Finding Nemo

[yendi]

shadesong and I decided to catch this yesterday afternoon.

I'm still blown away by it.

This is the movie that Pixar has been building towards all these years. The Toy Story films are fun, but far from perfect. Monsters Inc, although something I adored, just never managed to work on the adult level for me. It's a great kid's film, but it just lacked a little bit. But this was fucking perfect, on every level.

I'm a sucker for any sort of fatherhood movie, of course. Both as a father, and as someone who grew up without one, it's a theme that can get to me in almost any film. But that's not all that makes this a good flick.

It's perfectly cast. From Albert Brooks as Marlin, all the way down to minor appearances by John Ratzenberger (as a manta ray) and Erik Per Sullivan (as a squid with a mild ink problem), every fucking voice is perfect. The lobsters have New England accents. The turtles are all surfer dudes stright out of a Keanu Reeves festival. There are characters played by Erik Bana, Willem Dafoe, Vicki Lewis, and Allison Janney, all doing a great job.

And the characters! This the most realized ensemble ever put together in an animated picture. Sure, the leads (neurotic Marlin, ditzy Dory, and cute Nemo) are wonderful, and given a huge amount of depth (amazingly so, given how easy it would be to leave them all as the one-note characters, especially Ellen DeGeneres's Dory, whose memory-challenged character becomes so much more touching than the typical comic relief sidekick). But the minor characters are every bit as realized. The father-figure feelings of Dafoe's Gil towards Nemo; the love that Coral and Marlin feel towards each other; the love Crush feels towards his kids. It's all there.

You don't just get that with good voice actors. You don't even get there with a great screenplay and direction. You also need great animation. And this film has it. In spades. This is a truly gorgeous film. But never overwhelmingly so -- you're never forced sit up and take notice of how detailed the animation is at the expense of the plot. Instead, this movie immerses you in the undersea world, and for two hours, you're under the water, just like Marlin himself.

The jokes work for everyone, from the usual slapstick for the kids, to little references that only adults could possibly get (without ever making the movie inaccessible for the young ones). They're perfectly woven into the plot, too.

The highest praise I could give this movie? It's as good as a Miyazaki film.

I need some good Nemo icons.

Anyway, off to a meeting and then lunch, then I'll stop posting and start responding to comments.

Comments

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

I had only one real problem with the film ... it never gave you a chance to catch your breath. Which is ok in an adult film, but it really was too much for my daughter - that age where they're old enough to understand what "danger" really means but young enough to get absorbed enough in the story that they can't disassociate and don't understand that all Disney movies have happy endings.

My daughter wanted to leave by a little over halfway through, ended up in my lap asking me every 5-10 minutes if we could leave, and only agreed to watch the rest when I *promised* her it would have a happy ending.

Of course a big part of that may also have been that we were 4 rows from the screen (the theatre was packed) so we were practically IN the film.

[yendi]

Elayna saw it with her grandparents, but neither she nor them reported any problems. The part that most worried me was the opening scene.

I didn't think the pace was bad, even for kids -- they interspersed enough of the Nemo scenes to slow the action down nicely, imho. Then again, we were solidly in the middle of the theatre. :-)

[edie22.livejournal.com]

This was an excellent movie. I'm glad you liked it. =)

[bouncepogo.livejournal.com]

Oh I am so jealous! I've been wanting to see that movie for weeks and no one will go with me. I'm on the verge of calling up a friend with kids and offering to take them to see it again. They'd probably like that.

If not, I may have to end up going alone. (Yick.)

[dreamcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Oh you need to see this movie on the big screen ~ I love going to the movies alone and just relaxing.

I hope get to see it!

[foxmagic.livejournal.com]

Even better is if you can see it in a DLP presentation! Digital display, with the film never once having touched anything analog... it's beauteous. :-D

[dreamcowgirl.livejournal.com]

I loved this movie so much and your review was excellent. I was reading it going yes that is right.

I saw a special on Pixar and the making of Nemo prior to the start for research the poor souls that work there had to go an island and go scruba diving for a month to watch the sea life and the way they moved and such. It was a very neat story about the movie I believe it was on 60 Minutes2.

I fell in love with Dori and Nemo of course is just so cute.

[yendi]

I'll keep an eye on the tv schedule to see when they rerun it (or maybe they'll just toss it on the DVD).

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I've only seen it the once and I desperately need to see it again. Fortunately it appears it has good sea-legs and will be at the box office for quite some time.

Wonderful film. I will go see anything Pixar does on general principle, but this is one of their best.

cheers,
Phil

[yendi]

Most of the major box-office sites are saying that it'll battle The Matrix Reloaded for the top spot this summer. Since tix to Nemo cost a lot less for some viewers, it'll be interesting to watch the battle.

[fiddledragon]

my favorite little joke is the reference to Turtle Wax. :)

[yendi]

:-) I liked that one (even if I'd seen it in the previews) -- it was a perfect example of the lines not being in your face -- an adult gets the reference, but a kid won't know that there was an extra meaning there -- it flowed perfectly into the dialog.

[yendi]

Yeep! For the record, that actually stemmed from my changing my stream of thought, not pure stupidity! But thanks for pointing it out -- it's fixed now.

[anonym00se.livejournal.com]

Damn! If I'd known you'd be all appreciative and shit, I wouldn't have posted anonym00sely.

[unwilly.livejournal.com]

Pssst, Ratzenberger was the school of fish, not the manta.

I knew you would love it.

Un
Sea Monkeys have my money

[dorukai.livejournal.com]

The highest praise I could give this movie? It's as good as a Miyazaki film.

That's . . . extraordinarily high praise. *shivers*

Definitely got to see it now.