# 152 Finding Nemo (2003)

I was lucky to see Finding Nemo when it premiered in the United States. I remember it being so overhyped, they wouldn't stop talking about it on Disney Channel, and everybody I knew couldn't wait for it to come out. So I was somewhat sceptical about it, but the movie turned out to be great. Back then it represented a revolution in feature film animation.

The cartoon is about a clownfish that became tired of being controlled by his father, and decided to prove that he's grown up by swimming near the fishing boat only to be caught by a scuba-diver. He becomes an aquarium fish, and tries to find a way to escape while his father travels across the Pacific to find him. The plot is simple but far from being trivial.

The world of Finding Nemo is full of interesting creatures (I think that the baby turtles were the most adorable), it's so diverse, and the creators of this movie provide so much detail that you start forgetting you're watching a cartoon. Both animation and storytelling are on a very high level here, and I still enjoyed it a lot when I was watching it again, despite the fact that I am seven years older now, and the technology has moved on so much.

The humor in this film was brilliant. What we actually see is a parody of human society, with a lot of hilarious jokes, like a group of sharks starting a mutual aid club that's so much like Alcoholics Anonimous. Another good thing about it is that there are no villains in this movie. "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta eat" - everybody's doing what they are supposed to do. There's no good and no evil. Everynody should see this one, no matter how old you are.

Favorite quote: "What is it with men and asking for directions?"

Interesting fact: Animators studied dogs' facial expressions, paying particular attention to the eyes, to animate the expression of the fish.