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Movie review: 'Finding Nemo 3-D'

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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 clown fish 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.

And “Finding Nemo” is a great movie, one of the best animations for children ever made.

A timid and overprotective single-dad clown fish (voice of Albert Brooks) overprotects his mildly disabled (shrunken fin) only son (voiced by Alexander Gould) to the point where Nemo foolishly rebels and is promptly snatched and tossed into the tank at an Australian dentist's office.

Dad flees the comfort of his reefside sea anemone home, and with the help of an absent-minded blue tang named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), sets out to find his son. And the kid, with the help of a tank full of mentors (Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Austin Pendleton), plots his escape to get back to dad.

It's a grand quest filled with funny, broadly-drawn but wise characters — sea turtles that speak “Surfer Dude,” Australian sharks trying to turn vegetarian (Barry Humphries, and see if you recognize Eric Bana), a helpful, plucky pelican (Geoffrey Rush).

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