Finding Nemo Review

The ocean is what everyone noticed first. Light falls through water correctly, particles drift with the current, and the reef reads as a habitat rather than a backdrop, which no animated feature had managed at this scale. It holds up because Andrew Stanton uses all of it for meaning. The drop off where the reef ends is genuinely frightening, the open blue is empty in a way that makes the search feel long, and the jellyfield is one of the most beautiful sequences the studio has ever shot.

The script is the reason the film lasts, though. Marlin is not a lovable coward, he is a bereaved parent whose fear is shrinking his son's life, and the picture is honest enough to let Nemo say so out loud. Albert Brooks plays that anxiety as comedy without letting it turn cute. Ellen DeGeneres converts Dory from a running gag into the emotional argument of the film, and the scene where she begs Marlin not to leave her is played straight.

Around them sit a dozen small perfect inventions: the sharks in recovery, the pelican, the dentist's tank crew, the seagulls. The one fair reservation is shape, since a road movie is a string of episodes rather than a build. Every episode is good enough that nobody minds.