Finding Nemo

[redbird]

I saw Finding Nemo last night with treadpath (who had seen it before and was enthusiastic), quility, cattitude, and Rachel. Friday evening seemed to be a good time: we got five seats together, and the children in the audience were well-behaved, as were the adults. That is, everybody was watching the movie, not screaming or talking on their cell phones.

I liked it. Pixar does very good animation. The fish heroes (Nemo, his parents, and Dory) and other good guys--like the manta ray schoolteacher--were cuted up in a mammalian sort of way. But Nemo and his family live in a really nice anemone; the messages seemed basically positive (physical handicaps won't prevent you from doing what you want, and don't be over-protective of your children), and the surfing turtles were delightful. I am tired of Disney motherless animals, though: couldn't we have a warm, protective, father who isn't a widower? But I liked "Wake up, it's time to start school" "No, let me sleep" with the father being the one who wanted to stay in bed.

Full marks for the animated animals; the animated humans are less convincing, probably because we're hard-wired with tougher standards for a realistic child than for a realistic jellyfish, shark, or turtle. I know seagulls don't look quite like that, but I didn't care; I know humans don't look like that, and I did care. There are some funny bits, which fit into the story smoothly, but it's more Disney adventure than comedy.

If you're considering taking a small child to see this, note that the shark scenes may be scary, and this movie makes dentists' offices look scarier than they really are.

The credits are worth staying through: there's more cool animation, mostly involving the characters from the movie. Before the movie, they're showing an old Pixar animated short, in which a character is trying to get out of a snow globe and visit all the buxom females waving from an assortment of "Sunny [wherever]" souvenirs.

Comments

[erik]

this movie makes dentists' offices look scarier than they really are
not possible.

Seagulls

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

I loved the seagulls: those beady little eyes and the calls of "mine, mine, mine". Their eyes reminded me of the villain Feathers McGraw from the "Wallace and Grommit" shorts.

Regarding the Disney fixation on 'missing moms'. I guess it balances Steven Spielberg's obsession with 'missing fathers'.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

We saw it this afternoon. I really liked the martial arts crab myself. The water was amazingly well done; I kept thinking it was actually water! Jordin said that somebody's discovery of how to do good water was probably what prompted the movie. Fun, but I have no desire to see it again. The ditzy female fish was really annoying.

MKK