Finding Nemo is a computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released to theatres by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in the United States on May 30 2003, and in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2003. This is the first Disney-Pixar film not to premiere in the United States in November, making it the first to be released in the UK in the same year, rather than the next.

Finding Nemo set a record as the highest grossing opening weekend for an animated feature, making $70 million (surpassed in 2004 by Shrek 2). It was, for a time, the highest grossing animated film of all time, eclipsing the record set by The Lion King. However, in less than four weeks of release, Shrek 2 surpassed Finding Nemo's domestic gross. By March 2004, Finding Nemo was one of the top ten highest-grossing films ever, having earned over US$850 million. The film received an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2004. The film also received a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards in 2004 for favorite movie.

The title character's name alludes to Captain Nemo, the submarine captain in two of Jules Verne's novels: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island.

The movie was released on a two-disc DVD on November 4, 2003.

Plot

The film tells the story of a widowed clownfish named Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks). Marlin, after losing his wife, Coral, and children, in a barracuda attack sometime back, tries his best as a parent to his only remaining son Nemo. Because Nemo has a fin smaller than the other (his "lucky fin"), Marlin tries to hold his son back from all the exciting things in life, telling him the ocean isn't safe. Because of this, Nemo ventures out into open water to prove to his father that it is safe to do so. Marlin, in this case, was correct, as Nemo is scooped up and taken to an aquarium in a dentist's office in Sydney, Australia. Thus it is up to Marlin and his newfound "guide", Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), a Regal Blue Tang fish who suffers from short-term memory loss but has a big heart, to bring Nemo back.

Marlin is forced to venture into an unknown and dangerous world which he never dreamed of entering. Dory helps Marlin realize he has been too restrictive on his son and must make amends. Nemo, meanwhile, gets involved in a plot with the other fish in the aquarium to escape from the dentist's office and return to the ocean.

Box Office Totals

• Budget - $90,000,000
• Marketing cost - $40,000,000
• Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $70,251,710
• Total Domestic Grosses - $339,714,978
• Total Overseas Grosses - $524,911,000
• Total Worldwide Grosses - $864,625,978

Performers and characters

• Albert Brooks - Marlin
• Ellen DeGeneres - Dory
• Alexander Gould - Nemo
• Willem Dafoe - Gill
• Brad Garrett - Bloat
• Allison Janney - Peach
• Austin Pendleton - Gurgle
• Stephen Root - Bubbles
• Vicki Lewis - Deb/Flo
• Joe Ranft - Jacques
• Geoffrey Rush - Nigel
• Andrew Stanton - Crush
• Elizabeth Perkins - Coral
• Nicholas Bird - Squirt
• Bob Peterson - Mr. Ray
• Barry Humphries - Bruce
• Eric Bana - Anchor
• Bruce Spence - Chum
• Bill Hunter - Phillip Sherman, the Dentist
• Lulu Eberling - Darla, Sherman's niece
• Jordy Ranft - Tad
• Erika Beck - Pearl
• Erik Per Sullivan - Sheldon
• John Ratzenberger - School of Moonfish
• Rove McManus - Crab
• Andrew Stanton - Seagulls
• David Ian Salter - AquaScum

Other characters

• Sandy Plankton - An associate of Nemo's (claims boats are "butts" and turtles live up to a 100 years)
• Jimmy - one of Mr. Ray's students who utters "Oh my gosh! Nemo's swimming out to sea!"
• Bob - Sheldon's father
• Ted - Pearl's father
• Bill - Tad's father
• Barracuda - the fish that killed most of Marlin's family
• Beanie - the timid fish Anchor brings to the meeting
• Barbara - P. Sherman's secretary
• Anglerfish - the "monster" of the sea
• Chuckles - Darla's first fish; killed by Darla
• Mr. Turtle - Crush's father and Squirt's grandfather
• Gerald - Nigel's clumsy friend
• Dolphins, lobsters, and swordfish - spread the word about Nemo
• Davy Reynolds - one of P. Sherman's favorite patients (a take on David Reynolds, one of the writers of the movie)
• Mike Wazowski (of Monsters Inc.) - cameo appearance
• Mr. Johanson - resides at the school area. Sheldon, Pearl, and Tad enjoy playing in his yard.

Other Voices

• Caroline Kindred
• Jeff Pidgeon
• Jessie Flower
• Aaron Fors
• Leland Grossman
• Bradley Trevor Greive
• Jess Harnell
• Marc John Jefferies

Wider effects of the film

The film's prominent use of clownfish prompted mass purchase of the animals for children's pets in the United States, even though the movie portrayed the use of fish as pets negatively and saltwater aquariums are notably tricky and expensive to maintain. At the same time, the film had a central theme that "all drains lead back to the ocean." (A main character escapes from imprisonment by going down a sink drain and ending up in the sea.) This allegedly caused many children to flush their living fish down toilets in imitation of the picture. Major sewage companies teamed with Disney to release press statements that attempted to address the situation with humor. "Although all drains DO lead to water," they read, "water always passes through a turbine before leading to the ocean."

French children's book author Franck Le Calvez sued Disney, claiming that the story and the characters were stolen from his book Pierrot Le Poisson-Clown (Pierrot the Clownfish). The idea of Pierrot was protected in 1995 and the book was released in France in November 2002. Franck Le Calvez and his lawyer, Pascal Kamina, demanded from Disney a share of the profits from merchandising articles sold in France. Le Calvez and Kamina lost the lawsuit on March 12 2004, but intended to file an appeal on October 5.

Tourism in Australia has increased during the Summer and Fall of 2003, with many tourists wanting to swim off the coast of Eastern Australia to "find Nemo."

In 2005, the movie was aluded to in the smash hit TV show Lost. One of the characters in the show, Shannon, is asked to translate some notes that are written in French. She later recognizes some of the notes as lyrics from a song played in the credits of a "cartoon fish movie". The song is Charles Trenet's "La Mer", the French original of Bobby Darin's classic "Beyond the Sea". She then proceeds to sing the song, confirming the connection.

Fish featured in the film

The following species feature prominently in the film

• Marlin, Coral, and Nemo: Clownfish
• Dory: Regal Tang fish, Blue Tang fish, or Blue Hippo
• Bruce: Great White Shark
• Chum: Mako Shark
• Anchor: Hammerhead Shark
• Crush and Squirt: Sea Turtle
• "Monster": Anglerfish
• Nigel and Gerald: Brown Pelican

In the tank

• Gill: Moorish Idol
• Bloat: Pufferfish
• Bubbles: Yellow Tang
• Deb: Four-Stripe Damselfish
• Gurgle: Royal Gramma Basslet
• Jacques: Cleaner Shrimp
• Peach: Starfish

The Class

• Mr. Ray: Spotted Eagle Ray
• Tad and Bill: Tropical Fish
• Pearl: Flapjack Octopus
• Ted: Octopus
• Sheldon and Bob: Seahorse

Cultural references

As usual for Pixar movies, it is packed with subtle references and sight gags:

• Mr. Ray sings a song, "The Zones of the Open Sea" (about the different biological regions of the ocean), which is a pastiche of Tom Lehrer's periodic table song.

• Mount Wannahockaloogie ("wanna hock a loogie") is the "mountain" in the dentist's aquarium. "Hock a loogie" is American slang for expectoration, a common occurrence in a dentist's office. When Nemo jumps through the "Ring of Fire" at the summit of Mount Wannahockaloogie, he earns himself the new name Sharkbait.

• The obligatory A113 inside joke: the scuba diver who briefly blinds Marlin uses a camera with model code "A-113".

• There are two nods to director Alfred Hitchcock:

• The overhead shot of the seagulls gathering to dive for Marlin and Dory stylistically echoes a similar gull scene in The Birds.

• In the dentist's office, two shots of dangerous brat Darla's face are accompanied by the shrieking violin chords from the shower scene in Psycho.

• The dentist's office has a picture of "Motif Number 1" hanging on the wall, a tribute by director Andrew Stanton to his hometown of Rockport, Massachusetts.

• Another nod to Stanton's roots: When the story of Marlin's journey is being spread throughout the ocean, one of the creatures telling the tale is a lobster with a Boston accent who uses the common local adjective, wicked. ("It's wicked dahk down there, you can't see a thing...") Not surprisingly, this lobster was voiced by Stanton himself.

• Two of Dory's several misnamings of Nemo are "Chico" and "Harpo," references to the Marx Brothers.

• There are several references to previous and forthcoming Pixar films. One of the toys that can be seen in the dentist's office is a Buzz Lightyear action figure, from Toy Story. Another reference from Toy Story can be found when a character rolls out onto the street. One of the cars is a "Pizza Planet" delivery truck, the same restaurant featured in Toy Story. An M is for Monsters book is lying on the table, an obvious reference to Monsters, Inc.. In the actual dentist room, an art project is featured hanging from the ceiling. This same handmade art piece is in Monsters, Inc., as it is made by the character Boo, and gets stuck to Sully's foot when he exits her room. Also Mike Wazowski, the green one-eyed monster from Monsters. Inc., swims across the screen as the credits roll up. There is also a "Mister Incredible" comic book based on the then-forthcoming Pixar movie The Incredibles, and when a character rolls into a street, vehicles from Cars can be seen.

• The often recurring uses of the number 42, such as in P. Sherman's address and the time it takes the dentist to use the restroom, are likely a reference to Douglas Adams' radio play/novel The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, in which that number plays a prominent role in the meaning of the universe.

• The great white shark's name is Bruce, which may be an allusion to the name given to the mechanical shark used to film the movie Jaws. Bruce speaks with an Australian accent, possibly suggesting a reference to the Monty Python "Bruces" sketch about a group of Australian university professors, all of whom are named Bruce.

• In the scene where Bruce tries to eat Dory/Marlin, Bruce says "Here's Brucie!" after popping through the door, in a reference to Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining.

External links

• Official site
• Finding Nemo at the Internet Movie Database
• Finding Nemo at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• UpcomingPixar
• Finding Nemo printable FanArt Coloring Page
• "Going In The Tank" — Failure magazine
• Finding Nemo Fan-Based Message Board