Finding Nemo is a remarkable movie. I feel like it was a kind of watershed for Pixar. When it came out, it was the height of their storytelling and animation prowess -Pixar was bigger than Disney Animation, where films were beginning to falter, and Finding Nemo was certainly their best looking film yet. It also felt like the right combination of all the elements that made for a perfect Pixar movie. And as a Pixar movie, for a while, it was my favourite.
Marlin the clownfish is an overbearing, overprotective father to his young son Nemo, stemming from the loss of Nemo’s mother and all his siblings when he was an infant (yeah this movie goes there!). And all of Marlin’s worst fears come true when Nemo is fished out of the ocean by a scuba diver. While Nemo winds up imprisoned in an Australian dentist’s fish tank, Marlin embarks on a foolhardy journey across the southern Pacific ocean determined to find his son, aided by a friendly blue tang with short-term memory loss called Dory.
Directed by Andrew Stanton, who’s also credited with the story, Finding Nemo has the relatively simple plot of a father trying to find his lost son. But from this basic set-up the details are allowed to be exotic. Marlin and Dory’s journey is somewhat episodic as they go from one dangerous circumstance to another, from a shark support group to a bloom of jellyfish, to even being consumed by a whale. Yet each builds on one another in terms of the central goal and character growth. And with each danger, there’s more urgency and it’s all the more trying on Marlin. Movies about the search for a lost family member are nothing new, but Finding Nemo in my opinion, is the best of them. It takes care to emphasize the relationship between Marlin and Nemo early on so that you feel their bond despite them spending most of the film apart. That father-son bond is incredibly strong, and much like another favourite animated character of mine, Mrs. Brisby from The Secret of NIMH, Marlin’s willingness to face terrors in order to save his loved one is wonderfully affecting. And when Pixar’s got a clear emotional hook, they’ll use it to its fullest. The opening of this movie is easily Pixar’s most heart-wrenching until Up. I’m impressed in the fact that it has the boldness to not only kill off the mother (standard Disney practice of course), but nearly all of her forty children in a barracuda attack. They’re newly hatched eggs so the film can get away with it, but it’s still a bunch of dead fish babies. However what impresses me more is that following this, when Marlin finds the last frail egg and promises to protect him, we’re given all we need to know about his character before the title even appears. Every choice and judgement on Marlin’s part here on out is understandable, and you instantly relate and sympathize with him. It’s insanely good set-up.
Unlike previous Pixar movies, Finding Nemo didn’t rely on big names for its casting. Albert Brooks is the closest to a professional voice actor hired to play the lead in a Pixar movie, due to his numerous guest roles on The Simpsons. He is brilliant as Marlin, selling every line of panic and pathos alike. And of course being Brooks, he gets more than a few funny moments. Marlin’s arc is very well done too. Even though he’s proven right in his fears when Nemo is taken, his journey still sees him learn the importance of letting children be free. “You can’t not let anything happen to him, otherwise nothing will ever happen to him” as Dory says more cleverly than she realizes. Marlin also gradually learns how his own hang-ups and overbearing fearful nature can drastically impact others: Nemo of course in inspiring his defiance, but also Dory, who was harmed for his inability to trust her. That relationship is a very important one, as much as his relationship with Nemo. Dory really needs his companionship and the sense of purpose this quest gives her. It’s possible her naiveté and condition is what keeps him concerned for her, and their friendship develops naturally. Dory’s the breakout character of this movie and though I like Marlin more, she is very endearing. Though initially coming off as a comic relief character with a gimmick, she really grows on you. Part of this is due to Ellen DeGeneres’ energetic yet caring performance which does a good job conveying how lost and sad this character is behind the bubbly personality. By the end, Dory has one of the most moving scenes in the whole film, as she attempts to relate the importance this journey had on her. It’s the first time the memory loss is shown as something she seriously struggles with, and it is fantastic.
Nemo is alright. As far as kid characters go, he’s not a great portrayal nor a horrible one. Actor Alexander Gould gets all the emotions down right. You get that the combination of Marlin’s overprotectiveness and his disadvantaged fin have fostered a need to prove himself, and we see that executed well. Nemo’s story is good and very funny, if not as driven and dramatic as Marlin’s. The biggest tension comes from the impending threat of Darla, who was freaky when I was younger, though now I just feel sorry for her. But there are moments of excitement, and colourful side characters. Willem Defoe is appropriately tough and brooding as the leader fish Gill, an intentional parallel to Nemo in his fin deficiency. Allison Janney is as sassy as ever as Peach the starfish; Brad Garrett plays the puffer-fish Bloat, Austin Pendleton plays the germophobe Gurgle, Vicki Lewis plays the paranoid Deb, Stephen Root does his Office Space thing as Bubbles, and Joe Ranft is the French shrimp Jacques because no better French name exists apparently. Geoffrey Rush is great as Nigel, a pelican who frequently flies into the dentists’ window to talk to the fish. I love that his relating all Marlin’s exploits is what inspires Nemo to fulfil his arc, essentially marking the first time Marlin’s brought out the best in Nemo. The additional supporting cast includes Elizabeth Perkins as Marlin’s short-lived mate Coral, comedian Barry Humphries as Bruce the shark with monstrous teeth and a Jaws in-joke name, Bruce Spence and a pre-fame Eric Bana as his fellow sharks, Bob Peterson again proving his voice acting range as Mr. Ray, Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle as one of Nemo’s school friends, and Andrew Stanton himself as Crush, the stoner sea turtle. I like that both Bruce and Crush are somewhat iconic characters of this film, but appear only in small doses, which is for the best. Crush would become annoying after not too long if he stuck around. Also, John Ratzenberger as a school of fish is still pretty hilarious.
This movie, despite showing all the dangers in the ocean, from jellyfish to sharks in undersea minefields, still manages to make its environment beautiful and wonderful. The animation on the ocean is so good, benefiting terrifically from the CG and conveying the undersea world in ways something like The Little Mermaid had no ability to. And while this film is populated by a ton of marketable characters, they are all based on real fish and other animals, actually looking like them too. Even minor characters are interesting or funny, like the crabs fighting over what comes out of the sewer, the hungry seagulls shouting “mine”, or any of the fish in that great montage of Marlin’s story travelling along ahead of him. The texture is richer, the characters are better looking than in any Pixar movie yet, moving around like real fish, and the energy’s engaging while coherent. Apart from maybe a couple transitions between storylines, this is a well paced movie, knowing when to take time for an important character moment. One Newman is switched out for another, as Randy is replaced by Thomas for the first time on a Pixar movie. His score is very evocative, lively, sweet, but also grim when it needs to be. That dull and hopeless accompaniment as Marlin tries to catch up to the boat is great.
The running gags in this movie I actually really like: both Marlin’s attempt to tell a joke, and the bit about him being a clownfish but not very funny. Although Dory’s “just keep swimming” song has always been a little irritating, some of the other jokes that come out of her memory loss work (it’s worth noting she brings up her parents and asks “where are they?” which would of course become the central point of this films’ sequel Finding Dory). I love the idea of vegetarian sharks having an AA organization and Bruce’s weird The Shining reference. Speaking of references, Dory was clearly hearkening back to Looney Tunes with the little jellyfish she named Squishy, and it’s always amusing when she keeps referring to Nemo by the name of a different Marx brother. The final gag where the tank fish succeed in their escape plan now to be on the ocean, but stuck in plastic bags, is also a great wordless punchline.
I’ve only got two problems with this film. The first is the blatantly misleading statement “all drains lead to the ocean” when Gill reveals his earlier attempt to escape via toilet. This may be partially true if you live near a harbour like in the film, but nowhere else. Pixar was powerful by this point, and the movies’ portrayal of fish longing for the ocean and being miserable in a tank, led to many kids flushing their poor pet fishes down the toilet. My other issue is the second climax where just as Marlin and Nemo are reunited, a school of groupers are caught in a fishing net and Nemo and Dory have to help them out. On the one hand I get why Stanton included it, so that Nemo can prove himself now to Marlin, but it feels largely unnecessary. Both characters have learned over the course of the movie; Marlin’s coming to terms with the ramifications of trying to control his son should be enough that he trusts him more in the future without needing to see Nemo save a bunch of fish first-hand. It’s not bad, just not very cohesive with the story at hand.
But even before that ending, Finding Nemo earned the right to add something dispensable. And even that scene concluded with a moving callback. Finding Nemo was certainly an important film for Pixar’s direction in the years that followed. It was their first movie that while very funny, had a serious tone about it throughout the entire runtime. And I’ll argue it’s still one of the studio’s absolute best. I love this film, it’s among my favourite animated movies, it’s my favourite father-son relationship movie, and it’s one of the Pixar movies I return to most over the years; and I really hope you do too.
Knick Knack is another relic from Pixar’s early days, having originally been made in 1989, and you can tell based on the VeggieTales look of its animation. In what’s clearly a theme of John Lasseter’s, a snowman stuck in a snow globe wants to hang out with some tropical decorations, and especially an attractive lady decoration. He makes a number of attempts to get out of his snow globe, only to accidentally push it off the shelf, free himself through an exit on the bottom, and land in a fish bowl (I see why they chose this short to accompany Finding Nemo). Just as he’s about to get to know a mermaid figure in the bowl, the globe falls right back on top of him. I love how this short is essentially just a big homage to Chuck Jones cartoons, particularly Wile E. Coyote in the snowmans’ elaborate schemes. It’s completely funny, the Snowman’s expressive enough, and it’s just all round charming. More than Luxo Jr., this is the short I would have pointed to as a sign of Pixar’s early promise, even if it is tonally quite different from what Pixar’s become known for. Maybe it’s just me, and a snowman with a welding torch is the kind of thing that just pushes the right buttons, but I definitely recommend it.
Next Week: The Incredibles (2004)
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