However, "Finding Nemo" is a bit ordinary compared to its enchanting Pixar predecessors, "Monsters, Inc." and the "Toy Story" movies. It doesn't matter much, but it matters some.

The movie gets off to a scary-Bambi start. A pair of clown fish, Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) and Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), have just moved into their new home on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, along with their 400 about-to-be-hatched children. Ever the worrier, Marlin wonders if the kids will like him. Says Coral, "There are over 400 eggs. Chances are one of them will like you."

That's about the last thing Coral ever says. One shark attack and Marlin loses everyone -- except little Nemo (Alexander Gould), who was born with a gimpy fin. A fiercely overprotective dad, Marlin can barely let Nemo attend fish school. His worse fears are realized when some deep-sea divers snatch the little guy in a net and take him away to Sydney.

Desperate to find his son, Marlin enlists the aid of Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a dingy, easily distracted blue tang with a cheerful attitude and major short-term memory loss. Their search includes encounters with poisonous jellyfish, sunken subs, still-active World War II mines, surfer-dude sea turtles and a trio of sharks who've formed Sharks Anonymous -- "Fish are friends, not food."

Meanwhile, Nemo has landed in a dentist's aquarium, along with an assortment of aquatic creatures, led by Gill (Willem Dafoe). The rest of them come from mail-order, eBay, etc., but Gill, like Nemo, has known the sea. He's determined to escape and take the others with him.

The movie has some beautiful sequences: the dream-like but deadly mass of gauzy pink jellyfish; Nemo's courageous attempt to implement Gill's plan; shooting the curl with the laid-back turtles.

There's some funny stuff, too, especially from DeGeneres. Muttering to herself in her sleep, Dory assures some dream date, "Yes, I'm a natural blue."

Adults and movie-hip kids can find at least a half-dozen nudge-nudge film jokes. One of the sharks is named -- what else?-- Bruce ("Jaws"), and the always-famished seagulls perch as ominously as their flesh-and-blood brethren did in "The Birds." But how many kids' movies throw in a reference to "Midnight Express?"

There are lots of recognizable voices in supporting roles. Joining Dafoe in the fish tank are Allison Janney, Austin Pendleton, and Stephen Root, among others. Geoffrey Rush gives voice to a helpful pelican. Barry Humphries (Dame Edna), Eric Bana ("The Hulk") and Bruce Spence ("The Road Warrior") are the sharks trying to Just Say No.

Brooks is somewhat hampered by typecasting; he's giving pretty much the same performance here that he does in "The In-Laws" (which isn't a cartoon, but laughably bad). Hollywood has co-opted his self-created comic persona and homogenized it into Central-Casting Neurotic. On the other hand, DeGeneres is one of the best things in the picture. Her readings are playful and savvy, giving her character a scattered buoyancy tied to a scouts-honor decency.

The parenting message is a good one, but it's repeated ad nauseam. And, to tell the truth, Nemo never has as much fun under the sea as the Little Mermaid did. Still, kids will love it, and adults may find it just affecting enough to put you off Red Lobster for at least a week. Remember, fish are friends . . .