Movie Title: Finding Nemo

Movie Title: Finding Nemo
Rating: 5
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens

Review:

You know I have to mention the fact that this is a Pixar made movie, and that the bar has been set pretty high with their previous creations in the Toy Story films and most recently, Monsters, Inc. Throw in all the hype, and I was set for the greatest animated film of all time! Boy was I disappointed.

Of course the film is just like what the title says, Finding Nemo, where Nemo (Alexander Gould) is a young clownfish, and the one doing the finding is his dad Marlin (Albert Brooks, Out of Sight). You see Marlin is a bit overprotective of his lone offspring after his wife and all their eggs (except one) were devoured by a predator, and this overprotective ness leads Nemo to rebel. His rebellion goes terribly wrong when he gets caught by some dentist (Bill Hunter, Kangaroo Jack) from Sydney and ends up in a fish tank at the office. So now the cowardly Marlin sets off to get his son back and runs into another fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres, The Love Letter), who has a problem with her short-term memory. Despite his reservations about this absent-minded fish, Marlin allows Dory to come along and help find his son. With that the two head off on an adventure that involves sharks, sea turtles, sea gulls, jellyfish, sea currents, and even a sunken submarine. Meanwhile, Nemo is meeting new friends in the fish tank and attempting to escape before the dentist’s niece (LuLu Ebeling) comes to visit, since that means almost certain death. These pals, led by old-timer Gill (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man), take a liking to the young ocean born feller and help Nemo in his escape attempts. Then on top of it all, you have the underlying moral story about both Marlin and Nemo finding themselves, while learning to understand each other by means of their separation. All the while we are subjected to lots of little jokes, some of which were mildly amusing.

Some others lending their voice to this Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich directed film are Brad Garrett, Vicki Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, Elizabeth Perkins, Eric Bana, Allison Janney, Joe Ranft, Bob Peterson, and a few others. Besides directing, Mr. Stanton also wrote the screenplay and was the voice of one of the characters.

Even if you eliminate the high expectations, Finding Nemo really is not that funny. And most importantly, it really does not have all the adult geared jokes that have made other Pixar films enjoyable for the parents. The graphics are great, the film looks good, the story is interesting, but there just are not enough laughs to make for a good. That said, I could only give Finding Nemo five couches out of ten.

Good bye.