Finding Nemo (**1/2)
review by Jon Waterman

Marlin, a single dad clown fish, travels through the ocean to search for his only son, Nemo. The evil humans captured Nemo, and Marlin won’t stop until he’s found the only thing he has to live for. Along the way, they both encounter some wacky and scary creatures of the deep that both guide and hinder their progress in reuniting. Can Marlin get to his son again? Is Nemo destined to spend a life in captivity?

Pixar is back and at its worst in their latest installment of fun family movies. It’s not that the movie is bad, because actually it’s not. However, Pixar has come forward with hit after hit, producing wonderful stories, and thus has built themselves a huge reputation. The bar has been raised to a pretty high level. Also, knowing that years of work go into animating and story writing, and to have it come out as mediocre as it did was a bit of a let down. So, what went wrong?

First, I think the writing was just off. Like I said, it’s not bad, per se, just…off. The script (by Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds) told a decent story full of life and adventure. However, it really lacks in the joke department. Perhaps I’m being too harsh, since it does not necessarily have to be a comedy to be a family picture. They try to make it funny. They succeed at times, but the majority of the jokes are too obvious for any parent in the audience to laugh and could actually be over the head of most children watching as well. The real humor comes not from any fish related observation, but from normal character quirks.

I’m surprised it’s not funnier considering some of the stars involved. The leads are played by Albert Brooks (Marlin), who is notorious for his improvisation and Ellen DeGeneres (Dory, the fish with a bad short-term memory), a professional stand-up comedienne. There are also great comedic actors and stand-up people in the supporting cast. Brad Garrett, Vicki Lewis and the incredible Stephen Root. Oh, and Eric Bana who is much better in this than he was in “The Hulk” (even though I couldn’t have told you which character he was). With all these people capable of enhancing the existing script, why was it not funnier? If wishes were fishes.

As far as the animation goes, of course, it looks great. Pixar is by far the premiere computer animation studio. It shows up in the details. I do have a couple of complaints, though. First, the humans were a little too cartoony for me. The divers that caught Nemo were fine, but after that, they were dopey things. I’m sure it was on purpose and part of the subconscious effect or whatever, but it didn’t work for me. My other small gripe was the considerable lack of scales. We all know fish have them, but they weren’t part of the characters. Perhaps the technology isn’t quite there yet. Other wise, the film looks amazing. The little specks floating around in the water, the lighting and all the other little things add to the great looking scenery.

As much as I complained about the film, it was fun. The kids will love it, but it may be best on video, due to the nearly two-hour running time. I didn’t expect much out of “Finding Nemo,” based on the previews (even though I’ve come to expect a lot out of Pixar). I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed myself to some extent. Overall, worth the money and time, but don’t expect anything that will blow you out of the water.

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