Finding Nemo (2003)

Marlin and Coral (voiced by Albert Brooks and Elizabeth Perkins), two clownfish living in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, are eagerly awaiting the birth of their 400-egg brood when they are attacked by a nasty barracuda. When the sand settles, Marlin is left with just one egg, which he names Nemo (Alexander Gould).

Nemo grows up to be a headstrong young fish who doesn't like his father's over-protective nature, and because of his inquisitiveness is captured, ending up in a dentist's office in Sydney, Australia.

The panicked Marlin heads off to find his son, accompanied by Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a Pacific Regal Blue Tang with a fast mouth and one heck of a short-term memory loss problem.

Before they can get started, they are taken to a sort of AA gathering of sharks trying to break the fish-eating habit and win the hearts of three dangerous sharks: Bruce (Barry Humphries), a Great White; Anchor (Eric Bana), a Hammerhead; and Chum (Bruce Spence), a Mako.

Meanwhile, Nemo finds himself in the dentist Dr. Philip Sherman's (Bill Hunter) aquarium, which also houses Gil (Willem Dafoe), a Moorish Idol; Bloat (Brad Garrett), a Pufferfish; Peach (Allison Janney), a Starfish; Gurgle (Austin Pendleton), a Royal Gramma; Bubbles (Stephen Root), a Yellow Tang; Jacques (Joe Ranft), a Pacific Cleaner Shrimp; and Deb (Vicki Lewis) also known as her reflection, Flow, a Damselfish.

Nemo learns that Dr. Sherman's niece, Darla (LuLu Ebeling), usually mistreats sea life given to her as presents. The result? A ride on "The Porcelain Express" (i.e., flushed down the toilet). Nemo is inducted into “tankhood” and is dubbed "Shark Bait." Gil comes up with a cockamamy plan for all of them to escape before Darla comes for her checkup.

With the help of a school of moonfish (John Ratzenberger) and a surfer-boy-talking sea turtle named Crush (Andrew Stanton), Marlin and Dory slowly make their way to Sydney Harbor and finally find Nemo when Marlin's story reaches Nigel (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian Pelican that often visits the dentist's aquarium and has met Nemo.

Finding Nemo enjoyed the highest-grossing opening weekend for an animated feature – more than $70 million, on its way to a total box office that approached $870 million, making it (at the time) the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

And no wonder. Finding Nemo is beautifully animated and colored, the dialogue is entertaining, mesmerizing and witty, and Ellen DeGeneris does wonderful job doing the voice-over for Dory. The role was specifically written just for her.

Finding Nemo actually helped increase tourism in Sydney during the summer and autumn of 2003. It's reported that many of the tourists said they wanted to swim the waters of Eastern Australia so they could find Nemo.

Grade: A