By Ellen Siefke
Features Editor|
Alas, yet another childhood classic has been ruined by the ever-popular menace known as 3D. “Finding Nemo 3D,” which premiered Sept. 14, represents just another unfortunate example of the confusing choice by director Lee Unkrich and others to tarnish the sheer awesomeness of a simple 2D classic.
The movie itself was not bad, quite the opposite. For those of you who have forgotten, the tale follows Marlin, a clownfish, as he searches for his son, Nemo, who was captured by an Australian dentist.
A simple plot like that can hardly go wrong, but Andrew Stanton, the original writer, decided to take it to the next level by introducing Dory, a forgetful Pacific blue tang. I absolutely love Dory; voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, she is my favorite character. She is just hilarious, and her short-term memory loss cracks me up.
A good example of Dory’s comical ways is a chase scene. Dory has just told Marlin the direction that the boat was headed (this is a fishing boat that may have Nemo). So, she is supposedly leading him to the boat. However, she soon forgets this and believes that Marlin is stalking her like a crazy fish.
After a few attempts to shake him, she confronts him with an angry, “Will you quit it?! I’m trying to swim here!”
Marlin, surprised, explains the situation. Dory quickly realizes her mistake, and the two continue to swim toward the boat. This scene just about sums up Dory’s forgetfulness, which always forces a chuckle from even the most serious viewer.
Another subtle hint of comedy stems from Marlin’s constant struggle to live up to his namesake. Other fish who meet him constantly ask for a joke; however, he always resorts to the same humorless story involving a sea anemone. After he finishes his tale, the others simply give a blank stare showing annoyance (kind of like the reaction to my brother’s jokes, but don’t tell him that).
It’s the little things that ultimately make this movie a childhood classic. Watching it on screen, many pleasant memories came flooding back. Like the time when my friends and I had a sleepover and watched this movie along with two others. We were up literally all night, yet we somehow made it through the next day. Or the day at school when my third-grade class was awarded with a movie day in which we watched segments of this.
Unfortunately, the great film was marred by the 3D experience. To begin, 3D did absolutely nothing to enhance the image; in fact, I was struggling to clearly view a few scenes. More importantly, 3D is just an arbitrary attempt to disguise Hollywood’s lack of creative ideas. The philosophy there is, “Since we can’t think of any ideas, why don’t we just 3D-ify an old movie! Everything will be fine!” Psst…Hollywood…it’s not working. So thumbs up to “Finding Nemo” and thumbs down to 3D.
