Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo is a 2003 American computer-animated adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.

## Plot

A clownfish couple, Marlin and Coral, are admiring their new home in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and their clutch of hundreds of eggs, when a barracuda attacks. Marlin is knocked unconscious, and wakes up to find Coral and all but one of the eggs gone. He names this last egg *Nemo*, a name that Coral had chosen.

On the first day of school, the overprotective Marlin embarrasses Nemo during a field trip. While Marlin talks to the teacher, Mr. Ray, Nemo sneaks away from the reef toward a boat and is captured by a scuba diver. As the boat departs, one of the divers accidentally knocks his diving mask overboard. Marlin chases after the boat and meets Dory, a blue tang who suffers from short-term memory loss. The two encounter Bruce, Anchor and Chum, three reformed sharks who have renounced fish-eating diet. While at their progress meeting, Marlin discovers the diver's mask and notices an address written on it. However, Dory and Marlin fight over the mask, accidentally giving Dory a bloody nose. The blood sends Bruce into a relapsed feeding frenzy, and he attacks Marlin and Dory, who narrowly escape.

Nemo is placed in a fish tank in a dentist's office, where he meets the "Tank Gang", a group of pet fish led by Gill. The gang learn Nemo is to be given to the dentist's niece Darla, who has killed previous fish given to her. Gill devises a plan to escape: jam the tank's filter with a pebble so the dentist will have to put the fish in plastic bags to clean the tank, then roll out the window and into the harbor. Nemo attempts to jam the filter but fails, nearly dying in the process.

The mask falls into a trench in the deep sea, where, while battling an anglerfish, Dory reads the address as "42 Wallaby Way, Sydney". To her own disbelief, Dory remembers the address despite her short-term memory loss. Dory and Marlin receive directions to Sydney from a school of moonfish. On the way, they encounter a bloom of jellyfish that traps and nearly stings them to death. Marlin loses consciousness and awakens on the back of a sea turtle named Crush, who shuttles Marlin and Dory on the East Australian Current. Marlin tells the story of his journey to a group of young sea turtles led by Crush's son Squirt. News of his quest spreads across the ocean. Near the harbor, a pelican named Nigel flies to the dentist's office and brings news of Marlin's efforts. Inspired, Nemo makes a second attempt to jam the filter. He succeeds, but the dentist installs a new high-tech filter before the Tank Gang can escape.

Marlin and Dory exit the East Australian Current and are engulfed by a blue whale. Dory communicates with the whale, which carries them to Sydney Harbour and expels them through his blowhole. They meet Nigel, who helps the pair escape from a flock of relentless seagulls and takes them to the dentist's office. Darla has just arrived, and the dentist is handing Nemo to her. Nemo plays dead to save himself as Nigel arrives, terrifying Darla and throwing the office into chaos. After Nigel is violently thrown out by the dentist, Gill helps Nemo escape into a drain that leads to the ocean.

Having mistaken Nemo for dead, Marlin thanks Dory and starts his return journey. Dory meets Nemo when he reaches the ocean, but she has lost her memory. Eventually, Dory's memory returns when she reads the word *Sydney* on a drainpipe. She reunites Nemo with Marlin, but she is caught in a fishing net with a school of grouper. Nemo enters the net and orders the grouper to swim downward to break the net and they all escape. Later, having returned home, Marlin and Dory proudly watch Mr. Ray carry Nemo and all his new friends to school.

## Cast

* Albert Brooks as Marlin, a clownfish, Coral's husband and Nemo's 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 moorish idol fish living in an aquarium in a dentist clinic, and the leader of the Tank Gang.
* Brad Garrett as Bloat, the aquarium's porcupinefish.
* Allison Janney as Peach, the aquarium's starfish.
* Stephen Root as Bubbles, the aquarium's yellow tang fish.
* Austin Pendleton as Gurgle, the aquarium's royal gramma fish.
* Vicki Lewis as Deb/Flo, the aquarium's striped damselfish.
* 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, and the Seagulls.
* 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 vegetarian great white shark, who fights his instinctive wills to eat innocent fish and is 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 The Dentist.
* LuLu Ebeling as Darla, the dentist's rambunctious young niece.
* Jordy Ranft as Tad, a butterfly fish fingerling and Nemo's friend at school.
* Erica Beck as Pearl, a young flapjack octopus and Nemo's friend at school.
* Erik Per Sullivan as Sheldon, a young seahorse, and Nemo's friend at school.
* John Ratzenberger as the school of moonfish.

## Critical Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 99% approval rating, with a rating average of 8.7/10, based on 261 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Breathtakingly lovely and grounded by the stellar efforts of a well-chosen cast, *Finding Nemo* adds another beautifully crafted gem to Pixar's crown."[23] Another review aggregation website, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 90 out of 100, based on 38 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."[24]

## Sequel

Finding Nemo spawned a sequel: Finding Dory (2016)