Pixar, the animation house behind Monsters, Inc., A Bug’s Life and the two Toy Story classics, lands another winner for Disney. Kids stuff? You tell me.
Little Nemo no sooner loses his mum than he’s kidnapped, leaving his dad to find him before Sonny Boy is sold off or flushed. If the characters weren’t fish, and deliciously comic, the damn thing would be traumatic.
The voice work is exceptional, from Albert Brooks as Marlin, the neurotic clownfish dad, to Barry Humphries (best known as Dame Edna Everage) as Bruce the shark and Geoffrey Rush as a nosy pelican.
Ellen DeGeneres is howlingly funny as Dory, a scatterbrained blue tang who travels with Marlin through the terrors of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
They eventually find Nemo living in a fish tank owned by a dentist in Sydney (Bill Hunter).
The doc’s young niece, Darla (LuLu Ebeling), has braces and a nasty streak for fish. She enters to the theme from Psycho.
The view from the fish tank to the dentist’s chair and the window overlooking the harbour is just one of the visual wonders of a film that rewrites the book on animating water (which experts say is the hardest element to render).
Co-writer and director Andrew Stanton, who also provides the surfer dude voice of a helpful turtle named Crush, makes miracles look easy.
The result is a thing of beauty, entertaining and way cool.
Marlin
Albert Brooks Dory
Ellen DeGeneres Nemo
Alexander Gould Gill
Willem Dafoe Bloat
Brad Garrett Peach
Allison Janney Gurgle
Austin Pendleton Bubbles
Stephen Root Deb/Flo
Vicki Lewis Jacques
Joe Ranft Nigel
Geoffrey Rush Crush
Andrew Stanton Coral
Elizabeth Perkins Squirt
Nicholas Bird Mr Ray
Bob Peterson Bruce
Barry Humphries Anchor
Eric Bana Chum
Bruce Spence Dentist
Bill Hunter Darla
LuLu Ebeling Tad
Jordan Ranft Pearl
Erica Beck Sheldon
Erik Per Sullivan
Director
Andrew Stanton
Lee Unkrich
Video
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The voice work is exceptional, from Albert Brooks as Marlin, the neurotic clownfish dad, to Barry Humphries (best known as Dame Edna Everage) as Bruce the shark and Geoffrey Rush as a nosy pelican.
Marlin
Bloat
Deb/Flo
Mr Ray
