Revisiting Disney: Finding Nemo

Courtesy: IMDb

Most Disney animations are a treat to the eye, an entertainment for the soul and if it is true that laughing is healthy - it is quite a healthy dish! To top that, they introduce us to a whole new bunch of characters. I just got introduced to an entire lot, a couple of weeks back, through Finding Nemo.

A dear friend had been recommending Finding Nemo for a couple of years now. Everything has a time slot, I guess. I finally got a date with Finding Nemo a few weeks back. It would hardly be a surprise if I fall short of words to describe the stunning treat this movie gave me. Splendid artwork and superb dialogues – I was oh so refreshed! Beyond technology, animation movies, I believe, should have a story, creativity, imagination and a core heart. Finding Nemo fulfills them all.

The Plot:

Finding Nemo is a splendid illustration of a strong father-son bond. Marlin - a clown fish -  loses his wife and all but one egg to a predator. That unfortunate incident leaves him nervous and over protective of his only son - Nemo. Another twist in the tale is when Nemo falls in trouble and is taken away from Marlin. The movie is visually Marlin’s expedition through the ocean to find his lost son. At the core, Finding Nemo effectively gives out a lot of valuable parenting tips.

The Screenplay:

Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds sure deserve hats off for the screenplay. I like the way the plot is designed. The introductory scene leaves you glued with a stunned expression and a heavy sigh. You, quite instantly, identify with Marlin. You get hooked to the movie and don't get off it till the end. The dialogues are just awesome. Throughout the expedition you are introduced to so many characters. All of them are bound to take a place in your heart. However, Dory steals the show.

Dory is a blue tang fish who bumps into Marlin when he’s looking for Nemo and sticks with him throughout the endeavor. The fact that Dory has short term memory loss adds humor and vigor to the plot. Dory is such a high-spirited fish character, that you end up longing to have short term memory loss. All her dialogues make me laugh the moment I think of them.

The Direction:

I have always believed that the idea of the story stays original, if the director can do the screenplay too . Andrew Stanton proves me right. Andrew, with his co-director Lee Unckrich have done a brilliant job with Finding Nemo. The expressions, the characters and the imagination - they all contribute to the wow factor Citing examples is not easy when the whole movie is studded with personal favorites. However, here are a few…

• I love the expression on Dory’s face as she listens to Marlin’s story at every phase of their journey. She is enticed each time because of her memory issue. Hilarious!
• An African-American dialect for Crush, the sea-turtle – that fetches a golden star for Andrew Stanton again. He’s the brain and the voice behind Crush. You hear the turtle talking and you feel it so right.
• News spreading within the ocean and then out into the skies through dolphins – Wow! That was quite an imagination.
• Memories flooding back into Dory’s mind when she reads the word Sydney again towards the climax.
• To think that there could be a language called human and whale...
• Sharks wanting to make friends. To think of it, probably they don't want to appear scary. Who knows?
• The teamwork of the aquarium characters – what a thought!

The list just goes on and on… I definitely don't want to include spoilers if you haven't seen the movie already.

The Cast:

With all your amazing script and artwork, if you have a poor cast – that would be a sad state. Luckily Finding Nemo has a fantastic cast. Each one of them has done a superb job. Ellen Degeneres (Dory) needs a special mention. She proves to be the strong back-bone of Finding Nemo. Everybody else has perfectly executed their roles well. That goes from Albert Brooks (Marlin), Alexander Gould (Nemo) and all other ocean characters to Geoffrey Rush (Nigel, the sea gull) and all the aquarium characters. Everything was, literally, picture perfect.

The Verdict:

I am so thrilled to give a 10 on 10.