Finding Nemo (2003)

Pixar studios has managed to change the way people think about animated films not just by the incredible animation, but the great stories and utterly memorable characters. “Finding Nemo” is one of those films that parents can watch with their children and not want to run out of the theaters screaming at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. What shines most throughout this film is the mature and sometimes meaningful theme and moral of the story.

The voice work from the cast is great, especially by Albert Brooks who plays the inept and retentive Marlin. Meanwhile Degeneres supplies the excellent quirky offbeat and flawless voice characterization for female fish Dory. The film has an all-star cast of big name and talented character actors that voice various characters, most notably Willem Dafoe, and Geoffrey Rush. Pixar is so skilled in their ability to portray the human spirit and are adept in making seemingly mundane objects around us be portrayed as human as represented in the movies “Toy Story”, “Monsters, inc.” and especially this.

Stanton and the Pixar crew develop hilarious and memorable supporting characters that help leave a mark upon the audience. They fiddle with Oceanic life very cleverly and the comedy and adventure are awe inspiring. “Finding Nemo’s” animation in the film is practically flawless presenting some amazing and often eerily realistic animation given to the audience. When the film is bright and sunny it’s amazing, thus shown in the Coral reef scenes, and when the film is dark and murky as shown in the underwater caves in the water it’s absolutely stunning and amazing to see and such a spectacle to behold.

Pixar has created a dynamic and entertaining  film for all ages that’s pleasantly accessible to all audiences with its themes about parenthood, the dangers of the outside world, and self confidence. The kids will appreciate the vivid characters and brilliant animation, and you’ll surely appreciate the witty adult humor and human themes.

The DVD has hours of great extras including screensavers, deleted scenes, a fun charades game with Crush, a commentary, and both a widescreen and full screen version of the film.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Based on the record-breaking bestselling series of children’s books, Harry Potter lives with his annoying family once more and is visited by a house elf called Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones) who warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts because of ensuing danger; Harry does not heed his warnings and returns once more to discover a dark force sabotaging the beloved members of the school’s faculty and freezing its victims to stone. Now Harry and Ronald must discover the source before it’s too late.

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Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)

spykids2After a raid by armed soldiers during a party with the world’s top agents and their kids, Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), the youngest of the Cortez spy family is accused of stealing the high powered super weapon The Transmooker Device. Now Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni Cortez must travel to the island of lost dreams and face off against monsters, soldiers, and rival agents Girti (Emily Osment) and Gary Giggles and find the real transmooker device before the evil Donnagon (Mike Judge) gets a hold of it and prove Juni’s innocence. But their parents and meddlesome grandparents are on the hunt for the kids before they’re killed. I tend to easily grow tired of family movies if they’re either too hokey or corny; most of the time, they’re both.

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Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)

153863.1020.AIn this original animated adventure, we meet Spirit (Voice of Matt Damon), a noble and protective stallion that leads his group of horses along the mid-west. One night, curiosity takes over and he snoops around a confederate army camp. He gets too close for comfort and mistakenly gets caught by soldiers. Now Spirit will go on the journey of a lifetime, discovering the meaning of friendship, loyalty, courage and love. I was really hesitant to watch this movie, because animated movies in the theaters have been in a large slump, especially since watching “Lilo and Stitch” and “The Road to El Dorado”. But all my disillusionment was taken away when I laid my eyes on this. Boy, was I in for something spectacular.

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

atlantisMichael J. Fox voices the character of Milo Thatch, an archaeologist who in his field is considered to be eccentric by his colleagues. Milo believes that the lost city of Atlantis is under water and he wants to retrieve the Shepard’s Journal, a book that proves to be a map to finding Atlantis. No one wants to provide the funding for his proposed expedition, until one night he’s taken to an eccentric old millionaire who wants to help him. He gives Milo the Shepard’s journal and tells him that his grandfather once wanted to explore Atlantis. So, Milo is then taken to a shipyard where he meets a team of explorers who are going along with him. All seems well, but after a while, Milo begins to suspect they have ulterior motives.

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The Master of Disguise (2002)

Despite being panned by critics and landing at number — on IMDB’s worst 250 movies of all time, this is not awful. Considering all the horrible teen sex romps, this is a tolerable movie. Dana Carvey tries his hardest at forming these near flawless impressions of Al Pacino from “Scarface”, and (my favorite) Robert Shaw from “Jaws”.

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Lilo & Stitch (2002)

MPW-47998This is a very disappointing effort from Disney. The entire movie is very pedestrian and nothing entirely stands out within the viewing of this. First off, the plot, though sweet is very contrived and never brings to mind the words innovative, which most Disney movies are known for. The movie is a rip-off of “Extra-Terrestrial”, the only problem is, “E.T.” is a better movie.

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