*** Official "FINDING NEMO" Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Peter Kline]

Joe. Mike appears near the very end of the credits. Lots of the characters from the film "play" during the final credits sequence. You need to stay to the very end!

 

[Andy Sheets]

Well, I saw it last night and I really liked it. I don't think I liked it nearly as much as the Toy Story movies, but it's close.

I think what I most admired about the movie was the way they really nailed the feeling of how truly vast and perilous the ocean is. Lots of the scenes in this movie, particularly the gigantic mouths sucking the fish down, could have been taken directly from nightmares I had when I was a kid, when I used to try to get my head around the hugeness of the ocean and the creatures that lived in it and couldn't manage it (a bit of an odd aside: I think this is also a reason why I like HP Lovecraft. But anyway...). Stressing the vulnerability of the characters in this way gave the movie an edginess that really touched me, which is a nice contrast from Monsters Inc., which never really convinced me that anyone was at risk and thus that movie, while creative, was ultimately dull.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

What are your favorite parts?

Mine was when Dory was speaking whale.

 

[ThomasC]

I didn't think the whale-speaking parts were that funny at first, but I think I enjoyed them more the second time around. The best part was at the harbor when Marlin says "Thaaaaaaaaaank yoooooooou" and Dory says, "Wow! I wish I could speak whale!"

Favorite parts:

When the babies are jumping on the trampoline-like things at the school and one of them loses control, falls on the surface, and starts to cry.

Dory: What's your name?
Nemo: Nemo.
Dory: ... That's a nice name.

Even though I already saw this in the previews (numerous times, maybe), when Crush says "First, you were like, whoa; then we were like, whoa; then you were like, whoa..."
Marlin: What are you talking about?

When Crush starts swimming on his back and really starts to sound like a ol' time surfer, and when they're going really fast through the current (Righteous! Righteous!) That "righteous!" part had me laughing the hardest.

That's all I remember for now, maybe more to come...

 

[David Forbes]

I lvoed the montage where Marlin's tale is spread across the ocean, and then how Nemo reacts when he hears it. "My dad fought a shark!" "The way I heard, there were THREE of them!" Beautiful....

And Dory's confused breakdown at the end was really moving. I'm not a big Ellen fan but she was absolutely perfect the whole way through.

 

[ThomasC]

How was it a confused breakdown, David?

 

[Peter Kline]

Finding Nemo' Leads Pack at Box Office with $70.6 million

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co.'s underwater cartoon "Finding Nemo" doused its rivals at the North American box office by selling $70.6 million worth of tickets in its first three days of release, the company said on Sunday.

The computer-animated fishy tale sent Universal Pictures' Jim Carrey (news) comedy "Bruce Almighty" down to the No. 2 slot with an estimated three-day haul of $35.6 million; the 10-day haul for "Bruce" surged to $135.7 million. Universal is a unit of Vivendi Universal SA .

The top 10 boasted two other newcomers. Paramount Pictures' "The Italian Job," a remake of the 1969 crime caper of the same name, opened at No. 3 with a strong $19.3 million. Paramount is a unit of Viacom Inc .

Twentieth Century Fox's "Wrong Turn," a low-budget teen thriller, grossed a modest $5 million, tied at No. 6 with the studio's "X2: X-Men United." Fox is a unit of News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group Inc .


"Finding Nemo," which Disney produced with Pixar Animation Studios Inc., set a new opening record for an animated film, surpassing the $62.5 million bow of Disney/Pixar's "Monsters, Inc." in November 2001, Disney said.


The cartoon revolves around a plucky clownfish in the Australian tropics who must reunite with his father (voiced by Albert Brooks (news)). Ellen DeGeneres (news) also added her voice to the film, which was directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, a veteran of such Pixar hits as "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life."

SIDE NOTE: Remember that perhaps 60% (at least) were reduced childrens tickets.

 

[Craig S]

Based on my experiences at the megaplex this weekend, FN is going to be the biggest film of the summer - at least in actual heads. MR could top it in dollars due to the large amount of children's admissions for FN, but because I think FN will have much longer legs (fins?) than MR, it will probably end up on top when the smoke clears. $300 million at least.

I have NEVER seen my local theater so crowded during an opening weekend for ANY film since it opened three years ago. Harry Potter, LotR, AotC, Spidey, MR - none of these blockbusters produced the masses of humanity crowding the theater that FN did this weekend.

And it truly was a crowd that covered the entire spectrum. Lots of families with kids, sure, but also lots of adult couples, teens, even senior citizens. And every one of them left the theater smiling. The American public knows that the Pixar name has become a guarantee of a good time in the theater, no matter what your age.

My opinion - best studio film of the year thus far. Nothing else is even close. And it will probably remain that way until the glut of Oscar contenders hits in December.

 

[Peter Kline]

Craig.

I saw it a second time last night with my 9 year old nephew. The 7, 7:30 and 8 PM shows were all sold out. A mass of families. Even though the film is primarily about fish, it will definately have legs. Almost a universal comment was, "I want to see it again!". (I did!)

 

[Patrick Sun]

How many families are taking their kids to see FN during evening admission prices vs. the daytime matinee reduced rates anyhow? I saw tons of kids during the daytime/afternoon matinees at the theaters. I suspect that the theaters are just getting more business during the matinee showings for a kid's film anyhow, and those showings are at reduced prices (but are there even more reduced prices for kids during the matinees?).

 

[ThomasC]

I have NEVER seen my local theater so crowded during an opening weekend for ANY film since it opened three years ago.

I've never seen people line up for a noon showing on a Saturday; I saw the showing before, and it was packed, but not sold out.

"Three years ago?" Did you mean three days ago?

 

[Patrick Sun]

Anyone see the original version of "Knick Knack" where the mermaid and the bikini girl had larger boobs?

 

[Peter Kline]

Boobs is down.... so to speak,

Kid tickets are usually the same price all day, aren't they?

 

[Patrick Sun]

Boobs are back up.

My point on the children's tickets is that FN is marketed towards kids who will mainly be seeing it during the matinee pricing of the theaters. I can't imagine a large percentage of the children in attendance are seeing the later 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. showings anyhow. It a combo of children's most typical viewing times coinciding with the matinee pricing of the theaters. The studios get burned on the matinee pricing for children blockbusters. I'm sure the theaters are loving the extra concession stand business, though.

 

[Peter Kline]

There were lots of kids at the 7:30 PM show I took my nephew to. The line waiting to get in for the 9 PM show was full of children as well. They're out of school here in South Florida.

 

[Craig S]

I said:

"Three years ago?" Did you mean three days ago?

The "it" in that sentence was referring to the theater, not the movie. Sorry about that - it wasn't very clear, was it. :b

 

[Craig S]

Anyone see the original version of "Knick Knack" where the mermaid and the bikini girl had larger boobs?

Wow! I can certainly see why they toned down the mermaid - looks like she's wering pasties!

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Who spotted the cameos of other Pixar characters?

Hopefully this topic hasn't been brought up yet; I've only read Page 3 of this thread.

And man oh man, did those two gals experience some serious breast reduction! I'm not exactly sure why it had to be done, but those ladies went from a D cup to an A!

Kids can't see boobies? Do we cover their eyes when they breast-feed?

As far as Nemo goes, I just loved it. I was particularly impressed with the subtle way Pixar introduces a trio of main characters - all of whom are handicapped in one way or another. (Dory = mentally, Nemo = physically, Marlin = emotionally)

Willem Defoe was my favorite voice actor here, though DeGeneres did a wonderful job as well. And I love that Ratzenberger is like Pixar's good luck charm.

Needless to say I gave this wonderful movie 5 stars, and you can read my review here if you'd like. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Nemo in the Top 3 for profitability this summer.

I know I'll be seeing it on the big screen at least one more time.

Long live Pixar!

 

[WoodyH]

Patrick — Thanks for the screencaps of the girls pre-"surgery"! This got noticed and posted to MetaFilter today, and since the original poster couldn't link to "proof", I've snagged your pics and copied them to my server (so as not to slam your bandwidth) and added them to the discussion, with credit to you. Just letting you know!

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Great movie! I still liked Monster's Inc. more though. But Pixar has yet to put out 'crap'.

That irks me about what they did Knick Knack though. As soon as it came on and they showed the first lady I immediately said to my friend "where did the melons go?" It is a great short, but I think that ruined the motives for me. It was never about companionship. It was always about getting a woman with big knockers, which made the curved nose even funnier. Pixar used to have the full short, unedited on their website but now they just show a short clip, none show the women. I hope they put the original on the DVD.