Finding Nemo (2003)

What the critics said

Rotten Tomatoes sits at 99% positive reviews, a score that makes disagreement feel like a minor error. Metacritic agrees, landing on 90 out of 100, which it files under universal acclaim. Roger Ebert called it "one of those rare movies where I wanted to sit in the front row and let the images wash out to the edges of my field of vision," a phrase that does a lot of heavy lifting for a fish movie. Lisa Schwarzbaum found it "marvelously soulful and innately, fluidly American as jazz," which is either high praise or a warning about the soundtrack. Most critics saw a visual triumph, though Stephen Holden thought it fell slightly short of its predecessors. It’s the rare underwater film that keeps you looking at the background.