he award-winning creators of "Toy Story", "A Bug’s Life" and "Monsters, Inc." are back with a whole new computer animated feature film. The latest feature from Pixar Animation Studios, presented by Walt Disney Pictures, follows the journeys of two fish: Marlin and his son Nemo, who are separated in the Great Barrier Reef down under in Australia. Along with the absent-minded Dory, Marlin embarks on an epic journey to rescue his son. "Finding Nemo" is written and directed by Andrew Stanton, who also directed “A Bug’s Life“ in 1998. Lee Unkrich, who co-directed “Toy Story 2“ and “Monsters, Inc.“ returns in this capacity for Finding Nemo. The film was produced by Graham Walters, and Pixar’s executive vice president of creative, John Lasseter served as executive producer. Production on “Finding Nemo“ began in January 2000 with the crew ultimately reaching a maximum of 180.

John Lasseter: “This movie absolutely raises the bar for Pixar and for the art of computer animation. I’m so proud of Andrew for making a film that carries out his vision and gives us some of the most charming characters Pixar has ever created. The film is breathtakingly beautiful and filled with real drama, real emotion and depth, as well as great comedy. Being the father of five sons, this was definitely a story I could relate to. As filmmakers, we love to have the emotion be true and honest. And even though ‘Nemo’ is a complete fantasy, it’s based on things that are familiar to audiences. The father-son relationship, going to school for the first time – these are things everyone understands yet this film is about fish on a coral reef.

“Technically, we’ve pushed things beyond anything Pixar has done before. Just animating fish was difficult, but our technical team has created an underwater environment that is graceful and beautiful. The real underwater world is so spectacular that it’s already a fantasy world. Our challenge was to let the audience know that our ocean is caricatured. We wanted them to know that this wonderful world doesn’t exist, but then using the amazing tools that we have in computer animation make it look totally believable. Our goal is always to make things believable, not realistic. By stylizing the design of things, adding more geometry and pushing the colors, we were able to create a natural and credible world for our characters.“

Above: The creative team behind Pixar's latest animated feature 'Finding Nemo'. Clockwise from left: John Lasseter, Graham Walters, Lee Unkrich and Andrew Stanton. Top: In Disney/Pixar's hilarious underwater adventure "Finding Nemo," Father (left), a clownfish, travels all the way from the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney to find his son after the two are separated. Father is aided in his quest by Dory (right), a blue tang fish with no short-term memory.