Finding Nemo
Year: 2003
Rating: G
Length: 100 minutes / 1.67 hours
It’s funny how your perspective on movies changes as you shift into new life stages. Growing up, Finding Nemo (2003) was entertaining because of the adventure Marlin (Albert Brooks) went on to save his son. Decades later, I can resonate with Marlin’s desire to save his child because I now have children of my own. Of course, this still doesn’t change the core lesson that Marlin learns, which is to not be quite the helicopter parent and let Nemo (Alexander Gould) explore the world on his own.
As with most Pixar films from their early era, Finding Nemo looks great. It has a fine balance between being “cartoonish” and the realism that computers could produce. Taking a break from Randy Newman soundtracks did this movie a great service, as his cousin Thomas Newman’s score fits so well with the otherworldly ocean atmosphere. The variety of characters and voice actors fit their roles in the story superbly well, and it was fun to see the contrast between creatures in the ocean compared to the ones kept in a dentist office’s fish tank.
Perhaps my only qualm with the movie comes from my perspective as a parent. While Marin isn’t necessarily right for controlling so much of Nemo’s life, parents put boundaries on their children to protect them. Fortunately, Nemo also figures this out by the end of the movie as both clownfish grow either less protective or more trusting of the boundaries, respectively. It’s great that Marlin would go to such lengths for his only son, but it also would have been a much shorter movie if Nemo had understood some rules were there for his safety.
A visually fantastic film with lessons for parents and kids, I give Finding Nemo 4.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
This film appears in the following posts:
Cinema Connections #259. Andrew Stanton
Cinema Connections #260. Pixar
