Finding Nemo
Dir: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
2003
***
Finding Nemo was a huge hit of Pixar back in 2003 and they have gone from strength to strength since, but I've always thought it was hugely overrated. It looked amazing. I'm still impressed by the underwater scenes in the very two dimensional Little Mermaid but Finding Nemo knocks the flippers off of that. The colours are so striking, the blue is so deep and as cartoony as it is, it does have a certain realism about it. Visually, I find no faults. Story is another matter though. I'm a big fan of keeping it simple, in my opinion the best films, not just animated, have a simple premise and a clear structure. The problem with Finding Nemo is that it doesn't have enough story, there isn't enough to work with and as memorable as it is, it drags in the second half. I've watched it with kids and we all started to loose attention forty-five minutes in and only in the last five minutes did it regain our attention. The cast are strong and it is funny but I would have liked it to have been a little more silly. I find kids film's to be a little too serious these days, far too much emotion is attached to the stories when really kids should just be able to enjoy a film without being lectured to or emotionally blackmailed. I sound like I hated it when I really didn't, I just hope that companies like Pixar begun to buck the trend somewhat with their approach to story telling, as they are all becoming a little samey and a bit tiresome.