HOLLYWOOD FLICKS
Where fishes are friends, not food
Ervell E. Menezes

FINDING Nemo is a cute animation film about the underwater world and the father-son relationship with the rather careful dad Marlin. Like The Lion King and The Little Mermaid animation films today have been humanised so that they appeal to the kids as well as the parents accompanying them.

"Fish are friends, not food," is among the early lines and this establishes the line of thinking among the fish. It is into this world that we sink and humans are naturally the adversaries. It is a cute screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds with a number of hilarious one-liners and director Stanton doesn’t take time to delve deep into the aquaworld.

In spite of all his restraining care, little Nemo and his dad get separated in the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast. How Marlin, accompanied by a forgetful but non-stop-talking Dory, set about finding him is what the film is all about. Beacause Nemo is a clown fish his fish-friends expect him to tell a joke.

But that’s not the only joke. There are few others, not all of them funny, as Marlin and Dory scan the whole wide ocean in search of little Nemo. The fleshing of these fishy characters is rather well done but the path they have to traverse is unduly long and robs the film of some of its zing.

That the voices of the fish are by some celebrated stars like Albert Brooks, Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey Rush and Allison Janney doesn’t really help. It is the different characters they run into and their idiosyncrasies that keep the film chugging for most of the time. The special effects are good without really distracting from the narrative and by the time one gets to the end there is a morale thrown in. It is a sweet ending that makes one overlook the moments of seeming inaction.

Finding Nemo is ideal entertainment for the family as there is enough to keep both children and adults happy.

This feature was published on December 14, 2003

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