Getting hooked on Nemo

It didn’t take a band of merry mutants or a Superman clone (with a prefix for a name) to make the biggest splash in Hollywood this year. It took – drum roll, please! – three small fishes, namely Nemo the clownfish, his dad Marlin, and the scene-stealing blue tang Dory to send schools of moviegoers to theaters.

After watching Finding Nemo, it didn’t surprise me at all how this flick managed to beat the competition. Initially, X2 was my pick for 2003, and I already included it on my top 10 list of favorite movies of all time, a list that stretches from The Godfather (now only number two, post-Nemo) to Clueless (number 10).

A star-studded cast or a truckload of special effects is simply not enough to merit my attention. Neither will hype. A movie merely has to move me or keep me at the edge of my seat. Finding Nemo is not only a cinematic experience that proved to be successful at both areas, it also came with a bonus – it made me laugh.

The film starts on a relatively dramatic note, but it doesn’t take long for the comedy to set in. It is Nemo’s first day of school, and Marlin’s overprotective nature begins to creep up on the young clownfish’s nerves. This is perfectly understandable, as Nemo is the only existing family member that Marlin has left. After losing his wife Coral and 399 of their unhatched eggs to a ravenous barracuda, the older clownfish can’t afford another loss.

Soon, Nemo begins to become rebellious, and to prove a point, he goes so far as to boldly approach a floating vessel anchored a few meters away from the Great Barrier Reef. He deliberately disobeys his father and pays no attention to Marlin’s pleas. Before he can even begin to comprehend what is going on, Nemo is caught by a diver and is eventually put in a dentist’s aquarium overlooking Sydney Harbor. (Kids, let this be a lesson: ALWAYS obey your parents, even if it means eating your kangkong.)

This incident moves Marlin to set on a journey to find and reunite with his son. Along the way, he literally bumps into the amnesiac Dory, a fish who is as forgetful as she is unforgettable. Together they make their way towards Australia. They have their share of pleasant encounters (such as their run-in with the sea turtle Crush and his crew) and not-so-pleasant ones with the likes of poisonous jellyfishes, an angler fish, and a trio of "reformed" sharks determined to obliterate their image as mindless eating machines.

Nemo has problems of his own in his new environment. He has to face early death at the hands of – shudder – Darla, the dentist’s bratty niece whose heart is as cold as her dental braces. However, thanks to the heroic efforts of his new-found friends in the fish tank – a gang of eccentric but utterly lovable marine organisms led by Gill – and Nigel the pelican, the clownfish manages to escape.

The latest addition to the Pixar collection of superlative animated films is to me the best of the lot. Just when you think you’ve heard every joke or just about seen everything, you watch a movie like Finding Nemo and you are proven wrong.

The very first thing that dazzles your senses is the animation. It will simply take your breath away. In my case, it gave me goose bumps (all hail CGI, truly a crowning achievement in movie making!). The images are so crisp, so visually stunning, I have this absolute feeling of being under the ocean as I watch the film. In several scenes, they actually had me fooled into thinking the characters are swimming in real water.

And the film’s humor? Top of the line. Hilarious one-liners are thrown from all directions, with the blue tang herself having the lion’s share. For Dory, it is like second skin – er, scale – to deliver punchlines. And it never fails to crack me up whenever those blasted seagulls appear onscreen.

Okay, so Finding Nemo’s plot isn’t Sidney Sheldonesque, and the ending is so typically Disney, but I don’t think these are cinematic flaws. In fact, you’d barely notice these "drawbacks" because you’d be having too much fun in the theater.

This Pixar film showed me the extremes a father would go through to save his progeny. Marlin risks life and fin to find and save Nemo. For me, that is the ultimate sacrifice, the greatest selfless act that a parent can do. Finding Nemo also taught me to become a better son (and believe me, when I was younger, Nemo didn’t come close when it came to being obstinate).

Nemo has cast its bait and I rushed to take a bite without as much as a second thought. Now, I am hopelessly hooked.