Fish tales

Here’s why Pixar Studios, producers of the Toy Story series, A Bug’s Life and Monsters, Inc., is revered by film lovers: The worst thing that can be said about the company is that its latest, Finding Nemo, isn’t a “classic.”

Since stealing the crown as feature animation leader from Disney with Toy Story, Pixar has conjured digital visual magic at the clip of one classic about every two years. Practically the only glory now wielded by Disney is its contract to release Pixar films.

Nemo is a good movie and a very good children’s film. Sporting the voices of Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres, it follows a worrisome clownfish (guess who) while he searches the ocean for his boy, taken by divers for a dentist’s aquarium. A little dullness seeps in as Brooks bellyaches to all comers, and DeGeneres, as his scatterbrained pal, takes on a bit of Disney’s clichàd “sidekick” babbling. The parallel scenes of Nemo in the aquarium acquire energy, especially with Willem Dafoe voicing an aging fish also kidnapped from the sea. His plots to break out are a lot of fun. Energy is spilled, however, in cutting back to the Brooks/DeGeneres meandering.

Funny, lively, and a visual astonishment, otherwise. Complain it isn’t a classic? Don’t. Go see it.