It’s the details that stand out whenever a classic film like “Finding Nemo” is converted to 3D.
With Disney/Pixar’s “Finding Nemo,” the shimmering sea surface, scratches on the lens of a diver’s goggles and smudge marks Nemo the clownfish makes when he mashes his face up against the glass wall of the aquarium that imprisons him all pop off the screen in the 3D reissue of Pixar’s undisputed masterpiece.
The fish seem to float in between the surface of the screen and the deep blue underwater backgrounds of the South Pacific, an effect even more pronounced in 3D.
It’s probably not worth the extra 3D cost for a movie that’s long been one of the best-selling home videos. If you have kids, you probably already have this at home. Even if you don’t, I’m a college student, and I love the movie. “Finding Nemo,” back in theaters nine years after its release, is a reminder that sometimes “instant” and “classic” can go together in a sentence describing a great movie.
And “Finding Nemo” is a great movie, one of the best animations for children ever made. Pixar seems to have most of the market in that category.
A timid and over-protective, single-dad clownfish (Albert Brooks) overprotects his mildly disabled (shrunken fin) only son (voiced by Alexander Gould) to the point where Nemo foolishly rebels and is promptly snatched and tossed into the tank at an Australian dentist’s office.
Dad flees the comfort of his reefside sea anemone home, and with the help of a seriously absent-minded blue tang named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), sets out to find his son. And Nemo, with the help of a tank full of mentors (Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, and Austin Pendleton), plots his escape to get back to his dad.
It’s a simple story, perfectly executed; especially when it comes to the voice actors they chose.
Dory – all-halting, self-interrupting comical kvetching, written specifically for DeGeneres and animated around her gestures – steals the movie.
“I suffer from short-term memory loss. It runs in my family … At least I think it does … hmm. Where are they?”
I give this 3D release 4 shrunken fins out of 5.
