• Animated
• Color
• Closed-captioned
• NTSC

The beginning of 'Finding Nemo' is easily its weakest part, with a tragedy that leaves Marlin (Albert Brooks) alone with just one child. That Child grows up to be Nemo (Alexander Gould), who rebels his father's overprotection, and gets 'fished' and put into a water tank in a Sydney's denist office.

From there on, the movie is pure delight, with Marlin going to rescue Nemo, and meeting a wide array of fantastic, funny and fascinating ( and occasionally dangerous) creatures, among them surfer turtles, vegetarian sharks, vicious seagulls, and particularly Dory, the amnesiac fish, portrayed superbly by Ellen DeGeneres.

Degeneres deserves a paragraph of her own, for her character is not only the flat out funniest in the movie, but probably the best seen in an animation picture, with the exception of Robin Williams's delightful genie in Aladdin. There is a cool gimmick of 'short term memory' loss, that makes for literally dozens of jokes, but there is so much more - including a scene in which Dory tries to speak Whale-ish - that is just to die for.

In the meanwhile, Nemo is in an aquarium in the dentist's office, which he must escape before being given to Darla, the Dentist's niece who inevitably causes the death of all fish she's given. Although the cast of fishes is the Dentist's ball are not as memorable as the ones in the ocean (mostly for the lack of screen time), the scenes are every bit as good, because of the sharp writing and the solid rock performance of Willem Dafoe as the elderly, wise, cynical and yet compassionate Gill.

'Finding Nemo' is one of the best films I've seen in cinema lately. It is hilarious, but manages to be touching, and when the inevitable happy end arrives, you're left with a big smile on your face that will last for a long, long while.

Finding Nemo is the story of a clownfish's (Albert Brooks) epic quest to find his son. He traverses a jaw-dropping undersea world that never ceases to amaze visually. Along the way he encounters many colorful characters: a fish with short-term memory loss (Ellen Degeneres) who helps him on his quest, a trio of fish-addicted sharks (the twelve-step program was hilarious), a school of fish voiced by Cheers alum John Ratzenberger (who, ironically, is staying true to his old character as a source of information), whales, seagulls, albatross, and many more. His son, meanwhile, is the latest acquisition of an Australian dentist who bonds with the community of fishes in the aquarium (including Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Eric Bana, Allison Janney).

In terms of creating an impressive and convincing landscape, Pixar steps up to the plate once again and hits a home run. Also, there is a rich variety of characters in the film, most of whom are voiced by celebrity talents (most of whom are listed above). The story is standard, but the Pixar team makes it seem fresh and vital. In short, this is one of the 'kiddie' films that I have seen that I would very much like to own on DVD. The extras ought to be impressive too. Highly recommended.

Period!