Finding Nemo 3D

The ‘Toy Story’ films may have made Pixar’s name – and a boatload of cash – but it was ‘Finding Nemo’ that really proved how far audiences worldwide were willing to trust their output. Here was a film with no recognisable story elements, no big star voices, no cute toys: and yet it quickly became Pixar’s banner film, the second biggest box office hit of 2003, and the biggest selling DVD of all time.

As with the recent ‘Monsters Inc 3D’, the idea of an extra-dimensional ‘Nemo’ makes perfect sense: on the big screen, it’s so completely immersive you could almost drift away into those teeming coral reefs and distant under-sea horizons. The film itself isn’t quite as note-perfect as some of the studio’s later work – Albert Brooks’s worried Dad Marlon can grate, and the oh-so-soppy ending feels a little flat. But thanks to the 3D, the big scenes are now even more thrilling: the claustrophobic jellyfish forest, the pitch-black bottom-of-the-trench sequence, and best of all those terrifyingly toothy ‘friendly’ sharks.