Not Just a Kid's Movie

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2003)

It seems as though rated "G" movies are often under-advertised and never
really make money or are even worth watching. Generally they're made
specifically for children and any humor in the movie is lost on those over
the age of seven. Pixar, in the past, has defied these common sentiments
with movies like Toy Story 1, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, and Monster's
Inc.
Pixar continues to defy standard Hollywood practices with the release of
Finding Nemo.
This movie is, by at least a little bit, the best rated G movie I've ever
seen. Monster's Inc comes in a little behind in second place. The
animation
in this movie is incredible, the water, the fish, the particles of dirt
floating in the water...there were many points when I would watch the
movie
and could definitely not be sure whether I was looking at a real or
animated
sea-scape.
The story...the story wasn't anything particularly groundbreaking other
than
the setting...father loses his son, will do anything to find him. In this
case, anything includes taking on sharks, jellyfish, pelicans and other
random sea monsters. The father, Marlin, is a clownfish that defies his
name
by being particularly unfunny...luckily he picks up a sidekick early on
with
a short term memory problem - a little memento-esque.
Nemo, the son, is captured by divers and put in an aquarium in Australia,
where he meets several psychotic fish including "Gills," another fish from
the open sea - whose voice belongs to William Dafoe (in a non-bad guy
role!).
Of course, being a comedy, the movie does have a happy ending, but the
ending isn't nearly as much fun as the trip taken to get there. The movie
is
great, I went along with two college age friends, and they both laughed as
much as I did. If a kid's movie can make three college students laugh as
hard as we did...it is definitely worthwhile seeing. The movie is
genuinely
funny and worth watching with the entire family. The movie is safe for
small
children, though there are a couple of potentially scary scenes that might
frighten *really* young children. However, I would definitely recommend
going to a later showing...after most children would be in bed. I made the
mistake of watching "Ice Age" at 5 PM - and the theater was unfortunately
filled the the laughter/screams/crying of children, which took a little
away
from the movie for me.
One more thing - Pixar shares a short 3-5 minute computer animated short.
In
fact, it was the first short ever created by Pixar. The short was also
very
humorous and just made the whole movie experience more enjoyable. There
was
also a preview for Pixar's upcoming movie: "The Incredibles" which seems
to
be about a dysfunctional family of aging superheroes which I can only
assume
will be just as enjoyable and amusing as "Nemo."