Finding Nemo (Blu-Ray)

-How about we play a game?
- All right.
-Okay, I'm thinking of something orange, and it's small...
- It's me.
- Right!

General Information

Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
Writers: Andrew Stanton (original story by), Andrew Stanton (screenplay) 
Cast:
Albert Brooks - Marlin (voice)
Ellen DeGeneres - Dory (voice)
Alexander Gould - Nemo (voice)
Willem Dafoe - Gill (voice)
Brad Garrett - Bloat (voice)
Allison Janney - Peach (voice)
LuLu Ebeling - Darla (voice)
Genres: Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family
Country: USA
Language: English
Budget: $94 000 000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $70 251 710 (USA) (30 May 2003)
Runtime: 100 min

How it was Created

Finding Nemo is a creative project of two giants of animation industry, Pixar and Walt Disney. Having been released 13 years ago, the movie attracted both usual viewers and captious critics. Marketing forecasts did not predict such success to the story about the lost anemonefish who is searched by his father who, in his turn, gets in numerous interesting and dangerous situations. Nevertheless, the cartoon exceeded the success and box-office receipts of the legend, Lion King, gathering over $70mil. of pure cash and receiving the Oscar as the Best Animation Film.

General Thoughts

In my opinion, the movie is a rare case of a successful work that is harmonious from all sides, including technical side and the narration of the plot. I should point out that these both components are equally developed. I cannot say that graphics received more attention of the director than the main characters. No. Everything is very well thought-out.

Animation

As for me, animation in this movie is beyond praise. The biggest achievement of the animators is the creation of a very realistic ocean, which is home to various kinds of fish and sea plants. Everything looks very natural. I also liked the detailed representation of small, so to say, unimportant elements of the underwater flora and fauna, though these details should not attract the attention of the viewers. So, I can state that there is no slapdash in the work of animators. You can just see the logo of creators and understand that it is a high-quality mark.

Besides the ocean, I should emphasize the detailed representation of the images of heroes, both main and secondary ones. All of them have clear human mimicry, due to which we can understand what feelings are in the soul of this or that character. 
One of the best achievements of animators, to my mind, is the shark called Bruce, a very colourful and bright image.

Variety of the Characters

The characters of the heroes are developed very well too. The creators show us the world seen by the eyes of Marlin. And we see how this small fish perceives the ocean world with its many-sided peculiarities, including sharks- vegetarians (who stand for the modern community of anonymous drinkers), funny turtles who are full of joy and energy that pierces through the ocean. All characters are unique and charismatic, especially those in the aquarium by the dentist: some fishes, sea-star, and French shrimp. Some of them were so funny in gestures and movements that I wanted to watch some funny moments over and over again. Yes, it is time to precede to humorous parts:)

Humour

As for humour, first of all, I should say that the whole story is developing around the father and the son, Marlin and Nemo. After Nemo traps in the arms of 'hunters' at the very beginning, he finds a friendly company of underwater creatures who entertain the viewers with constant jokes, while Marlin (Nemo's father) has one friend, a funny fish called Dory, who suffers from sclerosis, but is indeed very friendly. Despite you get a bit tired from this small blue fish, the overall impression about it is very positive:)

People in the Movie

I am only talking about fish and fish; let's look at human characters in the cartoon. The creators also introduce a very specific character, a sadist-girl Darla. You know, through the whole movie, full of jokes and gags, I have never laughed so much as when Darla appeared. It seems, she appears in two episodes; not to tell about the music reminding some Hitchcock's film at the moment Darla appears on the screen, and the close-up of her face with terrible braces. Ahh..instead of thriller in the evening:)

The Plot

Someone may underestimate the plot of the film, saying it is a poor story about a broken-hearted father looking for his wilful son. But such person will be wrong. Everyone of us can put himself on the place of Nemo or his father, lost or searching. The creator try to lead us to various moralizing postulates, such as "no pains, no gains", and they are doing it unobtrusively and with humour. The movie is not highly dramatic; thus, it is very easy to watch. All in all, every film teaches us some lesson, and Finding Nemo is not an exception.

Price & Availability

It costs about £12 on Amazon, but you can save some money and order it on GameSeek for just £8.08.

Interesting Facts

• Animators studied face expressions of dogs, paying close attention to their eyes in order to liven the fish characters and make their face expressions more emotional.
• The names of two main turtles are the names of two popular American citrus soda brands, Crush and Squirt.
• Darla received the name in honour of the producer of Pixar, Darla K. Anderson.
• The dentist's cabinet was designed according to the real dentist room situated in the same building with Pixar.
• The creators were afraid that after watching the movie, children could wish to set their home fish free, flushing them in the toilet. Therefore, the company engaged in filtering and cleaning sewage water spread a warning about the fact that waste water goes through filtering that destroys all hard objects in it. And only after that, it reaches the ocean. The company concluded that in the reality, the movie should be called "Blending Nemo". Moreover, some water treatment plants and plumbing companies in the USA even received calls from parents who wanted to find out if there was any way to rescue a flushed fish. Unfortunately, as one water plant operator from California answered, the chance of a flushed fish making it to the ocean are "essentially zero to none." This fact is not imaginary, by the way. You can find it in world news, like CNN, for instance.
• The movie is dedicated to the memory of Glenn McQueen (1960-2002), animator of Pixar.

To Sum Up

To conclude, the movie turned out to be very beautiful, colour full, and funny. It is very kind as well. The movie evokes a wide range of emotions, from happiness to sadness. Every creation of Pixar and Disney teaches us some lesson. This time, the movie calls to love your nearest and dearest and show them that no distance can eliminate this feeling. It stays in the memory after watching, So, I certainly recommend it!

Thanks for reading my review!

"Just keep swimming".


This review can be also found on Ciao under my nickname AliceBond.