fave-oween #29: Finding Nemo

   In this next not-so-spooky installment of fave-oween, we have...

#29: Finding Nemo
    What can I say about this film that everybody hasn't already said? It's a classic of mainstream animation, applying the tried and true formula of most american family films to great characters and original settings.
     I especially love the way this film plays around with the ocean environment it's in. The imagination behind it amazes me each time I watch it, and throughout all of the film, the character arcs and story never get sidetracked. Every new turn, the Jellyfish mob, the EAC, the brigade of shape-making fish, they all develop the characters and move the plot along with great ease. When the main duo, Marlin and Dori, run into the sharks, Dori is ver bubbly and willing to jump in, while Marlin is being hesitant about everything. They both are right and wrong in the situation, as Marlin was presumptuous about the sharks when he shouldn't have been, and Dori was too willing, too eager to jump in without thinking it through. Then, when Marlin and Dory run into the jellyfish, the arcs that they go through take an extreme spike. When Dory gets stung, Marlin builds up the bravery he's been lacking throughout the whole story. He dives in and saves her, being fully aware of the perilous cost. Dori, meanwhile, gets in fatal trouble because of her recklessness, and even though her character arc isn't as clearly shown as Marlin's, it's still apparent she found some sort of character resolution at the end. And I really love this aspect of the film. I love how perfectly the pros and cons of each of our main characters contrast each other, and how they each have good and bad qualities. The film is so much more easy to watch by having two dimensional characters instead of if it had taken the obvious route. Finding Nemo could have involved Marlin being an  absolute straight laid stickler, and Dori is the fee wild child that is going to set him free, but this film is more then that.
    Even in the beginning, although we see that Marlin is kind of a stickler and cares maybe too much about safety for his child, he has a genuine reason. He watched his wife and many children get murdered before his eyes and Nemo is pretty much all he has left, so he wants to be cautious that nothing happens to him. However by doing so, he's keeping Nemo child from actually being a child, from doing anything fun, and as a result, Nemo does one big rebellious stunt to prove that he doesn't need to be babied by his dad so much.
    There are other reasons to love this too. Like I said, the filmmakers were so imaginative in weaving together real ocean life and ocean features with the narrative, and the animation is all just stunning, but what makes this movie soar above any other American mainstream animation is the excellently realistic yet poetic story created, and how well the leading duo play off each other.

Tomorrow: Creepy clown toys, people that peel off their own skin, and some weird gigantic skeleton spider thing...I don't even know.