Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo is an Academy Award-winning computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. It was released in the United States on May 30, 2003, in Australia on August 28, 2003, and the United Kingdom on October 10, 2003. The movie is the fifth Disney/Pixar feature film and the first to be released during the Summer.

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 $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 in the United States and Canada, and in Australia on January 16, 2004. It went on to become the biggest selling DVD of all time at 22 million copies.

Plot

The film tells the story of a widowed clownfish named Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) who lives on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia ^*. Marlin, after losing his wife, Coral, and children in a barracuda attack, tries his best as a parent to protect his only remaining son Nemo, but has a tendency to over-parent and stifle his son. Because Nemo has a fin smaller than the other (his "lucky fin"), and because he promised to not let anything happen to him, Marlin constantly warns his son of the ocean's dangers (although he is clearly subjecting his son to his own neurotic agoraphobic tendencies).

Embarrassed too often by his father's overprotection, Nemo ventures out into open water towards a fishing boat to prove to his father wrong. This time, Marlin is correct, and Nemo is netted up by a scuba-diving dentist. Marlin, on his quest to rescue his son, soon meets Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang suffering from short-term memory loss. The companions travel a great distance, encountering various dangers, in order to rescue Nemo from the dentist's office in Sydney, Australia. Meanwhile, Nemo is 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

Voice actors and characters

Voice actor	Character name	Description
Albert Brooks	Marlin	Clown fish
Ellen DeGeneres	Dory	Regal tang
Alexander Gould	Nemo	Clown fish
Willem Dafoe	Gill	Moorish idol
Brad Garrett	Bloat	Porcupine fish
Allison Janney	Peach	Seastar
Austin Pendleton	Gurgle	Royal gramma
Stephen Root	Bubbles	Yellow tang
Vicki Lewis	Deb (and Flo)	Damsel fish
Joe Ranft	Jacques	Cleaner shrimp
Geoffrey Rush	Nigel	Pelican
Andrew Stanton	Crush	Sea turtle
Elizabeth Perkins	Coral	Clown fish
Nicholas Bird	Squirt	Sea turtle
Bob Peterson	Mr. Ray	Eagle ray
Barry Humphries	Bruce	White shark
Eric Bana	Anchor	Hammerhead shark
Bruce Spence	Chum	Mako shark
Bill Hunter	Phillip Sherman	Human dentist
Lulu Eberling	Darla	Sherman's niece
Jordy Ranft	Tad	Butterfly fish
Erica Beck	Pearl	Octopus
Erik Per Sullivan	Sheldon	Sea horse
John Ratzenberger	School of moonfish
Rove McManus	—	Crab
Andrew Stanton	—	Seagulls
David Ian Salter	AquaScum	Aquarium filtration system

Uncredited actors and characters

Kathy - one of Mr. Ray's students who utters "Oh my gosh! Nemo's swimming out to sea!"
Bob - Pearl's father
Ted - Sheldon's father
Bill - Tad's father
Barbara - P. Sherman's secretary
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.

Caroline Kindred
Sandy Plankton - An associate of Nemo's (claims boats are "butts" and turtles live up to a 100 years)
Anglerfish - the "monster" of the sea
Chuckles - Darla's first fish; killed by Darla
Barracuda - the fish that killed most of Marlin's family
Blenny - the timid fish Anchor brings to the meeting
Mr. Turtle - Crush's father and Squirt's grandfather
Jeff Pidgeon
Jessie Flower
Aaron Fors
Leland Grossman
Bradley Trevor Greive
Jess Harnell
Marc John Jefferies

Wider effects

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." This led to the term "Grinding Nemo". [http://www.jwce.com/news/news.asp?newsID=29 Of course, in the case of Sydney, much of the sewer system does pass direct to outfall pipes offshore, without treatment (although pumping does occur).

The 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. [http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2004-03-15-author-loses-to-nemo_x.htm 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 strongly increased during the summer and fall of 2003, with many tourists wanting to swim off the coast of Eastern Australia to "find Nemo." The Australian Tourist Commission (ATC) launched several marketing campaigns in China and the USA in order to improve tourism in Australia many of them using Finding Nemo movie clips. Queensland, Australia also used Finding Nemo to draw tourists to promote its state for vacationers. [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/11/1060588323028.html?from=storyrhs" target="_blank" >^*

The movie was parodied on The Wrong Coast as the animated version of Searching For Spock titled Finding Nemoy.

In 2005, the movie was alluded to in the TV series 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, although she only refers to it as "the fish song" from that point on.

In 2006, the movie was also mentioned on House, M.D. when a seemingly overprotective mother explained that she knew that her sickly daughter needed to have some freedoms — "I need to loosen up... I saw Finding Nemo, I get it, I don't need another story," she quipped in frustration. Several episodes later, House made another reference to the movie, explaining that a little girl had gratification disorder by saying she was "marching the penguin... ya-yaing the sisterhood... finding Nemo."

Animals featured

In the wild

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

In the tank

The class

Mr. Ray: Spotted Eagle Ray
Tad and Phil: Long-Nosed Butterfly Fish
Pearl and Bob: Flapjack Octopus
Sheldon and Ted: Seahorse

Trivia

As usual with Pixar movies, Finding Nemo has many subtle references and sight gags.

PeTA has a reference in which "Fish are friends, NOT food." is stated.
Finding Nemo was originally to be released in November 2002.
Crush the sea turtle says "koo koo kachoo" at one point. This may be a reference to The Beatles song "I Am the Walrus". "Koo koo kachoo" is a common misperception of the lyric "goo goo g'joob."
Mr. Ray sings a song, The Zones of the Open Sea (about the different biological regions of the ocean), which is a pastiche of Gilbert and Sullivan's Major General's Song.
Mount Wannahockaloogie ("wanna hock a loogie") is the "mountain" in the dentist's aquarium. "Hock a loogie" is American slang for Expectorate, 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.
Marlin shouts out to one of Nemo's friends' father, "Ponyboy", which is the name of the main character in the teen novel The Outsiders.
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 glissandi 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.
During the scene with Marlin, Dory, and the school of fish, when the fish turn into the ship, they say "oh, it's a whale of a tale, I'll tell you lad...," a reference to the Walt Disney film adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The main character, Nemo, is named after the anti-hero sea captain of that book.
While Marlin and Dory are in a whale, Marlin calls the whale Moby, a reference to Moby Dick.
There are several objects around the dentist's office, including a small device that says on the bottom, "Engineered by a bunch of Pixar TDs," with the alien from Toy Story next to it; this is a reference to the technical directors who create these objects for the sets. A diploma in the waiting room which shows the alien in the middle says "Pixar High School of Dentistry."
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..."). Unsurprisingly, this lobster was voiced by Stanton himself.
Two of Dory's several misnamings of Nemo are "Chico" and "Harpo," references to the Marx Brothers. She also calls him "Elmo", the name of a popular Sesame Street character, and "Fabio," likely in reference to Fabio Lanzoni, the Italian male model.
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.
- During Gill's outline of the escape plan:
  - One of the cars which flashes by is a "Pizza Planet" delivery truck, as seen in Toy Story.
  - Vehicles from Cars can also be seen, including an early version of the character Luigi, which can be seen when the tank gang escapes.
- An M is for Monsters book is lying on the table, an obvious reference to Monsters, Inc..
- In the 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.
- Mike Wazowski, the green one-eyed monster from Monsters, Inc., swims across the screen as the credits roll.
- A patient in the dentist's office is reading a Mister Incredible comic book based on the then-forthcoming Pixar movie The Incredibles.
- The mermaid from "Knick Knack" can be seen on the ship's bow in the fish tank.
- The tikis in the tank are caricatures of three Pixar employees.
- When Nigel the Pelican first appears in the movie, a picture of Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles can be seen.
- One of the boat names is "For the Birds", a reference to the Pixar short For the Birds.
Recurring use of the number 42, such as in P. Sherman's address ("42 Wallaby Way, Sydney") and the time it takes the dentist to use the restroom (4.2 minutes), is likely a reference to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, in which the number 42 is supposedly the answer to the question of "Life, the Universe and Everything". Also, one of the sharks has a particular dislike for dolphins, possibly another reference to Hitchhiker's, as dolphins are featured prominently in the series.
The great white shark's name is Bruce, which may be a reference to the name given to the mechanical shark used to film the movie Jaws. The writers were also aware that Barry Bruce, an Australian shark researcher with CSIRO, was radio tagging white sharks.
Several references to Monty Python's Flying Circus:
- Bruce is also a reference to the famous Bruces sketch about a group of Australian university professors, all of whom are named Bruce.
- The krill and Bruce shouting "Swim away!" during various scenes is a reference to the recurring line "Run away" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- Marlin forbidding Dory to sing is reminiscent of a scene in the Swamp Castle of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
In the scene where Bruce tries to eat Dory/Marlin, Bruce says "Here's Brucie!" with his face showing through the door, quite similarly to Jack Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" line in Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining.
"Hop inside my mouth, if you want to live" is a reference to The Terminator, in which Kyle Reese says to Sarah Connor "come with me if you want to live" or more likely from the sequel Judgment Day where Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers the line to Linda Hamilton, as he is seen as an enemy even though he wants to help.
A notable portion of the production crew were Filipino, and the name "P. Sherman" was chosen because it sounds like how one with a Filipino accent would say the word "fisherman."
The scene where Nemo defies his father and touches the bottom of the boat as Marlin continually warns him to stop is arguably reminiscent of the ice cream scene in Kramer vs. Kramer.
This movie was dedicated to Glenn McQueen, a Pixar helper who died the year before its release.

Film references to Finding Nemo

Near the end of Monsters Inc., Boo hands Sulley a Nemo toy. When Monsters Inc. was released, Finding Nemo was still in production.
In a short scene near the start of Back in Action, Bugs is fishing and says "Hey, I found Nemo!"
The movie trailer for Flushed Away includes a scene where the main character Roddy is flushed into the sewer pipes and meets a small fish who asks, "Have you seen my dad?"
During a scene in The Home Teachers, the main character Greg is trying to stop the flow of an overflowing toilet. He says: "Yeah, find the ocean. Find Nemo."

Attached short film

Main article: Knick Knack

The theatrical and video/DVD release of this film include Knick Knack, a Pixar short made in 1989.

External links

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