superb animated film

Rating: 8/10 (11 September 2003)

Stanton, who helped write "Toy Story" and "Monsters, Inc.", co-wrote and directed this computer-animated comedy-adventure about finding a very small fish in a very large ocean. Marlin (voice of Albert Brooks) is a more-than-slightly paranoid Clown Fish who is extremely devoted to his young son, Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould). Nemo is the only survivor after a hungry barracuda swallowed up Nemo's mother and her other offspring. It's not Marlin's nature to explore unfamiliar waters, but when Nemo is captured by a diver near the Great Barrier Reef and ends up in a dentist's fish tank, Marlin gathers his courage and sets out to find his son. As Marlin searches for his son, he makes friends with a friendly but absent-minded Regal Blue Tang named Dory (voice of Ellen DeGeneres), a Great White Shark named Bruce (voice of Barry Humphries) who is trying to cut fish out of his diet, a beach-rat Sea Tortoise named Crush (voice of Stanton), and Nigel (voice of Geoffrey Rush), a Pelican who can take Marlin's search from the ocean to dry land. "Finding Nemo"'s impressive voice cast also includes Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney, Eric Bana, Stephen Root, Brad Garrett, and Bruce Spence.	"Finding Nemo" is a superb achievement on three distinct levels. First, the look of the film is gorgeous. The Pixar crew has created a fully realized underwater world. The colors are bright and entrancing, while the movement of the fish is so realistic that the viewer never for a second suspends disbelief. The story is beautifully structured. After establishing the relationship between Marlin and Nemo, the film sets up the separate worlds they each inhabit (the ocean and the fish tank). The screenwriters have dreamed up creative plot points, formulating exciting obstacles (like the wrecking of a filtration system, a dangerous jellyfish zone, and a fish-killing eight-year-old) that allow the film to maintain an exciting pace without sacrificing character or humor. Each member of the cast appears to have been hired for their skills as a performer more than for their name recognition. Brooks, DeGeneres, and Dafoe all communicate real emotional truth in their characters, while such talented vocal performers as Root, Rush, and Humphries lend pitch-perfect comedic support. "Finding Nemo" is an inventively written, gorgeously drawn, and perfectly acted animated film.