'Nemo' hauls in more money for Disney

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- "Finding Nemo," already the top-grossing theatrical feature film of the year so far, added another $135 million or so to The Walt Disney Co.'s accounts receivable column last week when it became the fastest-selling new DVD release ever.

The Disney-Pixar comedy about the search for a little lost fish sold an estimated 8 million DVD and VHS units on its first day in release Tuesday, easily beating "Spider-Man's" first-day sales record of 7 million in 2002.

With a domestic box-office gross of $339.2 million, "Finding Nemo" has reached No. 8 on the list of all-time U.S. blockbusters, and stands a good chance of overtaking "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" for the seventh spot. Worlwide, "Finding Nemo" has grossed close to $480 million.

The home video release is projected generate sales in excess of $400 million.

Sales figures also indicate that DVD is expanding its growing dominance over VHS as the preferred home video format of U.S. consumers. DVD accounted for about 80 percent of first day sales for "Finding Nemo," compared to about 75 percent for "Spider-Man" last year.

The two-disc DVD set features both wide-screen and full-screen editions of the film, commentary by the filmmakers and a documentary about the making of the film. The package also includes features targeted at kids, including games and a Pixar short.

Geoffrey Rush, who played the Australian pelican Nigel in "Finding Nemo," had a remarkably prosperous year for an actor -- given that he was also prominently featured in the second-biggest box-office hit of 2003, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."

He also starred in three other features this year -- "Intolerable Cruelty," "Ned Kelly" and "Swimming Upstream."

As any actor will tell you, you can't plan a streak like that. In an interview with United Press International, Rush said it was more or less a happy accident of timing that "Finding Nemo" hit the marketplace at the same time as "Pirates of the Caribbean," in which he played the dastardly pirate Barbossa.

"When I did the voice for 'Nemo' it was simply because Pixar called and said we've got this script," said Rush. "I was extremely familiar with their work because my kids are 8 and 10."

It's a familiar theme in Hollywood, actors scoring points with their kids by doing voiceovers in animated hits. Rush -- who gained international acclaim in 1996 with his Oscar-winning performance as a brilliant-but-dysfunctional concert pianist in "Shine" -- said when it comes to animated entertainment, kids are living in the best of times.

"I treasure that they've grown up in a golden age of brilliant and wonderful animation," he said.

Rush was particularly impressed with the visual clarity of "Finding Nemo" when he saw the computer-generated feature projected digitally at its Sydney, Australia, premiere.

"You could see additional texture and shading," he said, "the surface of the sand in the background."

Still, said Rush -- expressing an almost universally held theatrical convention -- there is no substitute for a great story.

"Ultimately, you've only got to look at -- as painstaking as the Aardman Studios ("Chicken Run," "Wallace & Grommit") works are -- they are basically beautifully made, but they're lumps of plasticine," he said. "There's a great simplicity in the art form. What makes it magical is the dry, rather wry narrative environment that they set up, with whimsical strands of humor going through."

Rush said Pixar Studios has displayed a similar touch in previous features such as "Toy Story" and "'Toy Story 2." He said the story in "Finding Nemo" -- a neurotic clown fish (Albert Brooks) teams up with a memory-challenged blue tang fish (Ellen DeGeneres) to look for his son, who has been caught by a scuba diver -- reminded him of something out of Frank Capra.

"Life is constantly a crisis, and people have to make valuable decisions to achieve the best possible outcome," he said.

Rush's latest project is "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," in which he plays the late star of such movie classics as "The Pink Panther" and "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop worrying and Love the Bomb."