portrayed as the nervous, restricting father just because the story demands it, we are shown the reason why he is that way in the opening scene. Dory isn't just the jokey sidekick just for the sake of comedy as we are provided a glance of the isolated, terrified character beneath her scales. The movie does give us a unique character in Dory by giving her short-term memory loss and while giving a cartoon character an actual disorder would seem dicey, the filmmakers encompassed it so well that it adds to the final film strengthening the relationships between our main characters. If Dory is the jokey sidekick than Marlin is the one who carries the film and as the film progressed, I was more curious about Marlin's fate and what he would learn. His continuous worrying makes perfect sense with his wife's passing and with his son missing, Marlin is mindful of the amount of endangerment he is in, but Dory is always there to offset Marlin's gloom.
The animation here is gorgeous with the Pixar team really going out of their way to build an underwater world in this film with a vivid coral reef bursting with life while the sequences above the waves have a very photo-realistic look to them while the way the fish move and swim is incredibly realistic and stick to the actual displays of fish movement from Dory swimming in brief bursts to Marlin swimming with his tail, using his fins in an interchanging shape.
The music is imaginative and has a little bit of a dreamlike feature to it like when Marlin loses sight of the boat or at the start of the movie.
When it comes to themes, Finding Nemo has plenty and while some may see the film's theme as insubstantial, I found it to be quite touching. The themes of courage, friendship and letting your kids grow up all hit a nerve with us all because we all have been there at one point in our lives when we've faced the impossible or we've had to let someone go that we love and the film handles each of these themes brilliantly.
When it comes to the voice acting, Finding Nemo definitely delivers in that area. Albert Brooks was destined to play Marlin, portraying him with the utmost sense of paranoia and sadness and yet is quite capable of showing love and compassion for his son when the scene calls for it. Ellen DeGeneres is a laugh riot as Dory, the idiot genus of the film and provides some of the best laughs, but also shows a lot of emotion throughout the film especially the scene where Marlin is about to leave and Dory pleads for him not to go because being around him helps her remember. The scene is heart-breaking and complex and Ellen plays it so well. Alexander Gould succeeds in bringing a lot of personality to the character of Nemo as the film progresses and he grows and learns about what he is capable of doing. Geoffrey Rush is a great addition to the cast as Nigel the pelican and is incredibly hilarious. Willem Defoe is awesome as Gill; giving Nemo the strength to stand on his own fins. Brad Garret is funny as Bloat, the pufferfish; Allison Jenny has some great lines as Peach the starfish, Austin Pendleton, Vicki Lewis and Joe Ranft all have their moments as Bubbles, Deb and Jacques. Bob Peterson is memorable as Mr. Ray. Director Andrew Stanton is awesome as the sea turtle, Crash with his chilled out mannerisms and relaxed way of speaking; it's difficult not to like him.
When it comes to the humor, Finding Nemo has you covered while some family films have a tendency to have humor that only the kids will laugh at or won't get at all. A lot of the humor and jokes are cleverly done such as the group of sharks that resemble an Alcohol Anonymous group which adds some extra hilarity when Bruce catches a whiff of blood and the other two yell "Intervention!", Dory attempting to speak whale or mistaking Marlin for her conscience make for some extremely laugh-out-loud moments.
I really don't have anything more to that hasn't already been said about this movie. It's just perfect on every level. So, if you haven't seen this yet, go see it now. It's a true marvel and it might make you teary-eyed in a few scenes.