Animated / Family
2003 / 100 minutes
RATING: 8/10

This is an ocean-crossing epic, with a father willing to travel to the ends of the earth to save his son, and a host of clever, quirky characters who respect and love him enough to offer whatever help they can. It’s inspirational, hilarious, and the deep-ocean animation is gorgeous.

But…. it is also dramatic in a way that little kids will not be able to handle, starting with a life-couldn’t-be-better opening scene where we meet clownfish couple Marlin and Coral. They’ve just moved into their new home, on the edge of the reef, with its great view of the ocean, and they’re eagerly awaiting the birth of their first batch of babies. 400 of them! Cue the ominous music, and the arrival of a barracuda that changes everything. Marlin tells his bride to run, but instead Coral heads to the little cave sheltering their brood of eggs. Marlin intervenes to try to save her, taking on the barracuda. But it’s 10 times his size, and with a flick of its tail, it knocks Marlin out.

When he wakes up, Coral is gone. And 399 of the eggs are gone too. There’s just one left, and even it’s cracked, but Marlin vows he will protect his little son, his little Nemo.

That’s the opener, not more than 5 minutes long, but it was why we didn’t watch this with our kids until our youngest was over 10. The story never gets quite that scary again, but little kids won’t know that, and could be on edge the whole film through, wondering if this scene or that is the one where Nemo or Marlin are going to get eaten too.

But for an older crowd, this is quite the adventure. It is a rescue film, with dad Marlin needing to cross the ocean to save his son, after little Nemo gets scooped up by a scuba diver and deposited into a dentist office aquarium. Along for the ride is Dory, a Blue Tang fish ready to help, but whose memory isn’t up to the task – she has short-term memory loss, repeatedly forgetting what just happened. That leaves Marlin frequently exasperated, but Dory’s cheerful nature is also just what he needs to keep up his search.

And even as Marlin is searching the seas for his son, Nemo is doing his very best to escape the aquarium, so he can make it back home to his dad.

Cautions

Nemo is such a cute fish, parents might expect his film to have only a Paw Patrol/Curious George level of tension. But as noted, there are some scary bits, starting right from the get-go when the barracuda attacks Nemo’s parents, knocks out his dad, and presumably eats his mother, and 399 of his still-in-their-eggs brothers and sisters. Add in a scene with a creepy Anglerfish (see the trailer below), and a trio of sharks that go from fearsome, to friendly, and then back again, and there’s tension here that little kids will not be up for.

There is also some parental disrespect right at the start, where Marlin who can’t help but be overprotective (though, is it really overprotective when your wife and 399 other kids got eaten?) won’t give Nemo room to grow and learn. So, in a fit of kiddish spite, he quietly tells his dad “I hate you” and then heads out into the open sea where he’s not supposed to go, where he’s promptly scooped up by a scuba diver, and taken away… necessitating the epic rescue journey his dad undertakes. So, some disrespect, yes, but the immediate consequence that follows highlights how Nemo’s rebellion was not a good thing.

Finally, there are a few instances of potty humor.

Conclusion

There’s lots to love here, from a parental perspective – Finding Nemo highlights the benefits of teamwork and stick-to-it-iveness, and tackles disabilities in passing in a helpful way – Nemo has one fin smaller than the other and his disability is presented in a straight-forward manner that could spark some helpful conversations with kids. Then there’s all the sea-life on display. It’s not all that educational, because the hundreds of different fish on display show up for only a moment at a time, and we don’t learn much of anything about them. But I could see this inspiring a kid to go check out some books on fish from their school library.

Another attractive element, and one that stands in sharp contrast to so many other films: the dad here is the hero, with his risk-anything love for his son. That said, there’s also a message here for parents to not be over-protective because kids need space to grow. That’s true enough, but I’m not really a fan of children’s films where it is the parents, not the kids, who have some learning to do. But with parents along for the ride, we can steer our littles to what Nemo needed to learn (that his dad would risk anything for him, and that his dad was right about the dangers out there).

So, I’d recommend this as a film that parents and kids can both enjoy, but mom and dad should check out the first 5 minutes to gauge whether they think their kids will be able to handle it. I would save this for 10 and up.