Sometimes it pays to have friends in low places.
I can’t tell you how. Or where. Or when. (Why? Because that might result in someone getting fired. And that’s a hard-and-fast rule here at JHM. No story — no matter how great — is worth someone losing their job over.) But recently, I got the chance to take a look the “Finding Nemo” DVD.
Not the knock-off version, mind you. Not something that someone shot surreptitiously in some cinema with a camcorder last summer. But the really-for-real Disc 1 of this two disc set. Which isn’t due to hit stores shelves ’til November 4th.
And — I have to tell you guys — if you thought that this particular Pixar production looked good up on the big screen … well, just wait ’til you see “Finding Nemo” on your home entertainment center. The colors are dazzling. The visuals are absolutely amazing. And the story … I was just plain floored by how much more effective this story is on the small screen.
To explain: Some of you may recall how — this past summer — I was one of the few critics out there who dared to say that they had some problems with “Finding Nemo.” Particularly with the film’s storyline. Which I initially thought that the film’s story was way too episodic in nature.
Why for? Well … me personally, I found it somewhat jarring when the movie would suddenly shift from its A story (I.E. Marlin’s epic ocean-wide search for his son) over to its B story (I.E. Nemo and the other fish trapped in the dentist’s office trying desperately to escape from that tank). Which is why I eventually decided to lump this Andrew Stanton-directed film in with Stanton’s earlier effort, “A Bug’s Life.” (Which is a perfectly fine movie, by the way. It just wasn’t an instant classic like Pixar’s “Toy Story,” “Toy Story II” and “Monsters, Inc.” were.)
But — after watching and rewatching “Finding Nemo” on the small screen — I’m beginning to rethink my earlier position on this Pixar production. When viewed on television, the film’s story now seems to shift effortlessly between its two major plotlines. And — even when things do slow down for a moment or the plot hits a rough patch — there is always some great new character suddenly popping up and/or an intriguing bit of business to distract you from the film’s shortcomings. Which are few.
So let me state the obvious here: “Finding Nemo” (the film) is one great piece of home entertainment. Well worth buying all by itself. But — this being the DVD version of a Pixar Animation Studio production — both discs in this two disc set are (of course) loaded with some pretty amazing extras.
Sadly, I was only able to preview a few of the features on Disc 1. But what I was able to see was incredibly entertaining. These features included:
Amusing Menus
Make sure — when you finally pick up your own copy of the “Finding Nemo” DVD — that you don’t just rush through the thing. That you take time to savor some of the surprises hidden away on this disc.
Take for example, the very funny, all-new dialogue that Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres recorded just for this two disc set. If you pause long enough on the main menu for Disc 1, you’ll eventually hear Marlin and Dory started talking. And these two neurotic fish will start to try and noodge toward making a menu choice by saying things like:
Marlin: Okay. You got a lot of choices here. You can watch just the movie without the commentary.
Dory: Ooh. Ooh. I’m so excited. I’ve always wanted to see “The Little Mermaid.”
Marlin: Good. Well, this is “Finding Nemo.”
Dory: Oh. Well, that sounds nice too. Maybe we should watch that one?
Marlin: We’re watching that one! This is “Finding Nemo!”
Dory: Oh, you shouldn’t have switched just for me.
Marlin: Unbelievable.
Dory: I’ve always wanted to be in a film.
Marlin: You were in a film. This one. “Finding Nemo.”
Dory: No way. I’d remember that. Seriously …
Marlin: No, you wouldn’t …
Dory: Yes, I would. Being in a film would be so glamorous.
Marlin: Really?
Dory: Oh my. (Pretending to be an actress) Fabulous. Where is my trailer? I need water.
Marlin: Dory …
Dory: Fill my trailer with water …
Marlin: Something’s wrong with you.
Dory: (Singing) Just keep watching, just keep watching, just keep watching, watching, watching, watching-watching-watching …
Marlin: You got a lot of choices. Or you don’t even have to watch this movie. Take the disc out. Then I’ll stop talking …
Dory: (Continuing singing) Just keep watching, just keep watching, watching, watching, keep-keep-keep …
Marlin: There are no wrong choices. The only wrong choice is to sit there like you’re doing.
Dory: (Continuing singing) Watching, watching, wa-wa-watching …
Marlin: There’s a lot of good choices here. Pick one! Pick one so we can start. Please! All of us got nothing to do. Pick a choice, will ya?!
Dory: (Continuing singing) Watching, watching. Keep on watching …
Or — if you’d prefer to check out the disc’s bonus features — here you’ll find Mr. Ray, the film’s singing manta ray / teacher. And he’ll try to coax you into making a selection by singing:
Mr. Ray: (Singing) Make a selection, a selection, a selection. Make a selection on the DVD! Ooooooh! Pick something !
Nemo: Cool.
Mr. Ray: Welcome explorers! So much to see, so much to learn. Let’s go! Okay. Optical orbits up front. And let’s pick a button.
Eventually, Dory & Marlin pop up here too. As they once again try and noodge you into making a selection.
Dory: I’d like to see it with the commentary!
Marlin: It’s not up to you.
Dory: Well, they might listen to me. I speak mammal. (speaking overly precisely) “Choose the commentary.”
But — if you grow tired of listening to these additional hilarious comments by various “Finding Nemo” characters — you can actually start checking out Disc 1’s bonus features. These include:
Virtual Aquariums
Given the hundreds of lovely and lush backgrounds that Pixar’s artists cooked up for “Finding Nemo,” I’m sure that it will please animation fans no end to hear that several of these settings are available for selection on the DVD. These include:
The Reef – Where Marlin and Nemo make their home in the film.
The Plate Corral – Which you saw as Nemo and his classmate were riding aboard Mr. Ray to the Drop Off.
The Drop Off – Where Marlin and Coral had made their home prior to the barracuda attack.
The Anemone – The interior of Marlin and Nemo’s home.
The Sandy Reef – Just one of many pleasing views of the ocean bottom used in the movie.
I should point out that these are actually moving backgrounds. So the underwater plants all sway with the current. The sunlight streaming in from above refracts in different ways as the waves moves. The end result is that these particular sections on the “Finding Nemo” DVD (which are all on loops) are really rather soothing to watch. So — come November — if you’ve had a bad day at the office, just pop in Disc 1, select “Bonus Features” and then veg out in front of your very own virtual fish tank.
If — on the other hand — you’d prefer to learn more about how “Finding Nemo” was always made, then I suggest that you select another bonus feature on Disc 1 …
The Audio Commentary
“Nemo” directors Andrew Stanton and Lee Ukrich as well as Pixar vet Bob Peterson gather around the microphone to share some sometimes silly, sometimes insightful tales about the production of this film. Among the behind-the-scenes stories that you get are:
Those bizarre-sounding names for dental instruments and surgical procedure steps that you hear Peach, Bloat and Nigel tossing around as they observe the dentist performing a root canal? Those are the real terms, folks. “Finding Nemo” writer Bob Peterson made numerous calls to his own dental hygienist (Dr. Ronny Douglas, DDS) in order to get the terminology just right. Why did Bob put so much effort in this scene’s authenticity? He was determined that — even if no one else got these jokes — “4 out of 5 dentists would laugh at this sequence.”
Among the scenes that got cut out of the film: Nemo’s harrowing trip through Sydney’s sewage treatment planet as well as a sequence where — after the shark’s AA meeting breaks up — Bruce, Anchor and Chum try and blow off some steam by playing volleyball with a live WW II era mine.
Where are Crush, Squirt and the rest of the sea turtles actually going when they’re riding the East Australian Current? Though this line of dialogue was eventually cut from the film, the turtles explain to Dory that they’re using the EAC to get to Hawaii. Where these “gnarly dudes” intend to go surfing.
Director Andrew Stanton provides the voice for no less than three characters in “Finding Nemo”: Crush, the “Daddy Dude” turtle, all of the seagulls in the film (“Mine! Mine!”) as well as that lobster with the “Wicked” thick Bah-ston accent.
“Nemo”‘s finale (where Marlin urges a net full of fish to swim in unison … which eventually causes the net to break free from the trawler that it’s attached to … which allows the fish to escape) is actually based on something that happened in real life. As he was writing “Nemo”‘s screenplay, Stanton came across a newspaper article that described how these cod fishermen in Norway had their boat capsized when a school of fish had done the very same thing after they’d been netted.
When Andrew proposed adding a sequence like this to “Finding Nemo”‘s finale, all that Roy Disney — Chairman of Disney Feature Animation as well as being a world renown yachtsman — said was: “Do me one favor. Don’t capsize the boat. It’s bad luck for sailors and ocean-goers.” Stanton said “No problem.” Which is why that scene plays the way it does in “Finding Nemo.”
These are just a few of the treasures to be found on Disc 1 on the “Finding Nemo” DVD. Not to mention the “Making of ‘Finding Nemo'” documentary. Plus that “Incredibles” preview. Plus that unfortunately-doctored-but-still-quite-funny version of the “Knick Knack” short.