Finding Nemo

Even though it wasn't the first Pixar movie, it stood out to me as being one of the most important to come out.  It came out when I was a teenager, and it was the movie that really showed me that children's movies didn't have to be just for kids.  It was super popular with everyone in my age group.  Plus, it came out during a time when classic Disney animation was really at a low point (this was the time of Brother Bear, Home on the Range, and Chicken Little), so Pixar was getting a lot of attention for actually being... well, good.

I have to admit that I'm usually much more into the story and the characters than the details like the animation and the music, but the graphics and the art in this movie are just amazingly gorgeous.  I notice every time I watch it how bright and amazing the colors are, and they have a great backdrop for it - all of the coral reef, brightly colored fish, and sea life.

The beginning of the movie is pretty heartbreaking, and I always cry when Coral dies.  In that sense it's kind of in the style of some of the traditional Disney films, with a parent being dead early on in the film.  It's a rough way to start, but it gets you emotional right from the beginning.

I think the thing that makes this such a great movie is the characters.  There are so many fun, lively characters with great personalities.  You have the cute, innocent, and hardheaded Nemo, Marlin, who's totally paranoid, and of course Dory, unbelievably forgetful and hilarious.  Throw in an amazing bunch of secondary characters, such as Crush, Bruce, and the tank fish in the dentist's office, and you just have a great bunch of characters that keep you laughing and pull at your heart strings.

I'm going to get a little bit personal here and say that when I watched the film this time around, I realized that I'm a lot like Marlin, and it made me sort of sad.  I'm pretty much scared of everything, and always worrying. The part that really got me is when they're in the whale's mouth, and Marlin is sure they're going to die.  Dory is telling him that he just needs to let go, and he says something like, "How do you know we're not going to die?"  And she just says, "I don't."  And I know that for me personally, that's something that's so hard for me to accept, so that really resonated with me - and yes, that part made me cry too!

The Music
Again, with Pixar we don't really have musicals, so it's just about the soundtrack.  Nothing from this movie really stood out for me, so I don't have much to comment on.

The Villain
They meet lots of different "bad guys" on the adventures that occur in this film - there's the humans that catch Nemo, the sharks that turn on them and try to eat them, and of course, Darla.  While she's very creepy, I think the most evil villain in this film is the fish right in the beginning that kills Coral.  It causes the most damage and is portrayed as just an evil figure, rather than a character with any substance.

The WDW Connection
Because it's so popular, Finding Nemo is all over the parks.  It has its own ride in Epcot called The Seas with Nemo and Friends.  In addition, after that ride you can experience "Turtle Talk with Crush," a really neat interactive "show" where you can talk to Crush - and he talks back!  There's also a show at the Animal Kingdom called "Finding Nemo - The Musical."  Finally, it's not completed yet, but Disney is working on a new resort called The Art of Animation.  One building at this resort will be themed after Finding Nemo.

Becky's rating:  9 out of 10
Jason's rating:  8.5 out of 10