Finding Tails (2000)

Finding Tails is a 2000 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by United Saints Animation Studios and Warner Bros. Feature Animation for Warner Bros. Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures. Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick with co-direction by Gary Trousdale, The film stars the voices of Ben Stiller, Kristen Bell, Corey Bringas, Bob Joles, and Jeremy Renner. It tells the story of an overprotective sly red fox named Nick Wilde (Stiller) who, along with a forgetful tinker fairy named Tinker Bell (Kristen Bell), searches for his missing son Tails (Bringas). Along the way, Nick learns to take risks and comes to terms with Nemo taking care of himself.
Premiering in Los Angeles on May 3, Finding Tails was released in theaters in the United States on May 19, 2000. Upon its release, it received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the visual elements, screenplay, animation, Gregson-Williams and Zimmer's score and characters that have been cited as funny to both young moviegoers and their parents. It also became the highest-grossing animated film at the time of its release, and was the second-highest-grossing film of 2000, earning a total of $975 million worldwide by the end of its initial theatrical run.
Finding Tails is the best-selling DVD title of all time, with over 40 million copies sold as of 2002, and was the highest-grossing G-rated film of all time before United SaInts' own Tune Story 3 overtook it. The film was re-released in 3D in 2010. In 2005, the American Film Institute named it as the 10th greatest American animated film as part of their 10 Top 10 lists. A sequel, Finding Tinkerbell, was released in June 2012.
== Plot ==
Fox Nick Wilde lives in an anemone in the Tongass National Forest with his partner, Judy Hopps. The couple are awaiting for their many eggs to hatch. A hungry cheetah sees Judy and Nick, with the rest of their neighbourhood hiding. Judy fears she will lose her babies and rushes down to protect them, encouraging the cheetah to eat Judy and most of their eggs, knocking Nick out when he tries to protect Judy. One egg remains uneaten, with it being slightly cracked. Nick vows to keep his only surviving child safe. Nick becomes overprotective of his son, Tails. While Nick talks to Tails' teacher on the latter's first day of school, Tails approaches a truck, where a pair of hunters capture him. Nick pursues the truck in vain and meets TinkerBell, a tinker fairy with acute short-term memory loss, who offers her help. The two encounter Scar, Anchor, and Chum, three sharks who have sworn to abstain from eating fish. Marlin finds a diver's mask that fell from the boat, accidentally hitting Dory and giving her a nosebleed. The scent of her blood sends Bruce into a feeding frenzy, but the sharks flee after accidentally setting off old naval mines, which knock Marlin and Dory unconscious.
Nemo is placed in a Fish Tank in the office of dentist Philip Sherman in Sydney. He meets the "Tank Gang" led by Gill, a Moorish idol. The Tank Gang tell Nemo that he is to be given to Sherman's niece Darla, who killed her previous fish. Gill decides to help Nemo and devises an escape plan: Nemo can fit inside the aquarium's filter tube and must block it with a pebble, obliging Sherman to put the fish into plastic bags while he cleans the tank, and allow them to roll out the window and into the harbor. Nemo attempts to place the pebble, but fails and is almost killed.
Marlin and Dory awaken, but the mask falls into a deep trench. Descending after the mask, they are soon pursued by an anglerfish. Dory memorizes the address on the goggles and they escape. The two disregard directions from a school of moonfish, taking what Marlin believes is a safer route. After being stung by a forest of jellyfish, they are knocked unconscious and awaken in the East Australian Current with a group of sea turtles, including Crush and his son, Squirt. The story of Marlin's quest is relayed across the ocean to Sydney, where a pelican named Nigel tells the Tank Gang. Nemo then succeeds in blocking the filter and soon the aquarium is covered in green algae.
Marlin and Dory exit the East Australian Current and are consumed by a blue whale which expels them through its blowhole in Sydney Harbour. Nigel helps them escape a flock of seagulls and takes them to the dentist's office, where Sherman has foiled the Tank Gang with a new high-tech filter. When Darla arrives, Nemo plays dead and Nigel terrifies Darla, throwing the office into chaos. Sherman throws out Nigel along with Marlin and Dory, with the former believing that Nemo is dead. Gill helps Nemo escape through a drain leading to the ocean.
Marlin bids farewell to Nigel and Dory and begins his journey home. Nemo meets Dory but she does not remember him until her memory returns when she reads the word "Sydney" on a drainpipe. Dory reunites Nemo with Marlin, but a fishing trawler captures her in a net along with a school of groupers. With his father's blessing, Nemo enters the net, and he and Marlin instruct all of the fish to swim down. Their combined force breaks the net. Returning home to the reef, Marlin is more confident, while Dory has remained friends with Bruce, Anchor, and Chum. Marlin and Dory watch Nemo off as he goes to school. Meanwhile, after the dentist's filter breaks, the Tank Gang escapes into Sydney Harbour after being placed in bags. Still stuck in the bags, they ponder what to do next.
== Voice cast ==
* Albert Brooks as Marlin, a cynical clownfish and Nemo's overprotective father.
* Ellen DeGeneres as Dory, a regal blue tang with short-term memory loss.
* Alexander Gould as Nemo, Marlin's only surviving son, who is excited about life and exploring the ocean, but gets captured and domesticated as a pet.
* Willem Dafoe as Gill, a scarred moorish idol fish living in an aquarium in Philip Sherman's dentistry clinic, and the leader of the Tank Gang.
* Brad Garrett as Bloat, the aquarium's porcupinefish.
* Allison Janney as Peach, the aquarium's sea star.
* Stephen Root as Bubbles, the aquarium's yellow tang fish.
* Austin Pendleton as Gurgle, the aquarium's obsessive-compulsive royal gramma fish.
* Vicki Lewis as Deb, the aquarium's striped damselfish.
** Lewis is also credited for voicing "Flo", the name Deb gives her reflection that she believes is her twin sister.
* Joe Ranft as Jacques, the aquarium's cleaner shrimp.
* Geoffrey Rush as Nigel, an Australian pelican, who often visits the dentist clinic and is friends with the aquarium fish.
* Andrew Stanton as Crush, a green sea turtle.
* Elizabeth Perkins as Coral, Marlin's wife and Nemo's mother.
* Nicholas Bird as Squirt, Crush's son.
* Bob Peterson as Mr. Ray, a spotted eagle ray and Nemo's schoolteacher.
* Barry Humphries as Bruce, a great white shark, who, despite abstaining from eating fish, continues to fight his instinctive will to eat them; he is also friends with Anchor and Chum.
* Eric Bana as Anchor, a hammerhead shark who is friends with Bruce and Chum.
* Bruce Spence as Chum, a mako shark who is friends with Bruce and Anchor.
* Bill Hunter as Philip Sherman, a dentist who keeps Nemo and the Tank Gang in an aquarium.
* LuLu Ebeling as Darla, Sherman's rambunctious young niece.
* Jordy Ranft as Tad, a butterfly fish fingerling and Nemo's school friend.
* Erica Beck as Pearl, a young flapjack octopus and Nemo's school friend.
* Erik Per Sullivan as Sheldon, a young seahorse, and Nemo's school friend.
* John Ratzenberger as the school of moonfish.