Directed by Andrew Stanton
Cast: Alexander Gould, Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney
The joy of watching this is one of the foundational building blocks of my childhood. I could tell I was annoying my girlfriend by how I quoted every other line in the entire movie. This is genuinely a perfect children’s movie. I dare anyone to name one problematic element of this. It ages perfectly. Every scene plays out like its own little odyssey. In fact, thinking about it, it almost feels like Marlin is Odysseus, traveling from one tribulation to the next. He is just accompanied by a very entertaining companion. Speaking of, Ellen is kind of canceled as a person, but Dory is awesome and I love her. I sadly can relate to her very poor memory. I also love Nigel and Crush. All the characters are so lovable. It seems equally educational and entertaining for its target audience, with some sneaker jokes thrown in like “Mount Wannahockaloogie,” which I just noticed on this viewing with subtitles. In terms of animation, this movie blows away most stuff from that time. The scenes with the sharks were especially cool in my opinion. AND THE SHOT WHERE DARLA SLAMS THE DOOR OPEN AND ENTERS THE FRAME WITH PSYCHO MUSIC?!?!?!?!?!?!? Absolutely terrifying. My children will 100% be watching this along with Ratatouille as their Pixar staples. The only thing that I feel is lacking from this spectacular film is a memorable song to associate with it.
10/10