In this 2003 file image released by Pixar Animation Studios, fish Dory, voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, left, and Marlin,voiced by Albert Brooks, lower right, face an ocean full of perils in their efforts to rescue Nemo in “Finding Nemo.” (AP Photo/Pixar Animation Studios, file)It’s the details that stand out whenever a classic film is converted to 3-D.
With “Finding Nemo,” the shimmering sea surface, scratches on the lens of a diver’s goggles, and smudge marks Nemo the clownfish makes when he mashes his face up against the glass wall of the aquarium that imprisons him all pop off the screen in the 3-D reissue of Pixar’s undisputed masterpiece.
The fish seem to float in between the surface of the screen and the deep blue underwater backgrounds of the South Pacific, an effect even more pronounced in 3-D.
Perhaps it’s not enough to warrant shelling out 3-D dollars to go see a movie that’s long been one of the best-selling home videos. If you have kids, you already have this at home. But “Finding Nemo,” back in theaters nine years after its release, is a reminder that sometimes instant and classic can go together in a sentence describing a great movie.
And “Finding Nemo” is a great movie, one of the best animations for children ever made.