Techtite's DVD Reviews!

"My favorites [of the Pixar films] would still have to be the Toy Story films, which are both (more or less) tied for first place. I'd rate Finding Nemo about the same as A Bug's Life in second place, with Monsters Inc. (and I can hear my e-mailbox overflowing with troll mall as I type this) in last place.."

--from the review

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Sidebar ::

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Me Tortoise, You Hare...? Amusing, that on all the boxes and promotional material for this film, the character in the foreground is...Mr. Turtle! Okay, so that wasn't his name, though seriously: this guy was in the 100 minute film for...what? Ten minutes? Not even that, when you consider his scenes are mixed with a scene of Nemo in the tank. Yet this turtle gets top billing on the DVD (and VHS video) box covers!

Why the star treatment...? Probably because: of all the characters in Finding Nemo, his is the most stable. Marlin is a worry wart, Nemo is just a "kid," and Dory is, sorry, the comic relief. Yet this turtle comes in as the "perfect" dad who's oh-so- supportive of his little turtle son, and speaks like this totally "rad" surfer dude. What-EVER. It's still pretty nutsy to make this guy the biggest character on the DVD box. What's next; a new DVD of Little Mermaid, with Sebastian the crab in the forefront, and Ariel waving at him in the backdrop...?

The Dentist's Evil Niece: was this character necessary? Apparently, the feeling was that the fish needed a reason to quickly escape from their tank. They get one in the form of the dentist's niece; perhaps the singularly worst chosen character of the film. For one thing, this is supposedly the niece of the dentist, and yet the metallic, robocop-like hardware around her mouth seems to be the work of an economy-conscious dentist, not the girl's "Uncle," who'd probably give her those new-fangled invisible braces. Am I thinking to hard, in a cartoon of this type...?

Okay, then how about this one: what's up with the dentist giving this little brat a fish all the time, when they keep dying? Is this dentist supposed to be a buffoon who knows the needs of his fish, yet doesn't tell his niece that shaking the fish vigorously in the little bag will kill them?!? To me, this character was totally out of place, and completely unneeded. Just MHO.

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Finding Nemo

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A Techtite Review

As Always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras)!

The Film: Pixar has lately been the only "Disney" cartoon source with the best of both worlds. Mind you, this opinion is from a critic who liked Lilo & Stitch for its story though not its animation, and liked Treasure Planet's CGI-enhanced visuals in outer space, though not its prepubescent dialogue. Pixar has a penchant for combining the best of both worlds: great animation, and a swell story to boot. Finding Nemo is the latest, and while not my favorite of Pixar's work, it's definitely the best "Disney film" to come down the G-rated turnpike in years.

The story begins is typical "Bambi" fashion, when a clown fish named Marlin (voice of Albert Brooks) is knocked unconscious by a fast-moving predator, who is after his "wife" and their 400 eggs. He wakes to see all of them gone, except for one, slightly damaged egg, who he names "Nemo." Trouble is, after losing 399 children and one spouse, Marlin is more than a little protective of Nemo...perhaps even too protective.

The main story begins with Nemo going to his first day of school. It's the first time Marlin has let his son out of his sight, and Nemo is dying for adventure in his life. He winds up getting more than he bargained for, when on a dare he touches the bottom of a boat nearby, only to get caught by a scuba-diving dentist, who promptly adds Nemo to his office's fish tank. Marlin does whatever it takes to track his only son down, and get him back.

As you can imagine, Marlin has his work cut out for him. The only good news he finds is in a forgetful blue fish named Dory (Ellen Degeneres), who regardless of forgetting what Marlin says 30 seconds after he says it, has agreed to help him find his missing son. She helps Marlin through many obstacles in his quest, including a bunch of sharks trying to go vegetarian (with mixed results), a school of poisonous jellyfish, and a perilous undercurrent he must pass with the help of some "surfer-dude" minded sea turtles. Meanwhile, Nemo makes friends with the other fish in his tank, who plan a daring escape.

Visually speaking, there's a lot of nice eye candy in this film. Rarely do the animators settle for a mere foggy blue background, and instead Dory and Marlin are often in very populated waters. Colorful coral reefs abound, as does a very vibrant sea life, from the opaque swarm of jellyfish to the always-moving sea anemone that Marlin lives in. Pixar has truly come a long way in CGI artistry. In Toy Story, it was forgivable that the toys looked only slightly "real," because they were supposed to be plastic toys; in this film, fish are supposed to look not like plastic, though like fish, and surprisingly, they often do. Very rarely do you find the time to consider that none of what you're looking at is real.

Of course, with former standup comics like Degeneres and Brooks as the lead voices, you're sure to have some amusing jokes as well, to go with all the cool visuals. I sense that some scenes by this talented voice acting duo were totally improvisation, which the animation team brilliantly implemented into the actual film. Like when Dory hears a bunch of nearby whales, and presumes that she can communicate with them if she talks really, really slow. Not that the animation team was without a few visual gags of their own, including a school of jovial fish who like to form the shapes of whatever they're talking about. Even some inside jokes will be enjoyed by people who know a bit about aquatic life, like when a young squid gets scared, only to cry, "Ah! you made me ink!" While some scenes are quite dark (more on that next), these other scenes are brilliant comedy relief.

Note that I've been dodging a bullet here when not commenting on the film's core flaw; it's grit. As someone who went to this film with four kids under the age of 8, this G-rated film, to me, just barely missed breaking the PG barrier. In once scene, a shark trying to go vegetarian is tempted into a carnivorous rage by droplets of blood. Mind you, this isn't even getting into the prologue, which doesn't really show anything gory, yet makes it quite clear Marlin's spouse and 399 eggs became fish-food. Added to the mix is the singular character I didn't like, in the form of the dentist's niece; an obnoxious tyke who apparently doesn't know anything about how to treat fish. See the gray sidebar to hear me rant about this computer generated brat some more, or just move on...

Not that such grit kept me from liking this film. I just didn't think it was the best work Pixar has ever done. My favorites would still have to be the Toy Story films, which are both (more or less) tied for first place. I'd rate Finding Nemo about the same as A Bug's Life in second place, with Monsters Inc. (and I can hear my e-mailbox overflowing with troll mall as I type this) in last place. Still, even the "worst" of Pixar's five films is far superior to anything Disney Studios has released in over 5 years. If Pixar keeps up the good work, Disney will be tickled pink. So will we. 

---Techtite

The DVD: I'm sorry, gang, but I'm a little angry with this DVD. Why? Because this "two disc/two version" deal is nonsense. The widescreen version is not a widescreen version per se, though is in fact merely a cropped version of the exact same full screen, pan-and-scan image. Say it ain't so, Pixar!!!

What's the difference? Check out the comparison above, of a scene from the dentist's office, overlooking Sydney Australia's harbor. Note that in a true widescreen image, more should be seen on the left and right; the "as it appeared in theaters" version. Instead, it's just a cropped version of the full screen version! Note the book at the bottom is nearly out of the picture entirely, as is the poster at upper-right. True; in this scene that's no big deal, but imagine how big a deal it is in the action-scenes, which will never be seen in their entirety, the way they were in theaters. The point is, Widescreen is balderdash, and therefore, so is the whole point to an "additional disc." Talk about a sales tease.

Okay, enough venting. What extras are there...? Well, on disc one (the FAKE widescreen disc) there are extras intended for the older set, with disc two (full screen) offering the child-friendly extras. Let's start with the child-friendly extras, first. What makes this menu so amusing is the added "aquarium" option! Click on the fish icon at lower-left, and the menu screen fades and you have a full screen of all the dentist office aquarium fish swimming along, in a video loop, until you press <Enter> on your DVD remote. There are additional aquarium scenes for the various menus on this disc, so click on the fish icon wherever you find it. It's a cute addition, and an ingenious idea.

Adding to Disc Two's aquarium fun are the following extras. There's a one-minute intro by the Pixar team, the remake of the classic Pixar short "Knick Knack" (I'll let the message board purists tell you elsewhere why this is considered a "remake,"), "Mr. Ray's Encyclopedia" (a short educational narration of each fish seen in the film, with facts about the actual fish in real life), a slide-show style storybook based on the film, "Fish charades" (a game kids can play, where the school of fish from the film form shapes that kids must guess the identity of). 

There are two child-oriented extras on disc two I loved most of all. One is the child-friendly "mock-umentary" of sorts, complete with "interviews" with Dory and Marlin, a quick 5 and a half minute look at Pixar studios, and every piece of promotional material ever used for the film. Second, is a seven-minute "Exploring the Reef" educational featurette hosted by Jean-Michel Cousteau, and with the occasional visit by characters from the film. This mesh of actual sea footage and characters from the film is very well done; too bad it's only seven minutes long!

Okay, onto disc one; the fake widescreen disc (grrrr!). These are the more techno-oriented extras, although the menus do include more of those cute fish tank icons, only this time...they are scenes from the "ocean!" Cooool. There's also a 70 second intro by the Pixar troupe, telling you what to look for on disc one, including a rather well-done audio commentary with video enhancement. I say video enhancement because on occasion, the Pixar troupe comes out yet again, during the actual film, showing you the particulars that made that key scene. This commentary also includes the only way you can see the deleted scenes, so be sure to see the film in this format, at least once. It's a very nice audio commentary, actually. It almost makes you forget that the image you're seeing isn't really widescreen at all (arrrrgh!).

Added to the audio commentary, sadly, isn't much. There is a nice over-25-minute featurette, though that's about it. Kids, understandably, got the star treatment here. That's fair enough, though how about an actual, as-it-appeared-in-theaters widescreen edition, gang? Until then...this fullscreen-with-fake-widescreen will do...but just barely. 

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