Finding Nemo

After Marlin (Albert Brooks) the clownfish loses his wife, Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), and all but one of his unborn children to a marauding barracuda, he promises that he will never let anything happen to the one remaining egg which he names Nemo. Nemo (Alexander Gould), who was born with one smaller fin, begins his first day at school and is frustrated and embarrassed by his overprotective father. This is taken to such an extreme that Nemo deliberately disobeys his father by swimming out into open water. In the process he’s captured by a diver, who immediately leaves on a speedboat. In trying to find where Nemo has been taken Marlin meets Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang with a memory-deficit disorder. She helps him find out Nemo has been taken to Sydney and the two of them travel there on the East Australian Current. During their time together Dory teaches Marlin to be more carefree. Marlin encounters several experiences during the journey that are contrary to his demeanor. On the way, Marlin pursues a boat, meets wannabe vegetarian sharks, an anglerfish, charges through a school of jellyfish, gets swallowed by a whale, and nearly gets eaten by a pelican. Such an adventure would become an exciting story tale that spreads throughout the ocean's inhabitants rapidly, eventually later on reaching Nemo and his newfound friends.

Meanwhile Nemo is placed in a fish tank in a dentist surgery. He discovers that he is to be the birthday present of the dentist's niece Darla who is "a fish killer" according to the other fish in the tank. Gill (Willem Dafoe), one of the fish in the tank, proposes an escape plan which Nemo helps out with after being inspired by hearing the story of his father is looking for him and what he's been through in the process.

Marlin and Dory meet brown pelican Nigel (Geoffrey Rush) who is a friend of the fish in Nemo's tank who takes them to the dentist surgery. Meanwhile Gill's plan has failed and Nemo pretends to be dead to get the dentist to flush him down the toilet. Marlin arrives at this point and upon seeing Nemo pretending to be dead believes that he is actually dead. Marlin leaves and Gill helps to get Nemo washed down the surgery sink.

Marlin and Nemo reunite but moments later Dory is caught in a fishing net. Nemo has a plan to save her but Marlin is reluctant to let him go for fear he will lose him again. Marlin realizes he must let him go and Nemo's plan succeeds. They return home and Nemo leaves for school with Marlin telling him to "go have an adventure".

As epilogue, the fishes in the dentist's fish tank are shown to succeed—after a fashion—in their last escape attempt.

See List of Finding Nemo characters

Finding Nemo set a record as the highest grossing opening weekend for an animated feature, making $70 million (surpassed in 2007 by Shrek the Third). With a total domestic gross of $339.7 million, Nemo was, for a time, the highest grossing animated film of all time, eclipsing the record set by The Lion King. However, about a year later, 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 worldwide.

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 that saltwater aquariums are notably tricky and expensive to maintain.^[3] As of 2004, in Vanuatu, clownfish were being caught on a large scale for sale as pets, motivated by the demand.^[4]

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, ending up in the sea.) Since water typically undergoes treatment before leading to the ocean, the JWC Environmental company quipped that a more realistic title for the movie might be Grinding Nemo.^[5] However, in Sydney, much of the sewer system does pass directly to outfall pipes deep offshore, without a high level of treatment (although pumping and some filtering occurs.)^[6]

Tourism in Australia strongly increased during the summer and autumn of 2003, with many tourists wanting to swim off the coast of Eastern Australia to "find Nemo." ^{[citation needed]} The Australian Tourism 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. [1]^[7] Queensland, Australia also used Finding Nemo to draw tourists to promote its state for vacationers.^[8]

In late 2003, the French children's book author Franck Le Calvez was angered by 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.^[9] Franck Le Calvez and his lawyer, Pascal Kamina, demanded from Disney a share of the profits from merchandising articles sold in France. In March 2004, Le Calvez and Kamina lost the lawsuit.^[10] Two years later, in February 2005, a New Jersey dentist named Dennis G. Sternberg filed suit against Disney/Pixar, alleging they had plagiarised his concept for a film entitled Peanut Butter the Jelly Fish, which he had discussed with Andrew Stanton in the 1990s.^[11] Sternberg soon dropped the lawsuit, saying he could not afford to lose.

The movie was dedicated to Glenn McQueen, a Pixar Animator who died of melanoma in October 2002, seven months before the film was released.

The film received many awards, including:

• An Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
• Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards for Favorite Movie and Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie, Ellen Degeneres.
• Saturn Awards for Best Animated Film and Best Supporting Actress, Ellen Degeneres
• Seven different Annie Awards in multiple categories

Finding Nemo was also nominated for:

• Three additional Academy Awards (Original screenplay, Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds; Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures (Original Score); Achievement In Sound Editing)
• Two Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress, Ellen DeGeneres
• Three additional Saturn Awards
• Three additional Annie Awards
• A BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay
• A Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
• Two MTV Movie Awards

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

• 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.
• PETA has a reference in which "Fish are friends, NOT food." is stated.
• 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 is the "mountain" in the dentist's aquarium. "Hock a loogie" is American slang for expectoration, a common occurrence in a dentist's office.
• 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.
• While Marlin and Dory are in a whale, Marlin calls the whale Moby, a reference to Moby Dick.
• 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 dark down there, you can't see a thing. .."). Unsurprisingly, this lobster was voiced by Stanton himself.
• Crush says "Coo Coo Ca Choo" a possible parody of a line in The Beatles song I am the Walrus
• 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 St. Elmo the patron of sailors, and "Fabio," likely in reference to Fabio Lanzoni, the Italian male model.
• The first patient seen in the dentist's office is a Mr. Tucker. Tucker was the last name of a member of the storyboard team.
• 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".
• 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 supposedly named after Steven Spielberg's lawyer. The writers were also aware that Barry Bruce, an Australian shark researcher with CSIRO, was radio tagging white sharks. Alternatively, Bruce may just be considered to be a stereotypically Australian name. The name 'Bruce' may also be a reference to the sketch in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, entitled Bruces' Philosophers Song, in which Eric Idle and other Python members portrayed staff of the University of Woolloomooloo's philosophy department who all called each other 'Bruce' in over-exaggerated Australian accents.
• Bruce the shark has a scar on his nose in the shape of a four, this is a tribute to JAWS for which they made three mechanical sharks all named Bruce. This makes the shark in Finding Nemo the fourth Bruce.
• Several references to Monty Python's Flying Circus:
  • 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 the protagonists, Bruce says "Here's Brucie!" with his face showing through the door, alluding to Jack Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" line in Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining. (The Nicholson scene in The Shining was an allusion itself, referring to Ed McMahon announcing Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.)
• 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."^{[citation needed]}
• 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.
• When Nigel the pelican finds Marlin and Dory, he tells them, "Hop inside my mouth if you want to live". This is a reference to the catch phrase, "Come with me if you want to live." from the Terminator series.
• The seagull calls have been confirmed to be "Mine! Mine!" but many audiences hear them as saying "Mate!" in an exaggerated Australian accent.^{[citation needed]}
• In one scene, when Marlin takes off by following Nemo's teacher, he calls one of the sea creatures "Ponyboy", which is the name of Ponyboy Curtis in The Outsiders.
• Nemo is latin for "nobody" or "Nothing".

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.
• Just right of the Buzz Lightyear toy is the aircraft that Buzz rides on to prove to Woody he can fly in Toy Story, this aircraft also appears in Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 2.
• One of the cars which flashes by in Gill's escape plan outline is the Pizza Planet delivery truck from Toy Story.
• An early version of Luigi from Cars, a then-forthcoming Pixar film, can be seen driving past when the tank gang escapes.
• In the dentist's room, a toy mobile hangs from the ceiling. This same mobile is from Monsters, Inc. It is from the little girl Boo's room, and becomes tangled to Sully's foot as he flees.
• 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.
• One of the boat names is "For the Birds", a reference to the Pixar short For the Birds.
• 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 that shows the alien in the middle says "Pixar High School of Dentistry."

• Pixar's previous film, Monsters, Inc., features references to Finding Nemo, which was in production at the time of Monsters, Inc.'s release:
  • At the Harryhausen's sushi restaurant, on the wall behind the octopus chef is a Finding Nemo wallpaper.
  • When Randall gets banished from Monstropolis you can see a "Nemo" shaped trophy mounted on the wall.
  • When Boo is showing Sulley some of her toys, one of them is a Nemo squeaker toy.
• In the film Underclassman, Nick Cannon's character is scuba-diving and comes back up to the surface and says "I think I swallowed Nemo!"
• In a short scene near the start of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Bugs is fishing and says, "Well, what do ya know, I found Nemo!"
• The movie 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."
• The movie was parodied on The Wrong Coast as the animated version of The Search For Spock titled Finding Nemoy.
• On the Food Network television show Ham on the Street, George Duran, after accidentally making dumplings that look like fish, he exclaims, "They're like edible Nemos!"
• In The Incredibles, another Pixar film, very briefly in the family photo you can see that baby Jack-jack is wearing a Nemo napkin.
• 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 film was also mentioned on House 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."
• In an episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, when Jimmy is looking at a list of the greatest films in the universe, a scene from Finding Nemo can be heard.
• At the beginning of Brother Bear, during Great Spirits, when the mammoth, which Kenai rides on, knocks all the fish down with its trunk, you see Nemo.^[12]
• In the Simpsons episode "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" one of the movies on the list of movies currently showing is called "Eating Nemo". In another Simpsons episode, Fat Tony says that Bart is going to "swim with the fishes", but then he gives him a Finding Nemo bedspread.
• In an episode of Desperate Housewives, Tom Scavo wants to be romantic with Lynette Scavo. He comes down the stairs saying "We have exactly 40 minutes before the boys actually find Nemo"
• An internet pictorial joke, which circulated within a year after the film was released, bore the title "They found Nemo" and featured a typical group of sushi rolls with clownfish stripes, and Marlin's head sticking out of the one closest to the top.
• T-shirts bearing the words 'Finding Emo' with a picture of a rather depressed looking clown fish with black hair have been found being sold at 'Hot Topic'.
• In an episode of According to Jim, Jim's daughters tell Jim's friend Andy that they don't want Andy to tell them his grilling secrets. They tell him they are going inside to watch a movie, and Andy says, "I don't want to give anything away, but they find Nemo!"
• JetBlue_Airways has the quote "Yes, I'm a natural blue" on one of their planes referencing Dory while she is dreaming.
• The Rapper Common makes reference to "Finding Nemo" on his song "The People" from his 2007 album "Finding Forever". The song was produced by Kanye West and Common raps: "My Daughter found Nemo, I found the new Premo" which he was saying Kanye West is the new DJ Premier who nick name is Premo and is a legendary rap producer, also that his daughter watched the film "Finding Nemo".

The stage musical Tarzan Rocks! occupied the Theater in the Wild at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida from 1999 to 2006. When, in January 2006, it closed, it was rumored that a musical adaptation of Finding Nemo would replace it.^[13] This was confirmed in April 2006, when Disney announced that the adaptation, with new songs written by Tony Award-winning Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, would "combine puppets, dancers, acrobats and animated backdrops" and open in late 2006.^[14] Tony Award-winning director Peter Brosius signed on to direct the show, with Michael Curry, who designed puppets for Disney's phenomenally successful stage version of The Lion King, serving as leading puppet and production designer.

Anderson-Lopez said that the couple agreed to write the adaptation of "one of their favorite movies of all time" after considering "[T]he idea of people coming in [to see the musical] at 4, 5 or 6 and saying, 'I want to do that'....So we want to take it as seriously as we would a Broadway show."^[15] To condense the feature-length film to thirty minutes, she said she and Lopez focused on a single theme from the movie, the idea that "The world's dangerous and beautiful."^[15]

The half-hour show (which is performed four times daily) went into previews at the Theater in the Wild on November 5, 2006, and opened on January 24, 2007. Several musical numbers took direct inspiration from lines in the film, including "(In The) Big Blue World," "Fish Are Friends, Not Food," "Just Keep Swimming," and "Go With the Flow." In January 2007, a New York studio recording of the show was released on iTunes, with Lopez and Anderson-Lopez providing the voices for Marlin and Dory, respectively. Avenue Q star Stephanie D'Abruzzo also appeared on the recording, as Sheldon/Deb.

It is unknown whether the show will be expanded and transfer to Broadway, though Walt Disney Parks & Resorts executive Ann Hamburger has said that "she would love for that to happen."^[15] Nemo is notable for being the first non-musical animated film to which Disney has added songs to produce a stage musical.

• Epcot: The Seas with Nemo & Friends (2007) containing Turtle Talk with Crush (2004)
• Disney's California Adventure: Turtle Talk with Crush (2005)
• Disney's Animal Kingdom: Finding Nemo - The Musical (2007)
• Disneyland: Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (2007)
• Walt Disney Studios Park: Crush's Coaster (2007)

One Pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film. Trailers for this film include:

• Marlin asks a school of fish for directions and Dory scares them away.

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

• List of animated feature-length films
• List of computer-animated films

• Official Disney site
• Pixar's Finding Nemo site
• Finding Nemo The Musical Documentary
• Finding Nemo at IMDb
• Template:Bcdb title
• Finding Nemo at Rotten Tomatoes
• Finding Nemo at Metacritic
• Finding Nemo at Box Office Mojo
• Finding Nemo Sound Clips
• What Kind of Creature Is It? Finding Nemo - Cast of Characters