interstingly enough to add to what Mayaniac has said is that Nurbs were used on the Shrek characters, noteably Puss.

For the seams pulling apart there are indeed issues but if ou have a good td like Ive had in the past a script can be obtained to keep such things from happening.

In my experience in the industry so far Ive found nurbs to have an advantage for pipework, arteries for the body etc, (why the hell use polys!!) these can be pushed and pulled around and still mange to keep the uv's condusive to the surface whereas a poly will not once its edited in such a way. Dont forget also that if you are using nurbs but prefer poly you can convert them, as Kurt likes to do for his method of work.