If you're planning to take a child under age 8 to see, "Finding Nemo"...(my title)

The creators of "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters, Inc." go underwater in this adventure, which takes place in Australia's Great Barrier Reef and a Sydney dentist's aquarium. After a diver scoops up Nemo, a young clown fish, his distraught father Marlin accompanied by his friend Dory who has short-term memory problems, set out on an epic journey to find him. Meanwhile, with help from his fish tank mates, Nemo makes his own plans for escape. With the voices of Alexander Gould, Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Erica Beck and Geoffrey Rush. Directed by Andrew Stanton. (1:41)

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A barracuda with very long and pointed teeth snaps viciously at two fish, one fish is knocked unconscious, and the other fish along with many eggs are gone when he comes around (the barracuda apparently ate them although we do not see it). A fish is hit in the nose, her nose bleeds, a shark gets a whiff of the blood and goes into a frenzy chasing two fish through a wrecked submarine, crashing into doors, lunging through hatches, breaking through the hull and trying to squeeze into a torpedo tube; the two fish push a torpedo into his mouth, he spits it out, and it floats toward an underwater mine field setting it off. Two fish swim into very deep and very dark water, they see a light and begin to follow it, but it turns out to be a deep-water lantern fish with very sharp teeth, and it chases them and snaps at them (one fish ends up in its stomach, along with its lighted lantern, briefly). Two fish are surrounded by jelly fish (one is stung a couple of times), they bounce off the tops and try to get out but one is trapped; the other returns to save it and they both fall unconscious after being stung several times (one has scars on its side). There are tense moments when a young fish goes into an aquarium filter to clog it with a pebble and is sucked back into the filter tube toward a fan -- it is pulled out just before hitting it. A wrecked submarine slips off a reef and nearly pins two fish against a rock formation. Two fish are sucked into a humpback whale's mouth and one rams repeatedly at its "teeth" (actually baleen plates used to filter krill and plankton) trying to get out. Eventually, water rushes through, the two trapped fish cling to the whale's tongue, and they are shot out of its blowhole. A large fishing net scoops many fish into it, they scream and panic, but then they swim hard downward and the net breaks and the fish are freed -- one fish seems injured but it's fine. A father fish panics when his son swims into open water, a diver rises behind the young fish and scoops him into a net. The father fish chases in terror but is pushed away by a boat propeller. A girl screams when a pelican flies through a dentist’s office and a fish jumps into her hair. A girl grabs a bag with a fish in it and shakes it violently. Two fish flop onto a table and one is flipped down a drain (we see him swirling through pipes). We see a photo of a girl holding a plastic bag with a dead fish in it and we hear that she "shook the bag too much." A man’s mouth is drilled by a dentist (he yells and the drill whines). A dentist pulls a tooth out of a man’s mouth when he is startled and the man yells. Two fish flap around on a pier surrounded by seagulls, and one is picked up and pulled on by the seagulls. A pelican scoops the two fish up and flies off, is chased by many seagulls, they swoop and fly and end up slamming into a boat’s sails (their beaks poke through). A large shark smiles and laughs menacingly at two fish showing his many rows of pointed teeth, he escorts them to a meeting with two other sharks and the fish are frightened that they will be eaten. A frightened fish swims erratically in a tank and runs into the glass a few times, and a pelican flies into a window a few times. Two fish approach an eerie trench with fish bones in it. A pelican swallows two fish, but they fight back and he has to eject them. Two crabs snap at fish as it passes, a fish threatens a crab by holding it out of the water where seagulls can see it as a potential meal. Two fish twirl and spin through an underwater vortex. A young fish goes through initiation rites in an aquarium and swims through a fast-flowing stream of bubbles that they call "ring of fire." Fish and turtles swim through a fast moving underwater current. A fish swims through a large school of fish, runs into one and they fall to the sea floor. A boy turtle head-butts a fish, one fish smacks another fish in the face with its fin, and a group of baby turtles playfully tackle a fish. Two fish yell at each other in a couple of scenes, one fish tells another fish to go away and hurts its feelings. A puffer fish yells and puffs up a couple of times. A fish says "I have a hook in my lip," a fish asks "Am I dead," a shark has a hook in his nostril, and a fish is scarred and we hear that he fell on dental tools. A fish gets stuck in a tube, two fish steal a crab’s shell to tease it, and a baby fish bounces off a sponge and lands on the sea floor crying. A young squid inks when it is frightened. A father fish grieves over the loss of his family. A young fish tells his father that he hates him. A pelican sits on the ocean surface, a bubble pops next to it and another pelican thinks it's flatulence. An aquarium is filthy and the fish talks about what they are swimming in (their own waste). A fish burps. One fish is nicknamed "shark bait."

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Fatherhood, paternal love, family, friendship, overprotectiveness, responsibility, short-term memory loss, guilt, 12-step programs, generalizations, exploration, knowledge, conscience, desperation.

MESSAGE - Parents must know that eventually they must let their children go. A parent’s love can help them do extraordinary things. Our shortcomings can sometimes become our strengths.

(Note: A short film precedes the feature and contains the following: A shapely doll in a bikini sunbathes, a shapely mermaid doll wears a bikini top and mermaid tail, and a snowman is anxious to get out of his snow globe to approach the dolls. A snowman tries to break his snow globe using various methods, including TNT and a blow torch.)

Here's another rating for parents:

"FINDING NEMO"
(2003) (voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres) (G)
http://www.screenit.com/movies/2003/finding_nemo.html
Alcohol-*None
Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful-Minor
Bad Attitude Frightening-Mild
Tense Scenes Guns-*Heavy
Weapons-Mild
Imitative Behavior-Mild
Jump-Mild
Scenes Music(Scary/Tense)-Heavy
Music(Inappropriate)-None
Profanity-None
Sex/Nudity-*None
Smoking-None
Tense Family Scenes-Heavy
Topics To Talk About-Moderate
Violence-Moderate

QUICK TAKE:
Computer Animated Comedy: A clown fish sets out across the sea to find his son who was captured and then sold to an Australian dentist.

PLOT:
Marlin (voice of ALBERT BROOKS) and Coral (voice of ELIZABETH PERKINS) are happy parents-to-be of several hundred clown fish and have moved to a new undersea home. Yet, disaster strikes and Marlin is then left alone with only one egg that he vows to protect.

Sometime later, it's the first day of school for young Nemo (voice of ALEXANDER GOULD), and Marlin isn't happy to let him out of his sight. That's not only due to him being an over-protective dad, but also because Nemo has a smaller than normal fin that doesn't bother the youngster, but worries Marlin.

To prove his dad wrong about such matters, Nemo disobeys his orders and sets out in the direction of a human boat. To Marlin's horror, a human diver than captures Nemo and speeds away, leaving Marlin shocked and heartbroken. After accidentally but literally running into Dory (voice of ELLEN DeGENERES), an optimistic blue tang with short term memory loss, Marlin discovers one of the diver's masks and then sets out to track the address on it back to his boy.

Meanwhile, Nemo has ended up in an Australian dentist's office in an aquarium with the likes of Gill (voice of WILLEM DAFOE), Bloat (voice of BRAD GARRETT), Peach (voice of ALLISON JANNEY), Gurgle (voice of AUSTIN PENDLETON), Bubbles (voice of STEPHEN ROOT), Jacques (voice of JOE RANFT) and Deb (voice of VICKI LEWIS) who believes that her reflection is her twin sister, Flo.

Nemo's appearance stimulates Gil's desire to try to escape again and he hatches an elaborate plan to do so. It's important that they succeed since Nemo is targeted as a gift to the dentist's 8-year-old niece, Darla, who has a penchant for killing fish.

As they plot and prepare for their escape, Marlin and Dory make their way across the sea. Along the way, they encounter various creatures, such as three sharks -- Bruce (voice of BARRY HUMPHRIES), Anchor (voice of ERIC BANA) and Chum (voice of BRUCE SPENCE) - who are going through an AA type step program to stop eating fish; Nigel (voice of GEOFFREY RUSH) the pelican; and laidback "surfer" turtle Crush (ANDREW STANTON) and his son Squirt (voice of NICHOLAS BIRD). With time running out, Marlin hopes to find and rescue Nemo before it's too late.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
It's a good bet that kids of all ages will want to see this one.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: G
For not containing material to warrant a higher rating.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:
It's debatable whether kids views animated characters (particularly non-human ones) as role models, but here's a brief look at the characteristics of the major characters.
MARLIN is a pessimistic, conservative and overprotective clown fish who sets out across the sea to try to find and rescue his son.
DORY is an optimistic and cheery fish who suffers from short term memory loss but tries to help Marlin when she remembers the nature of their quest.
NEMO is a Marlin's young son who doesn't always obey his father and ends up getting into trouble because of that.
GILL is the leader of the aquarium whose desire to escape is rekindled with Nemo's appearance.
BLOAT is a puffer fish who ends up inflated whenever under stress.
PEACH is the friendly starfish.
GURGLE is another fish who's germ-phobic.
BUBBLES is a fish obsessed with bubbles in the aquarium.
DEB is a fish who believes that her reflection is her twin sister.
JACQUES is the small cleaner shrimp who keeps the aquarium in top-notch form.
NIGEL is a friendly pelican who assists both Marlin and Nemo.
CRUSH is the laidback "surfer dude" turtle who assists Marlin and Dory.
BRUCE, ANCHOR and CHUM are three sharks going through a step-program to help them overcome eating fish.
CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO
HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
Then read OUR TAKE of this film.

(Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).

OUR WORD TO PARENTS:
The following is a brief summary of the content found in this G-rated computer animated offering. Although the reaction will depend on a child's age, level of maturity and tolerance for/past exposure to similar material, some violent scenes and perilous moments in the film might be rather unsettling, suspenseful or downright scary to younger kids.
Those include scenes where menacing looking sharks and other fish try to attack and eat the main characters, other perilous scenes, moments where various characters appear to be dead (they're not) as well as some comical but maybe scary-looking dentist scenes. Then there's the basic and underlying child separated from parent material that's found throughout the film. Older kids will probably have no such problem with any of that, but younger ones may (to varying degrees).

Beyond the attempted attacks, various characters occasionally strike others or accidentally run into them or other objects. Some brief and slightly crude humor is present, as are a few bad attitudes and some imitative behavior (mainly some non-explicit, colorful phrases).

Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content.

The old Pixar short film, "Knick Knack" precedes the main attraction and features an animated snowman trying to get out of a snow shaker and join a party with other toy-like creatures (including a female figure in a bikini - nothing explicit). During his efforts, he uses explosives that send him flying around the shaker and eventually ends up near a mermaid wearing a clamshell-type top (again, nothing explicit).

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE
None, although some sharks attend an AA type meeting, while a pelican jokes that another pelican has had too much and it's still only the morning (the second one is stumbling about on a dock due to having Marlin and Dory stuck in his throat, but appears to be drunk to the others).

BLOOD/GORE
A small creature involuntarily lets out ink several times when frightened (something of a scatological joke) and even says, "You scared the ink out of me."
We see a tiny bit of blood from Dory (that sends Bruce the shark into a feeding frenzy).
A fart joke comes from an underwater explosion causing a bubble to pop up beside a bird floating on the ocean surface. Another bird sarcastically says, "Nice" and then flies off in disgust.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE
Nemo disobeys his father's orders and heads out to and touches a boat.
Some may view Marlin as being too over-protective.
A school of fish mock Marlin (by forming themselves into the shape of him as an impression).
Despite wanting to do otherwise, Bruce the shark chases after and tries to eat Marlin and Dory (but that's what sharks normally do). Another fish later does the same.

FRIGHTENING SCENES
Younger kids might find the following unsettling, tense, suspenseful or even scary (all depending on their age, level of maturity and tolerance for such material), but older ones probably will have little if any problem with it.
Marlin and Coral realize that all of the other creatures in their "neighborhood" are gone and hiding. They then spot a large and menacing fish and Coral races to protect their nearby eggs. It then races at them and bites at them, with Marlin hitting it and it then hitting him with its tail. When Marlin comes to, he discovers that Coral is gone as are all but one of their 400 eggs (we never know what happened to them or her).
A human diver suddenly shows up near Nemo and captures him. Marlin tries to race after the diver and his boat as it takes off, but can't keep up with it.
The sight of a huge shark (Bruce) with a mouthful of sharp and nasty-looking teeth might be scary to some kids. We then learn that he's going through a step program to help him not each fish, but when he spots some blood, he sets out after Dory and Marlin (through an old sub and open water) and repeatedly bites at them and slams into various things while trying to get them. They end up in an old sub's torpedo chute with Bruce repeatedly banging into the opening, forcing a torpedo (and thus them) closer to his mouthful of teeth.
Nemo is scared when he finds himself inside a foreign aquarium (and that might scare younger kids).
For those who don't like dentists and dental work, several scenes are set in a dentist's office complete with brief, exterior views of a root canal and a tooth accidentally being yanked out (all played for comedy but showing nervous humans).
Nemo briefly gets stuck inside a tube in the aquarium.
An old submarine starts to slide off an underwater cliff and Marlin and Dory try to race out of its way (its nose hits another canyon wall quite close to them. They then have to try to find a diver's mask by swimming down into the pitch black environs of the deep sea. There, they encounter a deep-sea fish that's almost all teeth and repeatedly chases after both of them.
We see some potentially scary looking, mask-like monoliths in Nemo's aquarium (as some suspenseful music plays).
Marlin (who's mostly immune to their sting) suddenly realizes that he and Dory are surrounded by an enormous amount of huge jellyfish. He makes it out of them, but then realizes Dory has not and returns to find her stunned. He then gets her out, but not before being repeatedly stung by the tentacles (we hear the shock sounds of each impact).
After Nemo stops a gear from spinning with a pebble, he swims past it, unaware that the pebble is starting to slip. It does and he then suddenly finds himself being drawn back toward some spinning blades and the other fish quickly set out to rescue him (they do, but it's a close call). Later, Nemo tries the plan again, and this time succeeds (with a little suspenseful music playing).
Dory appears to be sick or injured, but we then see that she was just playing dead.
A large whale slowly approaches Marlin and Dory from behind (they don't realize it's there until it swallows them). We then see them inside its mouth and after a few moments it attempts to finish swallowing them (they hold onto its tongue and Marlin grabs Dory as she nearly falls down its throat). They end up being blown out the blowhole and are okay.
Nemo tries to avoid being caught in a bag in his aquarium and we then see that his new owner, an 8-year-old girl known for shaking fish to death in their bags, has arrived (with music from "Psycho" briefly playing).
Nigel, Marlin and Dory find themselves surrounded by seagulls who want to eat the latter two. Nigel then scoops them up and flies away with the gulls in hot pursuit.
On several occasions near the end of the film, Nemo appears to be dead and/or in trouble (such as briefly being out of the water along with Gil) and that may upset younger kids (but he's okay each time).
A human girl repeatedly shakes a bag containing Nemo (we know that she earlier killed a fish - before this movie begins - by doing the same).
Dory suddenly finds herself caught in a large net with many other fish and Nemo and Marlin race to save her and them (they do) before they're lifted from the sea.

GUNS/WEAPONS
Underwater mines/Torpedo: Seen in one scene and they all later explode by accident.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR
Phrases: "Freak out," "Pony boy," "Nuts" (crazy), "I think you're nuts," "Are you hungry? Cuz you're about to eat my bubbles," "Whoa," "Dude," "You so totally rock, "Sweet" and "Totally" (the last 5 said like a laidback surfer), "Shut up," "Crikey" and several incomplete "What the..?"
A fish loudly belches several times.

JUMP SCENES
A human diver suddenly shows up near Nemo.
A large shark suddenly shows up near Marlin.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)
A heavy amount of suspenseful and ominous music (briefly including the signature theme from "Psycho") plays in the film.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)
None.

PROFANITY
None.

SEX/NUDITY
None, but Gil tells the other fish to "think dirty thoughts" (referring to making their aquarium dirty enough that it has to be cleaned).

SMOKING
None.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES
Marlin presumably loses his wife, Coral, and most of their un-hatched eggs in an attack (we never know what happened to them and the story then segues to some time later).
Tired of his dad being too restrictive, Nemo tells him, "I hate you" and then disobeys his orders. Later, they're happy with each other and Nemo tells his dad that he loves him.
Marlin worries (throughout most of the film) about Nemo's whereabouts and safety. Meanwhile, Nemo doesn't believe that his father is out looking for him. Later, Marlin worries that Nemo is dead (on several occasions).

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT
Being different from others but still managing to do your thing and succeed (Nemo has a smaller than normal fin, just like Gil).
Listening to one's parents (and lack of doing so leading to troubles).
Overprotective parents.
The comment (from Gil) that fish aren't meant to be in aquariums.

VIOLENCE
A large and menacing fish races at Marlin and Coral, biting at them. Marlin slams into it and it then hits him with its tale. When he comes to, Marlin discovers that Coral and their eggs are gone (and presumably eaten, but we never know that for sure).
A parent sea horse whacks its offspring to make it behave.
Marlin hits a rock while racing after a human diver and is then blasted backwards by the boat's propeller blade (but isn't hurt).
Marlin runs face-first into Dory and then into a rock (both are okay).
Bruce the shark whacks Marlin with his fin.
A diving mask slaps back into Dory and slightly wounds her (with a tiny bit of blood). Bruce the shark then repeatedly tries to attack and eat her and Marlin.
An old torpedo lands on some underwater mines, resulting in a series of large (and loud) underwater explosions.
Nemo repeatedly swims into the walls of an aquarium (not realizing they're there).
A monstrous deep-sea fish repeatedly tries to attack and eat both Marlin and Dory.
Marlin (who's mostly immune) suddenly realizes that he and Dory are surrounded by an enormous amount of huge jellyfish. He makes it out of them, but then realizes Dory has not and returns to find her stunned. He then gets her out, but not before being repeatedly stung by the tentacles (we hear the shock sounds of each impact).
One of the fish slaps another.
A dentist ends up yanking a man's tooth out by accident when surprised.
Nigel the pelican slams into a closed widow several times (but is okay).
Marlin repeatedly bangs into the membrane filter inside a whale's mouth while trying to get out (he just bounces off it).
A pelican scoops up Marlin and Dory, but then chokes on them in his throat. Nigel the Pelican then hits that one.
A bunch of gulls slam beak-first into a sail (we see their beaks penetrate it).
A human dentist accidentally and briefly knocks himself out by hitting his head on something.
A crab hits another crab and both snap at Nemo as he passes by.

Reviewed May 20, 2003 / Posted May 30, 2003

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