Amazon.com Customer Reviews
Another Amazing Pixar Offering. - Review written on August 27, 2008
Rating: 5 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful.
I honestly thought the trend with movie companies was that when they have tremendous success with their first and second films they eventually begin to slide in quality. At least until they hit that next big pinnacle film that makes them a massive wad of cash. Pixar have done the impossible with Finding Nemo. As their 5th feature film Finding Nemo was equally as solid and original as its predecessors, and if anything it has surpassed them.
Set deep in the coral reef of Australia, a family of clown fish are one day attacked by a Barracuda leaving the Father Marlin and one egg. Flash forward a few years and that egg is a young clown fish named Nemo who's been raised by his overprotective Father. One day while at school and becoming tired of his dads suffocating ways, Nemo ignores his dads order to come away from a human boat. Nemo goes and touches the boat, but unfortunately it leads to Nemo being kidnapped by a diver, catching fish for a small aquarium. Nemo's dad Marlin must now set on a quest towards Sydney harbour to try and Find Nemo. Along the way he becomes friends with a Regal Tang fish called Dory who suffers from short term memory loss, but is still very optimistic. She joins Marlin in his quest to find Nemo, although Marlin does have to keep reminding her why she's with him. Along the way they encounter psychotic practising vegetarian sharks, deadly jellyfish and turtles riding the waves. Nemo on the other hand is trapped inside a small fish tank in a dentists surgery, he befriends the fish locked up with him and hopes for eventual help.
As you can see from the plot this is simply a formula of crazy success and pure hilarity. The formula works wonders and delivers a film not just beautiful to look at, but something to wet your pants with laughter. The companion Dory and the vegetarian sharks are just insanely unique and make this movie special in itself. Dory, voiced by Ellen Degeneres is just loveable and admirable with her unmeasurable optimism and her talent to speak whale. With the adventure of Marlin (Albert Brooks) & Dory on their quest the film also focuses on Nemo trying to break out of the tank before he's given to the dentists daughter as a pet. Led by the crafty Gill (Willem Defoe) and helped by the other tank fish, they hatch a plan which will allow Nemo his last chance of freedom.
I did mention that it was beautiful to look at and I wasn't kidding. The scale of the ocean is second to none, and the animators seem to be looking to display the true scale of their quest. The beginning reef scene is something to be witnessed and I can't imagine how cool it would look on Blu-Ray. This is a film with a script and plot with confidence, Pixar do what they do best and they give us a quality film that teaches us a good lesson about letting go when the time is right while still having the entire family in stitches.
The term family film is thrown around a lot when relating to Disney or other children's movies. I can honestly say that Finding Nemo is one of the only movies to fit that perfectly. It teaches the parents a lesson about knowing when to let their kids make their own mistakes, while showing the kids the importance of friendship and respect for our elders. It has the typical childish humour while throwing in the odd adult joke that will go straight over the kids heads.
A great film all round and I sincerely can't wait for it to be on Blu-Ray.
Great movie, but wa-a-a-a-a-ay too scary for little kids - Review written on May 24, 2008
Rating: 3 out of 5
2 customers found this review helpful, 3 did not.
I saw this movie in the theatre when it first came out, along with some friends and their six-year old son... By the end of the film, the kid was crying and visibly shaken, and my wife and I practically felt the same way. I recently vetted the film for a four-year old, and decided my first impression was right: this isn't a good movie for really little kids to watch.
"Finding Nemo" is a very intense film, both thematically and visually. The script is clever, but it works mostly on an adult level, and most little kids will probably experience the movie on a much more basic, gut level - the rapid-fire dialog will zoom over their heads, while the images and action may terrify them. And once the action starts, it hardly lets up for a second -- the film is a rollercoaster ride of anxiety and peril, "Bambi" to the Nth degree.
Which isn't to say it's not entertaining, intelligent or well made... It is, but I would strongly caution people with very young children to think twice before showing them this movie. It's really more appropriate for an older audience, maybe eight years of age and older...Younger than that and it may just be too scary. (ReadThatAgain children's media reviews)
FINDING FAMILY - Review written on March 13, 2008
Rating: 5 out of 5
Disney and Pixar have come together over the past few years to bring about a revolution in animated motion pictures. While many studios have faltered in their attempts or fallen back on trying to adapt anime as a way to make movies inexpensively, these two studios have taken a different route and joined the art of animation with cartoon storytelling.
The movie tells the story of Nemo, the only offspring of two clown fish raised along by his single father Marlin (Albert Brooks). Having lost his wife and hundreds of unhatched eggs to the sea, Marlin has been overprotective of little Nemo. And when Nemo rebels and is captured his first time out to the big ocean, it seems as though all of Marlin's fears were right.
Fearful of the ocean himself, Marlin must make a journey to find his son and save him. He heads out to sea not so much boldly and without fear as much as he does out of concern and love for his son.
Along the way, Marlin makes many new friends, among them another fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) who has short term memory but ends up being a help anyway and Crush, a cool dude sea turtle voiced by the films writer/director Andrew Stanton.
Nemo himself finds new friends as well. It appears that he was captured by a snorkeling dentist who intends to present him as a gift to his destructive niece. The other fish in the tank try and help Nemo to escape.
Word of Marlin's adventures as he searches for Nemo go so far as to reach Nemo's "ears". Marveling at the tales of his father's love, Nemo and the tank fish do all they can to escape. It's not until nearly the end of the picture that you find out if the father and son are reunited or if Nemo becomes just another fish tossed down the toilet bowl.
The humor in this film is so on the mark it's fantastic. Not only are there jokes that the kids can laugh at, but there are a few in jokes for parents to get as well. This path seemed to work well for animators in the heyday of cartooning in the 40s and plays well here too.
The animation is nothing short of phenomenal. The waves on the surface, the vibrant colors of the fish, all mingle together to form a feast for the eyes.
But beneath it all is something much more important. The rest is mere icing on the cake. Because at the heart of this movie is the story of two people, parent and child, who may not see eye to eye on all things. But the deep rooted love of that father for son is enough to make him forge ahead and do all within his power to protest and save the one most important thing in his life. His son.
Reports are coming in that this film was the highest box office successes of the summer it was released and it's easy to see why. It's because it works on all levels and appeals to every viewer out there. It is a movie that is one to watch again and again.
Average movie, awesome transfer to DVD - Review written on October 05, 2007
Rating: 4 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful.
It's strange how this movie divides people: Some consider it really good, while some others consider it too childish. I prefer to consider it average, measured by Pixar's standards. The image quality and DVD transfer, however, are awesome: As far as I know, this was transferred directly from the digital masters (not via film like most movies at that time), and Pixar was kind enough to make a "full-widescreen" framing for this DVD. That is, they chose to fill a 16:9 screen with the image, instead of leaving black bars to preserve the cinemascope aspect ratio (which is the case with all later Pixar releases). The image quality and detail, too, are so good that this is one of the best DVDs to put in your player if you really want to see the benefits of S-Video and Component Video connections over a Composite connection. Highly recommended if you own a Widescreen TV or projector and wish to take full advantage of all its expensive pixels.