journal features

movie review - Finding Nemo

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2003.05.31

This is a fine flick. I've found that animated movies are becoming more popular, and as they've been doing so, their quality has been in free-fall. This one is a break from the trend, being at once beautifully crafted, amusing, and original (sort of).

It loses points for some of the too-well-trod Disney paths that it follows (you can just see the mother's death coming) and perhaps lays it on a bit thick, but the story, dialogue, and 'message' are all ably done. I understand that this one set a record for animated movies at its box office opening weekend, and I'm not surprised. This one is very worth seeing in the cinema.

Having lived in Sydney - where this movie is 'set' - for a spell, I found the portrayal of the city to be spot-on. Especially the gulls.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.