The ocean is a big place, like a massive place. There’s so much going on down there, and a lot of it we don’t even know exists. Could you imagine losing something, or someone down there? Where would you even start to look? How do you traverse that kind of environment? By the early millennium Pixar had taken audiences from a child’s bedroom, to an ant nest, and into a world inhabited by monsters. Animated films set under the sea were nothing new, but Pixar wanted to convey just how unfathomably massive the ocean really is, and just how dangerous it can be for the unprepared.
Marlin (Albert Brooks) is an overprotective father of his only son, Nemo (Alexander Gould). Unwilling to even let Nemo attend school without his personal supervision, Marlin is haunted by the trauma of the death of his wife prior to Nemo’s birth. When a rebellious Nemo swims out in open water to prove a point to his father, he is kidnapped by divers. Teaming up with Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a charismatic but forgetful fish, Marlin embarks on a journey across the ocean to find his son. Meanwhile, Nemo finds himself befriending a number of tank raised fish who dream of escaping to the ocean, and with his help they might be able to pull it off.
Marlin (Albert Brooks) is an overprotective father of his only son, Nemo (Alexander Gould). Unwilling to even let Nemo attend school without his personal supervision, Marlin is haunted by the trauma of the death of his wife prior to Nemo’s birth. When a rebellious Nemo swims out in open water to prove a point to his father, he is kidnapped by divers. Teaming up with Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a charismatic but forgetful fish, Marlin embarks on a journey across the ocean to find his son. Meanwhile, Nemo finds himself befriending a number of tank raised fish who dream of escaping to the ocean, and with his help they might be able to pull it off.
Finding Nemo could probably be described as Pixar’s second massive success. Whilst in 2003 they hadn’t produced a film that was considered to be anything less than great, Finding Nemo remains Pixar’s second most successful film at the box office (behind Toy Story 3) and was the first Pixar film to win Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. It was the first Pixar film since Toy Story to feel like it changed the animated film industry, and its technological leaps for the medium are simply astonishing.
But the story is what everyone knows and loves so much about Finding Nemo. It’s a story that kids and adults alike can resonate with because it speaks so much to both demographics. Marlin’s plight to find his kidnapped son is thrilling for a child to watch, but gut wrenching for an adult. Whereas Nemo’s maturing into a capable and courageous leader is inspiring for children and sends a great message to parents that sometimes its necessary to allow your kids to do their own thing so they can grow and develop.
Watching Finding Nemo this time around I noticed just how fast paced the narrative is. Despite having the longest Pixar runtime to date at an hour and forty minutes, Finding Nemo moves at great speed all of the time. Every single scene is the perfect length where it doesn’t overstay its welcome but doesn’t feel like it’s been cut short either. Once Nemo is kidnapped, Marlin embarks on a journey that takes him from one action sequence to the next where he must overcome his fears and face seemingly impossible odds. Starting with the ‘Fish are Friends’ support group with the sharks Bruce (Barry Humphries), Anchor (Eric Bana), and Chum (Bruce Spence), before moving onto his encounter with the terrifying Angler Fish, crossing jellyfish trench, riding the East Australian Current with Crush (Andrew Stanton), being eaten by a whale, and finally being ferried away from some hungry seagulls by Nigel (Geoffrey Rush) the pelican. It’s an exhilarating adventure, and Marlin undergoes such a massive transformation from a nervous control freak to a confident and world wisened father.
Nemo meanwhile gets to come out of his shell and explore exactly what he is capable of in spite of his disability. It’s a rocky journey from over-confident, coddled child who wants to prove he’s self-sufficient, to grow into a practical thinker who knows how to ask for the right kind of help when he needs it.
But the story is what everyone knows and loves so much about Finding Nemo. It’s a story that kids and adults alike can resonate with because it speaks so much to both demographics. Marlin’s plight to find his kidnapped son is thrilling for a child to watch, but gut wrenching for an adult. Whereas Nemo’s maturing into a capable and courageous leader is inspiring for children and sends a great message to parents that sometimes its necessary to allow your kids to do their own thing so they can grow and develop.
Watching Finding Nemo this time around I noticed just how fast paced the narrative is. Despite having the longest Pixar runtime to date at an hour and forty minutes, Finding Nemo moves at great speed all of the time. Every single scene is the perfect length where it doesn’t overstay its welcome but doesn’t feel like it’s been cut short either. Once Nemo is kidnapped, Marlin embarks on a journey that takes him from one action sequence to the next where he must overcome his fears and face seemingly impossible odds. Starting with the ‘Fish are Friends’ support group with the sharks Bruce (Barry Humphries), Anchor (Eric Bana), and Chum (Bruce Spence), before moving onto his encounter with the terrifying Angler Fish, crossing jellyfish trench, riding the East Australian Current with Crush (Andrew Stanton), being eaten by a whale, and finally being ferried away from some hungry seagulls by Nigel (Geoffrey Rush) the pelican. It’s an exhilarating adventure, and Marlin undergoes such a massive transformation from a nervous control freak to a confident and world wisened father.
Nemo meanwhile gets to come out of his shell and explore exactly what he is capable of in spite of his disability. It’s a rocky journey from over-confident, coddled child who wants to prove he’s self-sufficient, to grow into a practical thinker who knows how to ask for the right kind of help when he needs it.
But Finding Nemo isn’t all serious and dramatic regardless of how it sounds. It has that trademark Pixar humour in spades, and is arguably their funniest film up to that point. Sharks that have a support group about not eating fish, a character that can’t remember anything for longer than a few minutes, and the hilariously stupid seagulls populate Marlin’s story, whilst Nemo gets a bunch of bickering oddballs that have begun to develop personality disorders as a result of being stuck in the same few feet of water for their entire lives.
It's tough to pick out a character that steals the show because they’re all so great, even if they aren’t in the film for very long. Most people would probably say Dory, and it’s hard not to find Dory incredibly endearing because she’s so kind of heart and DeGeneres is naturally extremely funny, but there are times where I feel the whole ‘short term memory loss’ was leaned on a little too hard for comedy’s sake and she became mildly irritating. The fact that she was popular enough to get her own spin-off sequel should be a good indicator of that.
But I want to highlight the amazing supporting cast of characters like Nigel, Bruce, and Peach (Allison Janney) that are often overlooked when people gush praise about Finding Nemo because it’s these people that marlin & Nemo meet on their journey’s that really make the story as amazing as it is.
Watching Finding Nemo in 2022 I had tempered expectations, as I always do when watching older computer animated films, that the quality of the animation as going to look extremely dated. But Finding Nemo surprised me in that it seems to have stayed reasonably timeless, perhaps a first for computer animation. A lot of this comes down to how the characters are animated. With big eyes and few harsh edges, characters in Finding Nemo are, well, cute. That factor goes a long way in making something ageless, but that doesn’t mean they lack detail. The sea turtles for example have unique patterns and detailed grooves and scratches on their shells. The way characters move is incredibly realistic too, with a particular favourite of mine being the jellyfish, whose stingers gracefully and weightlessly float behind them, the slightest disturbance causing them to ripple or wave.
But the water is the real star of the show here. Never before has water been animated so painstakingly realistically. You wouldn’t notice it’s there most of the time, just this blueish background that the entire film has. But the way that light has been placed within scenes means that it moves with the invisible currents of water, it bends and flickers, it’s always soft and gives things a gentle glow. Contrast this to the tank that Nemo spends most of the film in, that water is brilliantly clear, and the light is much harsher with fewer instances of this waving effect due to the decreased volume of water and the closer proximity of light sources. Finally, there’s the effect of water on dry surfaces, or surface water. It glistens and shimmers, once again the light moving in conjunction with waves or ripples. Wet objects also shine, they drip, they leave puddles behind them. This kind of detail is unprecedented in computer animation for 2003, and even now water is rarely given this much attention. But it’s all necessary because of how important water is to the story.
The only times Finding Nemo shows its age are when human characters are put front and centre. Skin is smooth and lacks significant detail and movements are comparatively stiff to how the sea creatures move. Thankfully it’s extremely rare that this happens, but even then, it’s not any worse than Andy in Toy Story 2 for example.
I’d also like to highlight Thomas Newman’s amazing score, particularly ‘Lost’ the song that plays in the immediate aftermath of Nemo’s kidnapping, and then comes around again later on when Nemo must rescue Dory. The whole soundtrack to Finding Nemo is incredibly impressive though and it fits so well with that feeling of being underwater.
Finding Nemo is another masterpiece from the folks at Pixar, and considering this was Andrew Stanton’s directorial debut it laid out a very promising career for him. Unlike Toy Story, Finding Nemo’s sheen has worn off for me over the years, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it for how incredible it is. It’s not a Pixar film I can just stick on, I need to be in the right mood for it. It’ll make you laugh, cry, scream in fear, and jump for joy. Finding Nemo is a truly special piece of film history, and undoubtebly one of Pixar’s all-time greats.
It's tough to pick out a character that steals the show because they’re all so great, even if they aren’t in the film for very long. Most people would probably say Dory, and it’s hard not to find Dory incredibly endearing because she’s so kind of heart and DeGeneres is naturally extremely funny, but there are times where I feel the whole ‘short term memory loss’ was leaned on a little too hard for comedy’s sake and she became mildly irritating. The fact that she was popular enough to get her own spin-off sequel should be a good indicator of that.
But I want to highlight the amazing supporting cast of characters like Nigel, Bruce, and Peach (Allison Janney) that are often overlooked when people gush praise about Finding Nemo because it’s these people that marlin & Nemo meet on their journey’s that really make the story as amazing as it is.
Watching Finding Nemo in 2022 I had tempered expectations, as I always do when watching older computer animated films, that the quality of the animation as going to look extremely dated. But Finding Nemo surprised me in that it seems to have stayed reasonably timeless, perhaps a first for computer animation. A lot of this comes down to how the characters are animated. With big eyes and few harsh edges, characters in Finding Nemo are, well, cute. That factor goes a long way in making something ageless, but that doesn’t mean they lack detail. The sea turtles for example have unique patterns and detailed grooves and scratches on their shells. The way characters move is incredibly realistic too, with a particular favourite of mine being the jellyfish, whose stingers gracefully and weightlessly float behind them, the slightest disturbance causing them to ripple or wave.
But the water is the real star of the show here. Never before has water been animated so painstakingly realistically. You wouldn’t notice it’s there most of the time, just this blueish background that the entire film has. But the way that light has been placed within scenes means that it moves with the invisible currents of water, it bends and flickers, it’s always soft and gives things a gentle glow. Contrast this to the tank that Nemo spends most of the film in, that water is brilliantly clear, and the light is much harsher with fewer instances of this waving effect due to the decreased volume of water and the closer proximity of light sources. Finally, there’s the effect of water on dry surfaces, or surface water. It glistens and shimmers, once again the light moving in conjunction with waves or ripples. Wet objects also shine, they drip, they leave puddles behind them. This kind of detail is unprecedented in computer animation for 2003, and even now water is rarely given this much attention. But it’s all necessary because of how important water is to the story.
The only times Finding Nemo shows its age are when human characters are put front and centre. Skin is smooth and lacks significant detail and movements are comparatively stiff to how the sea creatures move. Thankfully it’s extremely rare that this happens, but even then, it’s not any worse than Andy in Toy Story 2 for example.
I’d also like to highlight Thomas Newman’s amazing score, particularly ‘Lost’ the song that plays in the immediate aftermath of Nemo’s kidnapping, and then comes around again later on when Nemo must rescue Dory. The whole soundtrack to Finding Nemo is incredibly impressive though and it fits so well with that feeling of being underwater.
Finding Nemo is another masterpiece from the folks at Pixar, and considering this was Andrew Stanton’s directorial debut it laid out a very promising career for him. Unlike Toy Story, Finding Nemo’s sheen has worn off for me over the years, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it for how incredible it is. It’s not a Pixar film I can just stick on, I need to be in the right mood for it. It’ll make you laugh, cry, scream in fear, and jump for joy. Finding Nemo is a truly special piece of film history, and undoubtebly one of Pixar’s all-time greats.