Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

For the second week in a row, last night the roomie and I did Friday-night-at-the-movies-by-Naval-Station-Norfolk (for those who don't know, the biggest Navy base on the US east coast). And the eye candy this week? Mm-mm-good! Our selection this week was much better than last week's; we saw Finding Nemo. We are both all about the Pixar, and we weren't disappointed in the least. The animation is, of course, superb. [As an added bonus, before the film starts, Disney shows the first Pixar short, made a full six years before Toy Story; it's classic Pixar.] The story is very Disney without being schmaltzy (and I say this as someone who generally loathes Disney - yes, I know, cold black heart, blah blah blah): the little fish Nemo is lost on his first day of school, and his father Marlin has to overcome his fear of the ocean - and, more generally, of the unknown - to find him. Albert Brooks voices Marlin, and reminded me by film's end why he irritates me as an actor (that voice! oy!). His companion throughout the journey, Dory, is a fish with short-term memory loss (now you know it's Pixar), and is played very cleverly by Ellen Degeneres. It's difficult to talk much about the film without giving away its numerous twists and surprises, so just trust me when I tell you that it's a lovely film, akin to the other Pixar smashes (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., et.al.) with a little less of the adult in-jokes - it's much more a kid's film, but is so well-crafted that it's a joy no matter what your chronological age.