Eye-popping visuals and a superb script, crammed to the gills with laugh-out-loud gags, combine to stunning effect in this hugely entertaining and wildly inventive fable set beneath the ocean waves.

After a summer of largely disappointing blockbusters, Finding Nemo is undoubtedly the catch of the month, if not the year.

When his only son Nemo is plucked from the sea around the Great Barrier Reef and re-housed in a fish tank in a dentist's waiting room, a courageous clownfish called Marlin (Brooks) embarks on an epic adventure to bring the youngster home.

Aided by a friendly blue tang called Dory (DeGeneres), who suffers from short-term memory loss, Marlin travels through shark infested waters, overcoming myriad dangers to reunite with his beloved boy.

Brooks plays his compulsive-obsessive father with sensitivity and dry wit, like when he frets that none of his children will like him and his wife replies, "Marlin, there are 400 eggs, I'm pretty sure one of them will like you."

The rapport between Marlin and Dory is fantastic.

DeGeneres is a hoot as the comic sidekick and there are dozens of memorable supporting characters including a surfer dude turtle and a trio of sharks trying to embrace vegetarianism ("I am a nice, friendly shark," they chant, "Not a fish-eating monster. Fish are our friends, not food.")

The animation is simply jaw-dropping - you'll probably want to see the film two or three times just to see all of the sly visual jokes and rich detail crammed into every water-logged frame.

Film writer Stephen Webb reviews FINDING NEMO

Starring the voices of: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Geoffrey Rush, Willem Dafoe

Certificate: U

Running time: 104 mins

Rating: 9 out of 10