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/Canada on May 30, 2003, in Australia on August 27, 2003, and in the UK on October 10, 2003. The movie is the fifth Disney/Pixar feature film and the first to be released during the summer season.

The movie was released on a 2-disc DVD on November 4, 2003 in the United States and Canada, in Australia on January 16, 2004, and the UK on February 27, 2004. It went on to become the best selling DVD of all time, with 28 million copies sold.

Finding Nemo Walt Disney's fish tale masterpiece

Plot summary

Nemo (voiced by Alexander Gould), is a young clownfish who is smothered by his overprotective father, a widower named Marlin (Albert Brooks). When Nemo tries to prove that he doesn't need all this protection, he is captured by a human diver at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Marlin desperately swims after the diver's boat into the open ocean but he quickly falls behind. Afraid that he is about to lose his son forever, Marlin asks for help from a number of fish before finally finding one who knows where the boat went: Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a palette surgeonfish who is suffering from short-term memory loss.

Cast

Don't be fooled by the title of this film, it may be called Finding Nemo but his overprotective father Marlin, and ever forgetful blue tang Dory are the real stars. This comic duo steal the show.

The intrepid pair embark on an epic journey across the Benthic Zone of the Great Barrier Reef in a quest to rescue Nemo after a diver took him off the reef back to a tank in his Sydney dental surgery. Whist on their quest Dory and Marlin meet a group of vegetarian sharks, one called Bruce, who is also quite a character. They then dice with death in a sea of jellyfish and ride the EAC (that's the East Australian Current) with a group of majorly chilled out sea turtles. Hey dude!

Meanwhile Nemo is making attempts to escape, aided by his tank buddies and a pelican called Nigel. They have to get Nemo out of the tank and back into the big blue before he is given to Darla, the dentist's fish-killing niece.

As with all good Disney movies there is a lesson to be learned, all the major characters grow a little bit along the way and for those who like happy endings, it all works out in the end.

Dory, Marlin and a chilled sea turtle puppets in a scene from the 

stage adaptation of Finding Nemo at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Release and influence

Finding Nemo set a record as the highest grossing opening weekend for an animated feature, making $70 million (surpassed in 2004 by Shrek 2). 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 saltwater aquariums are notably tricky and expensive to maintain. As of 2004, in Vanuatu, clownfish were being caught on a large scale for sale as pets, motivated by the demand.

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. 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.)

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." 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. Queensland, Australia also used Finding Nemo to draw tourists to promote its state for vacationers.

The similarities between the two creations sparked a 

long and expensive lawsuit between Pierrot author 

Franck Le Calvez and Walt Disney Pictures

In late 2003, the French children's book author Franck Le Calvez was angerd 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. 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. 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. Sternberg soon dropped the lawsuit, saying he could not afford to lose.

Not only does Nemo of 'Finding Nemo' and Pierrot of 'Pierrot la Poisson Clown' look like one another, but the plot sequence of both stories are similar, however, Pierrot was created in 1995, where as Nemo was created in 2003, although Disney still deny borrowing the idea from Pierrot author Franck Le Calvez, and have given him 0% of Nemo's profit.

Awards

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

Sequel

Since the great box office response to Finding Nemo in 2003, there have been rumors about a sequel. Now that Disney has purchased Pixar, there will likely be additional pressure from Disney for a Finding Nemo 2; however, one aspect of this merger agreement was that Pixar would be given back the rights to determine which of the Disney/Pixar films released to date would be made into a sequel. Pixar would also be tasked with creative responsibility and control for the making of any and all sequels.

Circle 7 Animation, an in-house CGI production house started at Disney largely to create Disney sequels to Pixar movies, was disbanded shortly after the merger was announced.

The Pelican in Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo - The Musical

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. 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. 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." 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."

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." Nemo is notable for being the first non-musical animated film to which Disney has added songs to produce a stage musical.

Cultural references

In Finding Nemo

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

• 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 (which was also released by Walt Disney in 1954) and The Mysterious Island. Interestingly, Verne's Nemo was an allusion to the Latin nemo, meaning "no one," making the title literally mean Finding No One.

• 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 ("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.

• 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.

• 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

Finding Nemo - Dory and Marlin "tasty bites" talk to Bruce the shark

• 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."

• 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.

• In one scene, Dory pronounces the word "escape" on a hatch as "ess-CAH-pay", which is the Spanish pronunciation of the word.

• The seagull calls have been confirmed to be "Mine! Mine!" but many audiences hear them as saying "Mate!" in an exaggerated Australian accent.

Finding Nemo - Dory and Marlin dodge an Angler fish

Trivia

• Finding Nemo was originally to be released in November 2002.

• The tikis in the tank are caricatures of three Pixar employees. The employees are Peter Sohn, Nelson Bohol and Ricky Nierva, who are responsible for character and art design.

• This film was the first Pixar film to have an advisory warning put on its G rating in Australia, which said "Some scenes may frighten young children."

• 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 royal gramma in the tank, Gurgle, is not actually addressed by name in the film script. The name of this character was worked out by fans through a process of elimination of the character list in the movie credits.

• The face of Gill was specifically designed to resemble Willem Dafoe who provided the voice.

• The small hut in the fish tank wherein Nemo sleeps in is called a "kubo", a nipa hut commonly found in farms and other agricultural areas in the Philippines. The animator of the kubo in the film is Filipino.

• Anchor the hammerhead shark has a mouth where a real hammerhead's neck should be.

• Director Andrew Stanton not only voices Crush, but is credited in "additional voices". Other characters he voices include the flock of seagulls, the lobster, and, if Lee Unkrich is to be believed, a large number of other characters.

• Mount Wannahawkaloogie is also a reference to Philippines' Mt. Mayon because some of the animators of the movie were Filipino.

• After the credits roll, there's a scene where the small green fish swims in the darkness before a light appears, a few moments later the anglerfish appears out of the dark, only to be eaten by the green fish.

• Dentist P. Sherman's full name is Philip Sherman (according to the audio commentary on the DVD). However, his first name is given as "Pablo" in the musical.

• On the floor of the waiting room of the dentist'd office there are toys from the movie Toy Story.

• Nemo, and a park exclusive character called Coral (although was the name of Nemo's dead mother), appear at Epcot of Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, FL, as meetable characters.

LINKS and REFERENCE

• Snider, Mike. "DVD continues spinning success", USA Today, 2005-01-05.

• Jackson, Elizabeth. "Acquiring Nemo", The Business Report, 29 November, 2003.  

• Corcoran, Mark. "Vanuatu - Saving Nemo", ABC Foreign Correspondent, 9 November, 2004.

• Company Warns of 'Grinding Nemo', FoxNews.com/AP

• Coastal sewage treatment plants operated by Sydney Water. Sydney Water (unknown date). North Head and Bondi would be the closest sewage treatment plants to the location of the film. Further explanation of "primary" sewage treatment can be found here.

• Mitchell, Peter. "Nemo-led recovery hope", The Age, 3 June, 2003. 

• Dennis, Anthony. "Sydney ignores Nemo", The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 August, 2003.

• Willsher, Kim. "Disney 'copied my idea for Nemo' claims French author", Telegraph, 28 December, 2003.

• "Author loses against Disney's 'Nemo'", USA Today/AP, 2004-03-15. 

• "NJ diving dentist says 'Nemo' film was his idea" (reprint), Newsday, 2005-02-16. 

• Finding Nemo - The Musical, Walt Disney World Magic.

• Hernandez, Ernio. "Avenue Q Composer Lopez Co-Pens Musical Finding Nemo for Disney," Playbill.com 

• Maupin, Elizabeth. "Swimming with big fish", Orlando Sentinel, 2006-11-26. 

• http://disney.wretch.cc/Joke/c43.htm

• Pixar's Finding Nemo site

• Finding Nemo at the Internet Movie Database

• Finding Nemo at the Big Cartoon DataBase

• 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

• http://www.disney.co.uk/DisneyMovies/nemo/

CARTOONS OF NOTE

1. THE LITTLE MERMAID

2. SHREK

3. FINDING NEMO

4. TOY STORY

5. THE LION KING

6. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

7. DUMBO

8. DONALD DUCK

9. MICKEY MOUSE

Dory, Marlin and Nemo

A - Z FILMS INDEX

Finding Nemo, Marlin the clown fish telling a joke & Bruce the friendly shark

A - Z ACTORS INDEX

Nemo and Dory

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