Finding Nemo (2003)

Starring: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould

Director: Andrew Stanton

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Rating: A

"P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney! You asked me where I'm going? OK, I'll tell you: P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney! That's where I'm going!" 

Oh, my God, I love this movie.  It's definitely my favourite Pixar film and one of my favourite animated films of all time.  It's cute, it's funny, it's sad... it's really the whole package.  While I'm not sure if I would say that it's everything I want from a film it's definitely got so much going on that the entire time I'm watching it I'm completely submerged in it, and when I'm done watching it I'm still quoting from it.  It's the kind of movie that makes me excited about watching movies.

On the Great Barrier Reef lives a clownfish, Marlin (Brooks), and his son, Nemo (Gould).  Marlin is horribly overprotective as the result of the death of Nemo's mother, some years earlier, and thinks that Nemo isn't as capable because of a bad fin.  Nemo responds exactly as you would expect - and rebels, which leads to him being abducted by a scuba diving human.  In his journey to find his son, Marlin meets Dory (DeGeneres), a fish with a severe memory issue who helps him find his son.

The thing that really makes this movie great is Dory.  The role was written for Ellen DeGeneres and it's one that I really can't imagine anyone else playing - which is saying a lot, given as it's voice acting.  Someone else could have easily done any and every other role in Nemo as well as the actors cast, but DeGeneres really steals the show.  After seeing this movie I'm always left quoting her lines, or singing "just keep swimming" - and I even have a friend who can often be heard trying to speak whale, regardless of the presence of actual whales.  Dory just makes this movie awesome.

Dory, however, isn't the full movie.  There's also this insanely amount of detail put into it.  I love the shots of the Reef and the way that the fish in and out of water looked different - although, I did think that they didn't do much to differentiate between in and out of water when not dealing with fish, which does kind of take away from the fish thing a bit.  The supporting characters are also amazing.  I love the sharks and the turtles and the seagulls - God, I love the seagulls.  The way the seagulls are portrayed is just so perfectly and exactly what you think a seagull is saying.  This movie is like those seagulls - pretty much perfect.