4/5
Finding Nemo is another home run for Pixar, filled with expectedly charming anthropomorphic ocean creatures, superb writing, and exciting action. A family film about a clownfish named Marlin (Brooks) searching for his son Nemo (Gould) in the Great Barrier Reef, it has memorable characters and funny situations that will delight and surprise you. And despite what I say in the next paragraph, it is a fantastic movie that would be hard not to recommend to just about anyone. But it didn't light a fire in me.
The problem with the movie is that it lacks a propulsive premise. It has a cohesive, all-encompassing arc with effective character development and plot progression, but it feels too episodic. This would have been better served as a miniseries or television show. Every step on Marlin's journey is a random aside, a small comedic sidestep, none of which contribute much to the overall narrative. Some games have minigames that add to your enjoyment of the primary game; Finding Nemo feels like it has nothing but minigames. Because of that, we as viewers are lost in the same expansive ocean, pulled forward unaware. In certain movies this can be exciting and enthralling; in this one it merely serves to frustrate. And though it seems like I'm complaining, would anybody have objected to seeing these characters reprise their roles weekly on the Disney Channel, becoming ever more complex, fascinating, and endearing?
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543/