Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton, who was involved in all four of the studio’s previous efforts, takes the reins for the first time as writer and director (and even voices one of the characters, Crush, a sea turtle with surfer-dude ‘tude) for Finding Nemo, a vibrant family film full of sly wit and surprisingly potent emotion (though, come to think of it, Monsters, Inc. didn’t exactly leave a dry eye in the place, so maybe the sentimentality is not so surprising after all). The tale follows the parallel adventures of a paranoid patriarch clown fish named Marlin (Albert Brooks) and his intrepid young son, Nemo (Alexander Gould), who, despite being born with one normal fin and one tiny one, is eager to stretch his limitations and explore his vast, oceanic world.

After a riveting, frightening opening scene reminiscent of the traumatic sequence in Bambi in which the fawn’s mother is felled by hunters, Marlin is left as the sole parent to Nemo after an attack by a vicious barracuda, and thus is the genesis of his over-protective nature. But when human divers capture Nemo so he can become part of an Australian dentist’s office aquarium collection, Marlin is forced to leave the familiar confines of his home and search for his only son.

While Nemo meets up with an eclectic group in the dentist’s office, including an inquisitive starfish (Allison Janney), a self-combustible blowfish (Brad Garrett), and a battle-scarred veteran fish named Gill (Willem Dafoe), Marlin teams up with a good-hearted blue fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres, absolutely hysterical), who has the unfortunate problem of short-term memory loss. Together, they have a number of memorable run-ins with creatures of the deep, perhaps the funniest being a close encounter with a great white shark named Bruce (a tip of the cap to Jaws, for those in the know), voiced fabulously by Barry Humphries, who amusingly puts aside his Dame Edna persona to become this toothy fellow who heads a shark support group whose motto is “Fish are friends, not food.”

Since its release at the end of May, Finding Nemo has grossed just under $275 million, which means that as of last weekend the film is the top grossing money-maker of the year to date (The Matrix: Reloaded is now No 2, at $271.9 to date). Nemo is now also the second-highest-grossing animated film in history, behind only The Lion King ($328.5 million).

Considering Finding Nemo is a G-rated film and many of its tickets are sold at a child’s half-price rate, that’s no small feat, and it’s indicative of the fact there’s so much to like about Finding Nemo, and it is appealing to many different ages. The folks at Pixar have proven that in their case, if they take the time, not only in painstakingly creating a lush, visually dynamic world, but also on storytelling and characterization, you can throw out the law of averages. They’re five for five, and Finding Nemo is another, unequivocal home run.