Once upon a time, 'The Lion King' WAS king. For long years, it sat high above all animated movies with its' magical box office of near $750 million. Then, one day, along came Pixar, the slick section of the Disney Studio, makers of 'Toy Story' and 'Monsters Inc', with their shiny new picture "Finding Nemo", and life in the jungle changed. The king is dead, long live the clownfish!
"...Nemo" smashed 'The Lion King's box office record in months, before it even opened in most countries outside the US and if you see it, you'll see why. As usual with Pixar, the story is simple, the graphics stunning and the adult audience catered for. Perhaps, ironically, not quite so well as in past triumphs, but it's still top notch good fun.
Nemo is the only offspring of Marlin (Brooks), the least clown-like clownfish in the ocean, but Marlin has cause for his seriousness and neurosis. Back in the opening scene, his mate and all their eggs - except Nemo - are eaten in abrutal barracuda attack. This is done in the usual Disney tradition: a short, sharp shock as the yougn audience realise the danger, and the actual dastardly deed done offscreen, which is always more effective.
Now nemo is grown up enough for his first day at school, cheerful, energetic and eager despite having a withered right fin, while Marlin is fidgety, nervous and embarrassingly overprotective. When Nemo, showing off by swimming off-reef, is caught by a diver and taken to live in the aquarium of a Sydney dentist, Marlin - in determined panic - sets off to find and rescue him, helped by Ellen DeGeneres' Dory, the only fish who can read the name on the diver's dropped mask. Unfortunately, Dory has short-term memory loss and frequently needs reminding of what they're doing and who they are.
On the way, they meet three sharks who've formed a support group to help them become vegetarians ("fish are friends, not food"), surfer-dude turtles riding the wave of the current through to Oz, Nigel (Rush) the helpful pelican ("step inside my mouth if you want to live") and seagulls who caw only "mine! mine!".
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Meanwhile, Nemo joins the aquarium escape committee, headed by grizzled angel-fish Gil (Dafoe), the only other inmate to have come from the ocean, not the pet shop. Things become desperate when they realise that Nemo is to be a present for the dentist's niece, whose last fish she shook to death in its' bag.
The film is a deft blend of comedy and genuine drama. Basing it underwater must have been a technically difficult choice, but the computer imagery rises to the challenge, the impression of looking through water is constant but not a distraction and, although some visuals are stunning (some examples: a screen full of jellyfish; being inside a whale's mouth and a dank, rotting submarine slumped in an old mine-field), Pixar doesn't gloat and no shots linger unnecessarily.
The message, about growing up, letting go and finding the right balance between caution and enthusiasm is hown through the relationships of the characters,with a simplicity that children can understand and a lightness of touch that adults can appreciate. "Finding Nemo" deserves to be the hit it is. Go and see it, even if the only child you take is yourself.
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