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'Finding Nemo'

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Starring: Alexander Gould, Erica Beck, Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Geoffrey Rush
Director: Andrew Stanton
MPAA rating: G for General Audiences
Running time: 101 minutes
Release date: May 30
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'Nemo' swims with the tide of current issues

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By Matt Thompson
Austin360

Posted: May 28, 2003

Perhaps it's a measure of fatigue, brought on by elevated terror alerts of various hues and daily updates on the advancement of SARS and crime and various other epidemics, but it's hard not to see a sort of modern-day allegory in "Finding Nemo," a wonderfully written and vividly created anxiety attack of an animated motion picture.

We, as a nation, are wound a little tight these days.

Almost undoubtedly, I overreach. It is, at its base level, a cartoon -- albeit one eons removed from anything Papa Disney ever imagined as a possibility.

But it's there, nonetheless: All the anxiety parents have felt since 9/11, as they walk that balance between showing their children the wonders of the world and teaching them to keep an eye peeled for the next encroaching danger -- real or imagined.

In "Finding Nemo," the main character, a clownfish named Marlin voiced by Albert Brooks (who works in neurosis the way Rembrandt worked in oil), is touched by tragedy early in the show, as his wife and all but one of their nested eggs are wiped out in a barracuda attack that can best be described as "jarring."

Marlin's reaction to his tragedy is an overwhelming desire to protect his sole remaining offspring, a son "Nemo," given his wife's favorite name.

This overprotective quality leads to a minor rebellion, which leads to Nemo's capture by a skindiver off the coast of Australia.

Armed only with an address on the back of a lost diver's mask (some fish read human, apparently), and joined in his quest by a Regal (if forgetful) Blue Tang voiced by Ellen Degeneres (also spot-on perfect in the role), Marlin makes for Sydney, in the process encountering just about every danger and thrill he ever warned his son about -- plus a few he didn't.

Meanwhile his son, who winds up in a fish tank in a dentist's office, awaits a likely doom at the hands of the dentist's hyperkinetic niece. So he bands together with his fellow tank residents in a series of schemes to escape their confines.

Along the way you get some priceless comedy. By that I mean stuff Monty Python would be envious of. Lesser films get jokes by somebody passing gas. Films like "Nemo" get jokes from events that lead up to somebody thinking somebody passes gas. It's a rare distinction, but you'll get it when you see it.

You also get plenty of thrills and oodles of chills -- and enough of the latter to make me hesitate to recommend this film to people with really young children.

By cartoon standards, the level of violence is nothing groundbreaking. But even in the most vividly-drawn cartoons, there is a storybook quality that softens the impact of, say, a shark chase.

The computer graphics in this case have come so far, that while clearly the whole thing is fanciful, it's almost uncomfortably close to reality. Frankly, I got a little startled at a couple scenes and I've seen "Pulp Fiction" like, 10 times.

It's all played for laughs of course and ends up well (as you'd assume). It's just a word of caution for those with more sensitive youngsters. (Or am I just being overprotective myself? Hmmm. Irony abounds.)

"Nemo" really is a great movie. The voices (which include Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney, Stephen Root, Geoffrey Rush and Brad Garrett) are all excellent, the story moves along nicely, the jokes -- as noted -- are state-of-the-art. And the animation? It really is a gorgeous, gorgeous way to fill a screen.

Kids will like it for the sight gags and colorful pictures. Grown-ups will love the jokes (with the added bonus of playing the "Whose voice is that?" game with the grown-up that came with you).

Social allegory? Again, probably a stretch. But hey, it's got value even so.

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