Captain Conroy's Pixar 40th Anniversary Marathon (Week 4)

Written by Captain Conroy

Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 here.

Now this review will be an interesting one. I learned recently that the former Disney CEO Michael Eisner thought this movie would bomb. Well, he was wrong, ever so wrong. This movie was a  success and a big one at that. Let alone a sequel was justified which of course we’ll look at next, but first things first: Finding Nemo.

The story speaks for itself with a title like that. It’s the story of Marlin, a single father who has to raise the sole survivor of his children after a barracuda attack, however after Nemo’s recklessness leads him to being taken by a diver,  it’s up to Marlin and Dory – a fish who suffers from short term memory loss to embark on an epic quest to find him.

This story is just great from start to finish. The beginning opens everything up so beautifully from a heartfelt moment to a heartbreak moment which easily explains why Marlin is so protective of his only son. Marlin’s determination is unmatched as he goes through hell and back again to reunite with his son, Nemo’s own resourcefulness makes for great character development and above all our main characters each learn something very valuable by the end of the film. Nemo learns to listen to and appreciate his dad more and Marlin learns while it’s good to be protective, he must grant Nemo some freedom.

The story takes every measure to make sure the plot is not easily solved within five minutes. One things leads to another and it all feels so natural and unforced. Naturally it shows realistically some of the perils of the ocean and thus they’re obstacles that Marlin and Dory must face along the way.  They say the perfect movie cannot exist, but I personally believe a perfectly executed story can exist and this story is one of those stories. No plot holes, nothing to ensure the plot is solved easily, strong characters (we’ll get to that) and I personally cannot find anything wrong with this story.

Now with a story as flawless as it is, the rest of the movie has a lot to live up to, the animation I feel is one of those aspects. It astounds me how real and how much like an underwater world this looks like and it’s a computer animated movie from 2003. Yes, after the year 2000 was when all the super good technology came in but still credit is due where credit is due. The animators studied tirelessly at aquariums and various forms of sea life to get the look they wanted for their movie and by gosh by golly they certainly gave us something special.

The underwater world is truly a spectacle to behold with its vibrant use of colours (other than blue of the ocean of course) and how real everything looks from the water itself to the sand at the bottom and its wide variety of sea life. The world above doesn’t hurt either, they make the harbour look great, Sherman’s dental office looks a nice(ish) place and all the visuals they give us to tell us this movie is set in Australia which might fly over one’s head as a kid but it’s stuff you appreciate the older you get. Two very different worlds presented to us so nicely and once you learnt he behind the scenes trivia – you really can appreciate all the hard work the animators put into this movie.

The characters as always remain a strong point of most if not all Pixar movies and this movie is certainly no exception. Of course there’s the titular character Nemo who is one of the finest young kid characters in anything I’ve ever seen. It’s easy to say he was reckless at the start – yes, but that’s character development people. He starts off reckless and he feels he can’t do anything and he really does learn to appreciate his dad later on when he learns he’s looking for him and gives him determination and resourcefulness he uses later on in the film, especially as swimming down in the net was his idea, something he learned earlier on from the tank gang.

Marlin has to be one of the greatest animated dads out there. How could he not? Even when the odds are against him he still kept soldiering on no matter what and stopped at nothing to find him. He even grows and learns too and by the end of the movie, he’s willing to allow his son freedom. He’s so good – not to mention gutsy being willing to take on a barracuda. And before anyone inevitably says anything about a certain actress – no, this doesn’t kill my enjoyment of Dory. Dory is so loveable and not to mention her short term memory makes an interesting turn point as you don’t really get many characters like that. She’s certainly one cloud cuckoo lander for sure but you’ve gotta love her. Especially during the unlikeliest of times she proves a help rather than a hinderance.

The tank gang each have their own character traits and looks which helps us easily identify who is who and I especially love Gill from his strong first impression when we see him for the first time to apologising to Nemo acknowledging his own faults being willing to endanger a kid to guarantee his freedom. Gill I would say is even my favourite character in the film. He’s such a good leader, one who isn’t afraid to admit when he’s in the wrong and one who clearly cares about anyone who is under his leadership, not to mention his backstory and how he can relate to Nemo having a bad fin. There’s a plethora of other great characters too that keep this movie interesting like Bruce the Shark and Nigel the Pelican. And funnily enough in regards to a specific one won’t be the only time we’ll be seeing Brad Garrett in a Pixar movie...

Yep, we’ll be coming back to you soon enough.

If you’re looking for a great family movie to enjoy with your family, you’ll certainly find it within Finding Nemo. The story is perfect as far as I’m concerned, the animation is beautiful and I mean beautiful and the characters are a fine cast indeed. There’s plenty of stuff to make the kids laugh and there’s subtle funny bits to make the adults laugh too and above all I genuinely feel I’d have to resort to nit-picking in order to find anything wrong with it. It’s a definite guarantee hit to entertain the family again and again and times like this, I would even go so far as to say who even needs SpongeBob when you can enjoy an underwater world like this?

So, we fast-forward to 2016 and Finding Nemo would be another Pixar movie to get a sequel. This one centring on Dory this time around. One may wonder how on Earth they would manage to pull off something like this, like wouldn’t a premise like this be better for a series maybe rather than a film? Well, what else are we here for? Let’s dive right on in together. (And no, I’m not expecting a chocolate medal for that pun. LOL)

So, we fast-forward to 2016 and Finding Nemo would be another Pixar movie to get a sequel. This one centring on Dory this time around. One may wonder how on Earth they would manage to pull off something like this, like wouldn’t a premise like this be better for a series maybe rather than a film? Well, what else are we here for? Let’s dive right on in together. (And no, I’m not expecting a chocolate medal for that pun. LOL)

As the title implies, this is Dory’s story as she starts having memories of her parents and it gets to a point where she embarks on a quest to find them with Marlin and Nemo coming along for the ride (albeit reluctantly in the former’s case) and along the way, they wind up at a sea life institute where she meets some old acquaintances and even makes a new friend in a way she would never suspect in the form of an Octopus called Hank. Much like the Toy Story movies, Pixar do a really good job at making each adventure bigger than the last. You thought that Marlin went through a lot in the first film? He does again here and so does Dory as she does her best to remember things and to try and keep things in mind.

Our fishy friends each have to overcome all kinds of obstacles to achieve the endgame here which of course is to reunite Dory with her parents and I like the way the character arcs are done in this story with Dory trying not to let her short term memory loss get in the way. Marlin wants what’s best for Dory as he still clearly cares but like before the worrying gets him so far, but he learns to be resourceful and think outside of his own box and I love the way Nemo was done, clearly taking the confidence from the last movie and the times he’s not afraid to be cheeky to his dad.

However I still feel that Finding Nemo had the superior story, especially the climax while exciting was a little cartoony for a Finding Nemo sequel I find, but it’s still not bad by any means, it’s a very solid story still and I thoroughly enjoyed it on this rewatch.

You might not think there was much the animation could top because of how good it was in the first movie, but yet – they did it. The animation was good as it was before was done even better here. The characters clearly got upgraded looks but still look like themselves and you have the individual textures on each animal from the fish, to the birds to even the sealions. And here it’s not just the water that looks realistic, there’s the sand, the shells, the rocks on the surface, everything just manages to look so real to say it’s an animated movie. There is also a great attention to detail with a retro looking computer in one of the offices and people holding actual cameras as apposed to phones as they clearly remembered this is set one year after the first, ergo it should still take place in a 2000’s setting.

As great as Finding Nemo looked, Finding Dory managed to look so good and it’s one of those examples as to why I always enjoy the animation in a Pixar movie, it’s always so beautiful to look at during this rewatch and even if I have been going in franchise order rather than full chronological order, it’s nice to watch the evolution of this art. Like I said earlier, animation and animators need so much more credit and respect than they get. Yeah, looking at you for that one Sausage Party! Treat your animators nice! Anyways, next subject.

The characters. Naturally our favourite names and faces are back, with the difference being Dory is the central character here. But as well as the character arcs, I love how Marlin and Nemo aren’t just side-lined and Dory has all the screentime. They still get very much involved and they not only make sure that Dory is safe, but she does the same for them during the climax. You also have plenty of moments you feel for Dory like baby Dory is so adorable and when she has a panic attack when it seems her parents are gone and she had come all this way, it was so brilliantly done. It makes you feel so good for her once she finds them.

Speaking of which, Dory’s parents are amongst some of the new characters in the movie, being named Jenny and Charlie and they’re good parents them. Never once did they give up hope that Dory would find her way home and even when they get worried about losing her again, they allow her to go ahead and save Marlin and Nemo anyway. What good parents they are. For new characters there’s also Hank, an Octopus who wants to go to the Aquarium in Cleveland and he’s the sort of character who is selfish at first, but you still can’t help but love him. His and Dory’s contrasting personalities work off of each other so perfectly and it’s nice to how he goes from caring about his own goals to caring about others too. It’s so well done. We have the Sealions Fluke and Rudder but they’re mostly there for comic relief. Yes they do provide Nemo and Marlin a way to get to Dory but especially by the climax, they’re just there for the ride. And while it is an amusing running gag, I still don’t get what the deal with Gerald is.

Yeah, me still no like you very much!

Other new characters I like are Destiny, one of Dory’s old friends and Bailey. They make great comic relief but they’re also really helpful to Dory and thus serve a purpose in the story and it’s great to see them achieve something like Destiny helping out during then climax despite her poor eyesight and Bailey with his echolocation ability being able to detect the truck despite his head injury he suffered effecting this. Much like Dory and Nemo, be it physical or mental, they represent disabilities so well. And people complain about woke culture, what a bunch of losers!

Anyway, Finding Dory is indeed a solid sequel to what was already a solid movie. The first movie was better in my opinion, but this is still a solid sequel, I can’t emphasise that enough. The story makes good use of its premise and the characters have great story arcs. To boot this movie is so pretty to look at thanks to it’s masterclass animation. There are a couple of things though that stop it from being perfect being it’s rather cartoon climax which again might belong more in a Looney Tunes cartoon than a Finding Nemo sequel. And as well as that…

I don’t know about anyone else but I just find it so insanely crazy how Gill and his gang are still floating in those bags even a year later. I mean how long can a fish go without food? And given the bags are getting grubby, it’s not making them ill or anything? I mean I know about suspension of disbelief but this is crazy.

“Well you got me. By all accounts, it doesn’t make sense.”

Thank you Kronk. Anyway it’s now that time for you to share your thoughts below. Do you like this sequel more than the first? Do you prefer the first or love them equally. Do share in the comments and join me next time as we look at both of The Incredibles movies. I’d better get my cape and my mask, see you next time!