Z/Web

I sure wish the people at Pixar would give screenwriting lessons to Hollywood. Why can’t most films be as excellent as everything Pixar does? This movie is awesome. I wasn’t really convinced Pixar could do it again, but they did. They created a wonderful character-based story. I’d heard that it was about a fish looking for his lost son, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. What makes the story work is this: the father’s overprotective of his only son, Nemo, and thus won’t let him live life, and that creates conflict as the son gets older. When Nemo is captured by a human and put into a fish tank, it’s up to the dad to find and rescue his son. The journey has many adventures (for each of them), and through the process both learn to compromise. Nemo grows up, realizing that he’s not invincible, and the dad realizes he must let Nemo go in order to keep him. Great moral, great story, and terrific humor. The fish animation is wonderful, but the above water stuff is truly spectacular — the Syndey, Australia bay looks like a photograph. Pixar just packs in so much stuff there’s never a dull moment: it’s just wonderful. It has a different feel from the Toy Story movies and Monsters, Inc., which is great. Highly recommended. Brilliant writing. A must see for all ages.

Mild little robbery caper with a twist: this time the thieves are attempting to rob a thief, their former partner who betrayed them and killed one of them. One of the robbers is the murdered man’s daughter, so we root for these guys to be successful. Overall there’s nothing too surprising here, but the performances are good, there’s humor, and the complex robbery schemes are interesting. Good fun.