Finding Nemo (2003)

For once the celebrity voice talent in a modern animated feature—Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney, some others—worked pretty well for me in Finding Nemo, although I kept hearing DeGeneres as Kristen Wiig for some reason, which may or may not speak to cross-influences there. I don’t know. Director Andrew Stanton is also surprisingly good as the voice of a surfer dude sea turtle named Crush. As with Up (or the Pixar flagship Toy Story for that matter), the main story in Finding Nemo is built to contain a lot of natural resonance and emotional touchpoints: after a family tragedy has left the fish named Marlin (Brooks) with only his son Nemo (Alexander Gould) he is unnaturally protective of Nemo, but then in another accident they are separated. The movie is about their search to reunite. Marlin is joined in his quest by Dory (DeGeneres), who has a short-term memory disorder. Nemo in turn is also disabled, with an underdeveloped fin on one side. Representation of disability is thus another strength of this picture. But also like Up for me, I was ultimately more entertained, surprised, and cheered by the comedy. The chemistry between Marlin and Dory, between Brooks and DeGeneres, is rich, sharp, funny, and executed well. Another good gag is the depiction of those airborne bottom-feeders, the seagulls, whose relentless drilling screeching is reduced here to calls of “Mine! Mine!” So Finding Nemo has a lot of good laughs and that should not be missed about it. Still, with that said, it also made me cry so mission accomplished on that front too. It is working pretty well on all its intended emotional levels. I missed Finding Nemo when it was new and by the time I was more aware of it and Pixar (let’s say around the time of Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Up) it looked a little too sicky-sweet sentimental for me. Yes, even for me, or so I told myself. But while Finding Nemo is indeed guilty of all these feel-good elements it is never particularly cringey. And it can also be very funny. And you know the animation is going to be first-rate. Plus the story is tender in many nice ways. Now I’m taking the position that I’m officially dubious about the 2016 sequel, Finding Dory. If that’s a good one too, somebody please let me know so I don’t have to spend the next 13 or whatever years avoiding it.