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Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo, the tale of a kidnapped fish and his father's quest across the ocean to retrieve him, is a wonderful movie. Why are we reviewing it here, you may ask? Because two of the characters in the film are voiced by Guys from Our Lists. Nigel the pelican is the voice of Cool Bad Guy Geoffrey Rush. Gill the angelfish is Too Evil to Joke About Guy Willem Dafoe. Here's the short story: Marlin and his wife, Coral, move to a reef off the coast of Australia where they plan to raise their hundreds of children. Coral and all but one of the eggs are eaten by a barracuda before the credits, leaving Marlin a single parent to Nemo, the surviving baby fish. Nemo, in a fit of adolescent pique, manages to swim out to open water, where he is kidnapped by divers. Marlin then spends much of the movie trying to get Nemo back with the assistance of various ocean denizens including Dory, a fish with a short-term memory problem (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres). Nemo spends much of the movie in an aquarium in a dentist's office and trying to get back to the ocean.

It's a wonderful movie. I LOVE IT. I laughed, I cried, I was amazed at Pixar's continued high standards and the quality of both their animation and their stories. As far as I'm concerned, all other recent animated movies are left in the dust. Also, as an added bonus on the DVD are some fantastic extras, in particular the documentary on exploring the reef with Jean Michel Cousteau, fish charades, and the Knick Knack short that was shown before the feature in the theater. It's a movie that everyone can enjoy.