|
Finding Nemo (2003)
In Pixar's-Disney's (their fifth collaboration) blockbuster
CGI animated film and winner of the 2003 Oscar for Best Animated
Feature Film - a comedy-drama adventure about an abducted young clown
fish named Nemo:
- the frightening pre-credits barracudas attack on
clownfish parents Marlin (voice of Albert Brooks) and Coral (voice
of Elizabeth Perkins) in the Great Barrier Reef - and the devastating
aftermath in which Marlin was made a widower with just a single
surviving egg named Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould)
- the scene of little Nemo's scary kidnap/capture in
a small net bag by an Australian mask-wearing scuba diver
- overprotective, obsessively-worried, and neurotic
Marlin's desperate and perilous quest to find Nemo by traveling through
Australia's lengthy Great Barrier Reef
- the brilliant, comedic performance by Ellen DeGeneres
as Dory - a scatterbrained but well-intentioned blue tang with enormous
eyes who suffered from severe short-term memory loss, and helped
Marlin to search for his lost son
Three Memorable Characters
|
|
|
|
Dory - Blue Tang, with Marlin
|
Great White Shark Bruce
|
"Crush"
- Turtle
|
- the scene of Marlin and Dory's encounter with great
white shark Bruce (voice of Barry Humphries) (an in-joke reference
to Jaws (1975)), who ominously asked:
"Name's Bruce. It's all right. I understand. Why trust a shark,
right? So, what's a couple of bites like you doing out so late, hey?...Then
how would you morsels like to come to a little get-together I'm havin'?"
- Nemo's adventures after he was placed in dentist Phillip
Sherman's salt-water aquarium tank in Sydney, with the wisecracking
Tank Gang, including a wise old Moorish Idol Fish named Gill (voice
of Willem Dafoe), Jacques (voice of Joe Ranft) - a cleaner shrimp,
a Yellow Tang named Bubbles (voice of Stephen Root), Peach (voice
of Allison Janney) - a pinkish-red star fish, a germaphobic and pessimistic
royal gramma fish known as Gurgle (voice of Austin Pendleton), and
a Pufferfish named Bloat (voice of Brad Garrett)
- the threat of the braces-wearing niece Darla of
the dentist (thought to be a "fish-killer"
- accompanied by the sounds of the shower scene violins from Psycho
(1960))
- Marlin's and Dory's revelatory reading of the address
on the lost mask of Nemo's kidnapper - P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way,
Sydney, where they knew they could locate Nemo
- during Marlin's and Dory's adventures, their encounter
with the wisecracking school of Moon-fish (voice of John Ratzenberger)
and the elderly "surfer dude" turtle Crush (voice of co-writer/director
Andrew Stanton)
- the sequence of Marlin and Dory trapped inside a
'blue whale' (reminiscent of Pinocchio (1940))
- the clever but foiled plot of the Tank fish to have
Nemo clog the tank filter, forcing the dentist to manually clean
it, and place the fish into baggies (set on the counter), where the
fish could roll out the window to the street, and reach the harbor;
in actuality, Nemo escaped via a sink drain and through piping systems
to the ocean, while Marlin and Dory were assisted by Nigel (Geoffrey
Rush) - a brown pelican who often perched in the dentist office's
window
- the scene of Marlin reunited with his son Nemo after
escaping a huge fishing net
- and during the end credits - the surprise appearance
of Monster, Inc.'s (2001) one-eyed Mike Wazowski wearing scuba-diving
equipment
|
Single Surviving Egg - Nemo
Nemo Captured
Dentist Office's Aquarium Tank
"Fish-Killer" Darla
Nigel Helping Marlin and Dory
Reunion of Marlin with Nemo
End Credits with Mike in Scuba Gear
|