Film
Seaside Cinema: Finding Nemo
- Director
- Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
- Certificate
- U
- Running Time
- 100 mins
It’s not up to the standards of the Toy Story flicks. The linear quest plot springs few surprises. There’s some rather sappy, worryingly Disneyesque “I love you dad”/“I love you son” bonding. And the supporting characters are consistently more entertaining than the main ones. But you’d have to be a real curmudgeon to deny the entertainment value of Pixar’s 2003 film, which was such a hit at the US box office that it briefly ranked as the most successful animated feature of all time.
Unusually for a film released under the Disney banner, Finding Nemo begins with mass murder. Clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) is widowed when his wife and their hundreds of eggs are gobbled up by marauding barracudas. Only one egg remains, growing up to become the lop-sided Nemo (Andrew Gould), whose withered fin makes him the Jeremy Beadle of the seas. Over-protective single parent Marlin frets over the dangers the open ocean presents to his inquisitive, vulnerable son, who naturally rebels and winds up being captured and placed in a Sydney dentist’s fish tank. Inconsolable Marlin then embarks on a tireless mission to track down his boy, eventually teaming up with a ditsy blue tang named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), whose short-term memory loss problems prove more than a little exasperating. Nemo, meanwhile, has been recruited by old lag Gill (Willem Dafoe) to help effect an audacious and improbable escape from their watery prison.
The animation is every bit as detailed and delightful as we’ve come to expect, with Pixar drawing on a rich colour palette to conjure up some magnificently heightened oceanscapes. Neurotic Marlin has just the one running gag (“For a clownfish, he’s not very funny,” observes everyone who meets him) and plucky Nemo is a little bland. Dory is more fun, especially when she tries to speak whale. But you’ll be yearning for more of the terrific supporting beasts, who include a bale of laidback turtle dudes, Geoffrey Rush’s helpful pelican, hordes of lumpen gulls and – best of all – a trio of toothy sharks, led by Barry Humphries’ Bruce, who are struggling to overcome their addiction to fish.
is needed now More than ever
This screening is part of the Curzon’s outdoor Seaside Cinema weekend on Clevedon’s Salthouse Fields. Doors open at 9:30am and there will be a bar and local food stalls. Bring your own seats and picnic blankets. The event will only be cancelled if it absolutely pisses down or there are dangerously high winds. Oh, and be prepared to give generously to the Curzon’s balcony appeal while you’re there. Go here for tickets.
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