Finding Nemo
The good stuff: the underwater imagery is beautiful, and the voice work is strong throughout. Ellen DeGeneres in particular has some really funny moments, the best of which comes at a shark support group meeting.
The not-so-good stuff: the script, or lack of same. This movie suffers mightily from raised expectations, both from the advance press and the sky-high bar set by “Monsters, Inc.” The writing just isn’t there.
The ‘give me a machine gun’ stuff: I had to leave the theater three (3) times to tell them to fix the focus. Note to Melissa: this is getting ridiculous. Movies are supposed to be in focus!
This is an entertaining, if draggy and sloppily written effort from the folks at Pixar. If they had lavished as much care on the words as they did the glorious images, they would really have something here.
Agreed. You managed to say what I said in many fewer paragraphs.
If we’d had more Nemo, and less Finding, it would have been a better (if more conventional) flick.
On the machine-gun thing – meh. I agree. Sadly, I recall that (not to make gross generalizations) movie theatre people do not care about their jobs. If it meant we had to, like, leave the box office or the consessions counter or whatever and like, do things, or like, talk to people, we didn’t want to do it. And so we didn’t. I was getting paid $5.45 and I had to wear unattractive pants. It just wasn’t enough to care.
Interestingly, the people at our art house theatres are usually awesome about things like fixing the focus or the sound. One more reason to love independent cinmea.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this were a mild effort at self-sabotage from the folks at Pixar. I’m not sure if you’ve kept up with their relationship with distribution partner, Disney, but it’s strained to say the least.
I don’t remember the profit-sharing ratios, but Disney is pocketing much more than it every should be. Alas, this is typical of the company.
My wife and I accounted for $10 of the $70 million little “Nemo” took in over its opening weekend. We both loved it, but, hey, we’re just big kids. Now we have to wait more than a year for “The Incredibles”?
Oh, yeah… Pixar rules, Disney drools!