BACKGROUND
Disney Animation might’ve been the king of hit animated movies in the 1990s, but by the 2000s, their crown had slipped – and it moved on over to Pixar.
Yes, Disney was struggling in this particular decade and wouldn’t recover until 2010. DreamWorks was another animation studio around at the time but their movies felt quite different to Disney and Pixar’s in terms of their level of humour.
Pixar benefited from Disney’s issues as their brand was centred around creating wholesome entertainment for all the family to enjoy, just like Disney. Pixar liked to make movies based on human emotion and experience but set in new fantastical worlds. Pixar had the added bonus of being the masters of computer animation, something most studios were still trying to get to grips with. It’s also worth remembering that Disney had an agreement with Pixar to distribute their movies, so both studios were feeling the financial benefit, even if Disney’s own films were taking the brunt of reviewers’ criticism.
In 2003, after making hit after hit, Pixar returned with their latest outing, Finding Nemo, a story of a father fish’s difficult journey through the ocean to save his son from the confines of a dentist’s fish tank.
Little did the filmmakers know at that time that not only was Finding Nemo going to be a record breaker and the fifth successive smash hit for the studio, but that this film would become a classic in the years since its release, still being talked about and praised by both critics and regular audiences.
I can’t remember if I watched Finding Nemo at the cinema with my family when it came out but I probably did; I was the right age for it. I mostly remember watching it on DVD a lot but rarely, if ever, was it my decision to watch it. I don’t particularly enjoy the story, partly because of the fact so many movies follow people on journeys, with varying levels of success. It can get quite samey very quickly when you’re simply watching characters get into scrapes at different points, meeting strange creatures on the way.
Despite my lack of love for this film, I can still appreciate its artistry and its casting, understanding why many others have proclaimed Finding Nemo as a masterpiece. I will also happily say that I find Finding Nemo to be very funny, as I do with so many other Pixar films. They have a type of humour entirely their own.
PLOT
Finding Nemo begins with a clownfish couple, Marlin and Coral, who are getting ready for their hundreds of eggs to hatch. They are excited to be parents, and are talking about names for their children. Marlin believes most should be called either Marlin Jr. or Coral Jr., but Coral likes the name Nemo. Marlin agrees to allow one to be called Nemo. Suddenly, the two notice that the reef around them has gone silent – and that is because a barracuda is about. Coral fears for the safety of her eggs so swims down to protect them, however, the barracuda follows her. Marlin attempts to stop it, but is knocked unconscious. When he regains consciousness, Marlin is devastated to find that Coral and their eggs have gone. Searching around, Marlin finds one of their eggs has survived. Marlin vows to call this one Nemo and will protect this son at all costs, not letting anything happen to him.
Some time has now passed and Nemo is excited for his first day at school. Marlin is not so excited, and is feeling very overprotective, as he is every day of Nemo’s life! All the way to school, Marlin tells Nemo to check the coast is clear before leaving their anemone home, tells him to “hold his fin”, and not swim off. When they arrive at the school “grounds”, Marlin talks to some other parents, who try to calm his fears. Nemo’s teacher, Mr. Ray, a stingray, then arrives. Nemo is welcomed as a new student, but before they can leave for the day, Marlin quickly mentions Nemo’s “lucky fin”, the smaller fin that he was born with, worried that Nemo may struggle with swimming during Mr. Ray’s class. Mr. Ray tells him not to worry and the class leave. Marlin then hears from the other parents that they are going to “the drop-off”, and freaks out, chasing after them.
The class arrive at the drop-off, and whilst the rest of the class listen to Mr. Ray’s teachings, the three children of the parents Marlin was talking to walk off to the edge of the reef, so they can see the real drop-off of the seabed. Nemo goes with them. They see a boat in the distance, incorrectly referring to it as “a butt”. They start to dare each other about who can touch “the butt”, but when it is Nemo’s turn to swim out, he doesn’t want to. However, Marlin comes in at just that moment and is furious with Nemo for putting himself in danger, despite the fact he wasn’t going to do it. Marlin tells Nemo he simply isn’t ready for school and won’t be coming back. Nemo tells his dad he hates him. Mr. Ray comes over to resolve the issue, but as the adults talk, Nemo tries to prove a point to his dad by swimming out to sea. Everyone turns around and is shocked to find Nemo right up against the boat. Marlin warns Nemo not to even think about touching that boat, but Nemo defiantly does. Nemo starts to swim back; however, a diver appears right behind him. This diver puts Nemo into a bag and swims back to his boat. Another diver takes a photograph of Marlin, with the flash dazing him. Marlin tries to swim after the boat but can barely see a thing. The boat starts up its engine and pushes Marlin further away from it. The diver’s mask drops into the ocean.
Marlin tries to follow the boat, but even on the surface, he can’t see the boat anywhere near him. He attempts to ask other fish for help but they ignore him. He then swims right into blue tang Dory. Dory claims to have seen a boat and tells Marlin to follow her. After swimming for a bit, Dory starts to swim erratically, and then confronts Marlin, asking why he is following her. Marlin is confused by this, telling Dory she said she was taking him to the boat. Dory then starts the conversation again, leading Marlin to believe she’s crazy and says they’ve already had this conversation! Dory explains she has short-term memory loss and forgets things almost instantly. Marlin tells Dory she is wasting his time, and goes to leave. Instead, he swims right into great white shark Bruce. Bruce invites the two of them to a “party”. Marlin is immediately suspicious but Dory happily agrees to go. They don’t really have much choice anyway, and Bruce leads the two to a wrecked ship. At the ship, two other sharks are waiting for them and Marlin fears he’s about to be eaten…
But this turns out to be a support group meeting for the sharks, who are attempting to give up eating fish, with their motto being “fish are friends, not food”. At this meeting, Bruce and his friends Chum and Anchor have been tasked with bringing a fish friend to their meeting today. Chum has “misplaced” his friend, actually having eaten it, and Bruce offers Marlin instead, since he brought both Marlin and Dory. The meeting can now start. Bruce says it has been three weeks since he has eaten a fish, and opens up the (sea)floor to anyone else. Dory swims up and says she doesn’t believe she has ever eaten a fish. Marlin is then told to introduce himself to everyone. Marlin starts by saying his name and that he is a clownfish. Whenever someone hears or sees Marlin is a clownfish, they always ask for a joke, as the school parents did, and now the sharks want a joke too. However, Marlin isn’t good at joke-telling and is distracted by a mask in the distance, recognising it as the mask of the diver who took Nemo. Marlin explains the story to the sharks, and Dory comes over to take a look. It has writing on it, so she wants to ask the sharks if they can read it. The two fight over the mask, and it hits Dory in the nose, causing it to bleed. Bruce then smells the blood and reverts back to his predatory nature.
Bruce chases after Dory and Marlin, who swim away quickly, still holding the mask. They get to a dead end, but Dory manages to read the word “escape” and they find a way out of the wrecked ship. They soon find themselves trapped somewhere else though, and the mask has ended up in Bruce’s mouth. Dory finds that the area they are in holds torpedoes and sets one off. It hits Bruce in the mouth, freeing the mask, as well as Dory and Marlin. Bruce throws the bomb from his mouth. He soon comes to his senses again when he realises that bomb is heading right for the sea mines surrounding the ship. They swim away as multiple mines detonate and everything around them explodes.
Back with Nemo, we discover he has been placed in a dentist’s fish tank, with this dentist being the diver, who believes he was saving Nemo from the reef as he was swimming all alone out there. Nemo is terrified about being here, but his fellow “tank mates” soon introduce themselves. They include Bloat the pufferfish, Peach the starfish, and Gill the Moorish idol fish. Nemo is also introduced to Nigel the pelican. The fish soon discover that the dentist has saved Nemo as a birthday present for his niece, Darla. The tank fish are horrified, knowing Darla killed another fish by shaking its bag. Nemo has to get out of there.
Meanwhile, Dory and Marlin have fallen asleep in the mask, which is hanging precariously on the edge of the wrecked ship. The ship starts to move and Marlin wakes Dory. As the two fear being squished by this boat, they drop the mask. The boat settles on an edge, leaving them unharmed. But Marlin wants that mask back – and it fell a really long way down… Dory tries to encourage him to swim into the darkness, by telling him to “just keep swimming”. Soon enough, all the light has vanished. They then come across a random light in the sea. Entranced, they swim right up to it – before realising it is the light of an anglerfish! Marlin and Dory swim away, but Marlin spots the mask on the sea floor. He realised Dory could read on the ship and asks her to read the mask, while he distracts the anglerfish. Dory successfully manages to read the mask, just in time for them to get eaten! Dory and Marlin wait for their deaths – until they realise nothing has happened, because the anglerfish has gotten caught in the mask! They’ll have to leave it there, but thankfully, for once in her life, Dory has remembered what was written on the mask: an address. They need to get to “P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney”.
That night, in the dentist’s tank, Nemo is woken up by Jacques, a cleaner shrimp, who takes him to the volcano in the tank. Nemo hears the other fish chanting as he is led to the top of the volcano, named “Wannahockaloogie” – get the joke? Gill leads Nemo in his “initiation” into their gang. He is told to swim through the “Ring of Fire”, just the volcano’s bubble eruption. Nemo does so easily. Gill dubs him “Brother Sharkbait” and tells them of his escape plan: to block the tank’s filter so the dentist will have to clean the tank, and get them out to do so. In their bags, they can roll right out the window and down to the harbour.
Back in the ocean, Dory is pleased with herself for remembering the address, repeating it so many times to ensure she doesn’t forget it. Marlin sees a school of moonfish and goes to ask them for directions but they won’t stop and listen to him. Marlin then says to Dory that he wants to go on alone. Dory gets upset and starts to cry, alerting the school of fish who accuse Marlin of upsetting her. The fish start to play charades with Dory in a bid to cheer her up, but Marlin keeps guessing the answers instead, annoying them. The fish do an impression of Marlin, which upsets him and he swims away. Dory explains that he has lost his son and they are trying to get to Sydney. The fish happily tell them the way to get there. They’ll have to ride the East Australian Current, but first, they’ll come across a trench. At this trench, Dory is told specifically to go through it, not over it. Dory thanks them and they head off. At the trench though, Marlin doesn’t like the look of it, seeing it as a way to certain death. He wants to go over it, and won’t listen to Dory’s instinct they should go through it. Marlin distracts Dory, telling her something shiny went over the trench so they start to swim over it. At the top, Dory comes across a tiny jellyfish, who stings her. Marlin bats it away and says thankfully, it was only a little one. However, they are soon surrounded by hundreds of jellyfish. See, Marlin; that’s why you weren’t supposed to go over the trench. Marlin doesn’t believe there is a way through, until he sees Dory bouncing on the top of them. He comes up with a game, a race to get through the jellyfish by only bouncing on them. Dory and Marlin get really competitive and Marlin races ahead, getting through easily. He then notices Dory is not with him, and heads back in to find her. Dory has been stung numerous times and is trapped. Marlin swims right into the jellyfish’s tentacles and saves Dory, getting her out. But both pass out from their stings and begin to float to the bottom of the ocean…
At the dentist’s office in Sydney, the dentist leaves the room, giving the fish the perfect chance to enact their plan. Nemo swims through the filter, and is passed a pebble from the tank. He pushes the pebble into the rotating gear, which jams the filter. Nemo then swims up the tube above the gear to get back to the tank. However, just when everyone thinks it’s done, the pebble moves out of the gear and the filter starts up, sucking Nemo right into the gear. Gill grabs a piece of foliage from the tank and stuffs it up the tube with the help of the others. Nemo manages to grasp it with his teeth and is pulled through. Peach tells Gill not to make Nemo do that again. Traumatised by his own near-death escape, where Gill landed on dentist tools, scarring himself and cutting his fin, he says he won’t.
Marlin wakes up, and is surprised to find himself on the shell of a turtle named Crush. Crush tells Marlin they all saw how he “took on the jellies”, making him an instant legend. Marlin says he needs to get to the East Australian Current and is told by Crush he’s already there. He then asks about Dory, who he sees on a turtle shell below. He goes to her, believing she’s still unconscious. It turns out she’s just playing hide and seek with the younger turtles, who all want to know about Marlin and the jellyfish. This story is then passed through the creatures of the ocean, eventually getting to Nigel the pelican, who manages to tell Nemo that his dad is coming to get him. Motivated by this, Nemo enacts the plan to block the filter again, whilst nobody is watching. As the others notice what Nemo is trying to do, they grab a plant again and tell Nemo to grab it. But everything’s fine; Nemo has already jammed the filter and gotten back. Now, all they have to do is wait for the tank to get dirty!
In the current, Dory and Marlin have reached their exit, and Crush’s son, Squirt pushes them out at the right point, and they ride the current out. Marlin asks Crush how old he is, so he can tell Nemo. Crush is 150 years old “and still young”. Dory and Marlin then just swim straight. After a while, they don’t seem to be getting anywhere and only see one fish in the distance. Dory wants to ask the fish for directions, and realises it is actually a whale. Dory starts speaking whale, but it swims away from them. As they work out what to do next, the whale swallows them. In the whale’s mouth, Marlin starts to lose hope of ever seeing Nemo again. They then see the water level decreasing in the whale’s mouth. Dory “asks” the whale what is going on and she says it wants them to go to the back of the throat. Marlin doesn’t trust the whale not to eat them, so hangs on to the whale’s tongue. Dory wants to follow the instructions and falls down, but Marlin grabs her fin at the last minute. Dory tells him to trust her for once. Eventually, he does and they drop – only to be freed from the whale via its blowhole. They also discover the whale has taken them right to Sydney Harbour.
Yet things aren’t going so well at the tank. Although it got dirty, the dentist installed a new filter overnight so the fish wake up to find it spotless without them being removed. The dentist then tries to fish Nemo out with a net, but the others dive in and swim down, taking the net with them. Nemo is fished out in a bag instead, and left in a box so he can’t roll.
In the harbour, Marlin and Dory look for the diver’s boat but are picked up by a pelican. Marlin refuses to be almost swallowed twice today, and sticks in the pelican’s throat. Nigel sees this pelican choking, because two fish are on his tongue. The pelican spits Dory and Marlin out. Nigel then hears Marlin talking about finding his son and realises he is Nemo’s dad. He wants Marlin and Dory to jump into his mouth but Marlin doesn’t want to do that. They are surrounded by seagulls. Nigel explains that he knows where Nemo is, but the excitement makes Marlin jump up and the seagulls swarm. Nigel grabs Marlin and Dory and flies away from the gulls, leading them on a chase through the harbour.
At the dentist’s office, Darla has arrived and she’s worse than Nemo had imagined, so he plays dead in his bag, believing that the dentist will flush him down the toilet, and the pipes will take him to the ocean, like Gill said. The dentist goes to put him in the bin instead. Nigel arrives at this point, and Marlin forces him into the room, causing chaos. Marlin then sees Nemo in the bag and believes he’s dead. Nigel is forced out of the room and takes Marlin and Dory back to the harbour. Back in the office, Nemo thought he heard his dad so stops playing dead. Darla picks up the bag and starts to shake it, causing Gill to use their tank volcano to launch him onto her head, getting her to drop the bag. The bag breaks on the dentist tools and both Gill and Nemo land, gasping for breath. Gill manages to propel Nemo into the toilet, and Gill is returned to the tank, pleased to have saved Nemo.
Nemo goes on a journey back through the ocean, calling for his dad. Marlin has gone on back home alone, leaving Dory lost. Nemo sees Dory and explains what happened to him. Dory doesn’t twig that this is Marlin’s son though and says she thought she was looking for someone too. Nemo says they can look together. After a minute or two, Dory does actually remember that Nemo is who they were looking for! She asks nearby crabs to tell her where Marlin went, using the surface seagulls to persuade him to tell her! They follow the same direction and Marlin eventually hears Nemo calling. But the reunion doesn’t last long, as Dory is caught in a fish net with hundreds of other fish. Nemo has an idea to save her and goes into the net, telling Marlin to get all the fish to swim down together. Marlin agrees to help, though concerned he’ll never see his son again. The fish are confused initially but work together to swim down, moving the net lower to the ocean floor. The net crashes down, freed from the boat, and the fish swim out. Dory is fine, but left on the bottom of the net is an unconscious Nemo. Marlin swims to him, and he regains consciousness. Marlin then tells Nemo all about his journey, and how he met a 150-year-old sea turtle. They all go home.
At home, Dory has joined the sharks in their bid to not eat fish, and Marlin has become calmer, even being funny for once! Nemo is back at school, and Squirt has joined as an exchange student. Marlin waves goodbye to his son for the day, and Nemo quickly swims back to hug him, saying he loves him. We also learn that the tank fish have broken the dentist’s new filter and had to be removed in plastic bags. They have managed to roll themselves down the harbour and into the sea, pleased with themselves – but wondering what they do now!
CHARACTERS & CAST
Marlin is an incredibly overprotective father, wanting to keep Nemo from harm at all costs. This is because Nemo is his only son, and he has firsthand experience of just how dangerous the ocean can be. He wants Nemo to be safe. Yet this causes friction between him and his son, as Nemo believes his dad doesn’t believe he is capable of looking after himself, even during a day at school. It’s because of this argument that Nemo even swims out to the boat in the first place, trying to prove to his dad that he is fine on his own. If they hadn’t had that conversation, I don’t think Nemo would’ve been taken by the diver. Because of this guilt, Marlin realises he has to put his fear about the ocean aside to rescue his son, knowing the fear of losing him is much worse than anything he’ll experience out at sea.
Albert Brooks was cast as Marlin. Brooks made his acting debut in Taxi Driver (1976), being cast as Tom. He went on to appear as Aaron Altman in the comedy-drama Broadcast News (1987), for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. For voice work, Brooks had voiced a few characters in episodes of The Simpsons (1989-present), leading to him voicing the character of Russ Cargill in The Simpsons Movie (2007). In more recent years, Brooks has been cast as Bernie Rose in the Ryan Gosling film Drive (2011), and was the subject of the documentary Albert Brooks: Defending My Life in 2023. He is set to appear as Governor Bill in Ella McCay (2025).
Dory is the complete opposite of Marlin, not having any fear, perhaps because she can’t remember what fear even feels like, thanks to her short-term memory loss. Dory doesn’t seem to know where she’s going in life so Marlin’s quest gives her a purpose, and something useful to do. She is initially annoying to Marlin, with her forgetfulness and obsession with singing and repeating things over and over again! Dory likes Marlin’s friendship though, seemingly not remembering where her friends are, and doesn’t like the idea of Marlin leaving her, as he tries to do numerous times on their journey, due to his worry about Dory’s unpredictable behaviour. Dory is easily the funniest character in Finding Nemo, and the movie wouldn’t be the same without her. She is the comic next to Marlin’s “straight man”, with their bouncing off each other leading to many good moments and quotable lines.
Dory was voiced by comedian Ellen DeGeneres, who began her career in stand-up comedy. She later starred in the ABC sitcom Ellen (1994-98), which ran for five seasons. Following that, DeGeneres hosted award shows, like the Grammy Awards in 1996 and 1997, as well as the 2001 Primetime Emmy Awards. She starred in the Epcot attraction Ellen’s Energy Adventure at Walt Disney World. This attraction ran from 1996 until 2017, and also starred Bill Nye the Science Guy. Ellen later hosted her own talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, from 2003 until 2022, as well as the game show Ellen’s Game of Games (2017-21). The daytime talk show was popular, winning multiple Daytime Emmy Awards during its time, however, by the late 2010s, allegations had started to surface around a toxic workplace environment, as well as complaints around DeGeneres herself. Since the end of her series, DeGeneres has mostly retreated from the spotlight, and even moved to the UK in late 2024. DeGeneres won the Annie Award for Outstanding Voice Acting; the Kids; Choice Award for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie; and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Dory.
Nemo is Marlin’s curious son. He wants to know all about the ocean and the creatures in it, like sharks and sea turtles. He is frustrated that his father doesn’t seem to think he can do anything for himself, even swim well because of his “lucky fin”. By swimming out to sea and touching the boat, he is aiming to show his father he is perfectly fine, but instead, this gets him taken from the ocean and put into a fish tank. Nemo is scared initially of this new environment and the other fish, but they quickly come to be friends, finding ways to ensure he doesn’t end up as a gift to Darla. Gill in particular comes to be Nemo’s “father figure” whilst away from his dad. With help from him, Nemo is freed and reunited with his father. On returning home, Marlin has made some changes to his parenting style, allowing Nemo more space and the chance to be his own fish.
Alexander Gould voiced Nemo. After Finding Nemo, Gould went on to voice Bambi in the direct-to-video sequel Bambi II (2006), and was cast as Twitch in the children’s comedy film How to Eat Fried Worms (2006). He also had a starring role as Shane Botwin in the comedy-drama series Weeds (2005-12). Gould won Young Artist awards for his roles as both Nemo and Shane Botwin, in 2004 and 2007, respectively.
The “tank gang” consists of an eclectic mix of fish and sea creatures. First, we have Moorish idol fish Gill, who seems to have been taken directly from the ocean, like Nemo, whereas the others were bought online. Gill is the most determined to escape, seeing Nemo as the perfect opportunity to get out, since he is small enough to get in and out of the filter mechanisms. Gill is mysterious, not revealing many details about his life, other than to say his fin was damaged from his escape plan to get into the dentist’s toilet, by landing on dental tools. At first, Gill doesn’t seem to care about Nemo’s safety, seeing him as a tool to get out of the tank, but it soon becomes clear that he does care about Nemo and does not want him to end up with Darla. Him and the others want Nemo to get home to his father.
Gill was voiced by Willem Dafoe. Dafoe first rose to fame with his role as Sergeant Elias in the war movie Platoon (1986), receiving an Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for his role. Dafoe would go on to be nominated in this category twice more: as Bobby in The Florida Project (2017) and as Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire (2000). Dafoe would earn a further Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate (2018). Dafoe is also known for his role as the Green Goblin in the 2002 Spider-Man movie and its subsequent sequels. More recently, Dafoe starred alongside Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things (2023), playing Dr. Godwin Baxter. He also portrayed David Tebet in Saturday Night (2024).
As for the rest of the tank gang, we have Bloat the blowfish, who blows up whenever he gets stressed out. Generally, he is a big lovable fish. There is also Peach, the starfish who is a good lookout in the office, knowing when the dentist is doing an exciting procedure or whether he has left the room, since she is stuck to the sides of the tank most of the time. Bubbles is a yellow tang fish who has grown very attached to a little treasure chest in the tank that releases bubbles, hence his name. There is also Gurgle, a royal gamma fish who is obsessed with cleanliness, even insisting Nemo is “decontaminated” by Jacques, the cleaner shrimp, who naturally cleans the tank a lot, on learning Nemo was in the ocean. Deb is a striped damselfish, who is a little bit crazy, believing that her reflection in the tank is her sister Flo. I think Deb in particular has been in this tank a little bit too long!
Brad Garrett voiced Bloat. Garrett starred as Robert Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), alongside Ray Romano, for which he won three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Known for his distinctive, deep voice, Garrett has voiced other characters for Disney and Pixar, including Dim in A Bug’s Life (1998), Gusteau in Ratatouille (2007), Hook Hand in Tangled (2010) and Eeyore in Christopher Robin (2018). Alison Janney voiced Peach. Janney won multiple Primetime Emmy Awards for her role as C.J. Cregg in The West Wing (1999-2006), going on to appear in various movies including The Help (2011), playing Charlotte Phelan; Bombshell (2019), being cast as Susan Estrich; and, most recently, A Simple Favour (2025), playing Aunt Linda. Janney also won numerous awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, for her portrayal of LaVona Golden, Tonya Harding’s mother, in I, Tonya (2017).
Bubbles was voiced by Stephen Root. Root was cast as Jimmy James in the sitcom NewsRadio (1995-99), alongside Dave Foley and Vicki Lewis. Root has also voiced the characters of Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland on King of the Hill (1997-2009, 2025-present). In recent live-action, Root can be seen as Neil Mullin in Bombshell (2019); Jim Hudson in Get Out (2017); and as Tony in Paint (2023). Gurgle was voiced by Austin Pendleton. Pendleton was cast as John Gibbons in the movie My Cousin Vinny (1992), and appears as Marty in Christmas with the Kranks (2004). He was part of the ensemble cast who won a SAG award for A Beautiful Mind (2001). Vicki Lewis was cast as Deb, who played Dina Reams in the Disney Channel Original Movie Den Brother (2010), and Ms. Knightslinger in the DCOM Upside-Down Magic (2020), as well as appearing as Ms. Bitterman in a few episodes of the Disney Channel series Sonny with a Chance (2009-11). Lewis is also known for her role as Beth in NewsRadio. The voice of Jacques was provided by Joe Ranft, who was an artist at Pixar. His first pieces of work included pitching and storyboarding the Green Army Men sequence for Toy Story (1995). He also voiced other characters for Pixar’s movies, including Wheezy in Toy Story 2 (1999) and Heimlich in A Bug’s Life (1998). Ranft died in a car accident in 2005, during production on the movie Cars (2006) which he co-directed[1]. Ranft worked on story for all Pixar films up until then.
There is also Nigel the pelican, who is a friend of the “tank gang”, visiting them often, wanting to get a look at the dentist treating his patients. Apparently, this is a fun activity for animals; not so much for humans! It is because of Nigel that Marlin is able to get into the dentist office, although things take a turn when it is believed that Nemo is dead. Geoffrey Rush was cast as Nigel. Rush has appeared in many projects on stage and screen over the years. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of pianist David Helfgott in the movie Shine (1996). Rush continued to be nominated for his film roles over the years, including in the Best Supporting Actor category for his roles as Phillip Henslowe in Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Lionel Logue in The King’s Speech (2010). He also won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor for playing the title role in the HBO movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). Rush is also known for playing Captain Barbossa in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise.
The sharks Bruce, Anchor, and Chum are the biggest threat to Marlin and Dory on their search for Nemo, although Dory doesn’t even realise it. They are fine at the start, vowing not to eat fish, and Chum seems to be the one who is most likely to go off the rails. Instead, Bruce smells Dory’s blood when she hits it on the mask and he goes crazy, desperately wanting to eat them. Anchor and Chum try to stop Bruce, attempting to diffuse the situation by saying Bruce never knew his father – which is such a good excuse for wanting to eat someone, isn’t it? In the end, the sharks fear dying from an exploding mine and forget all about Marlin and Dory, giving Bruce an opportunity to come to their senses. By the end of Finding Nemo, Dory and Marlin have befriended the sharks, with Dory helping the sharks on their journey to “vegetarianism”.
Bruce was voiced by Australian comic Barry Humphries, who was well-known for his comedic performances, most notably as the character Dame Edna Everage, having many TV specials as this character in the 1980s and 1990s. Humphries went on to voice the character of Braulio in Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013). He was also the Great Goblin in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) via motion capture. Humphries sadly passed away in 2023. Anchor was voiced by Eric Bana, who came to fame with his role as Norm “Hoot” Gibson in Black Hawk Down (2001). He later played Hector in Troy (2004), and starred as Henry in The Time Traveller’s Wife (2009), with Rachel McAdams. Bruce Spence voiced Chum. He appeared as Cookson, one of Hook’s pirates in the 2003 adaptation of Peter Pan. He went on to play Tion Medon in Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith (2005). More recently, he appeared as Gerry in the movie The Dry (2020), with Eric Bana.
Then, we have Crush the sea turtle. Crush is a chilled-out sea turtle, just cruising down the EAC with his friends and family. Nothing bothers Crush, and he is a relaxed parent too. His son, Squirt, falls out of the current, which causes Marlin to panic. Crush tells Marlin to calm down, knowing that Squirt will find his own way back into the current, and sure enough, he does. This shows Marlin that he doesn’t need to hold on so tight to Nemo because kids are resilient and know more than their parents think. Crush was voiced by Finding Nemo’s director, Andrew Stanton. Stanton has been at Pixar since its first feature, and was a co-director on A Bug’s Life (1998) prior to Finding Nemo, continuing to be part of the Pixar Senior Creative Team. Stanton is also writing and directing Toy Story 5 (2026).
Mr. Ray is Nemo’s flamboyant school teacher. Mr. Ray likes to sing to signal his arrival, and just generally sings on his travels! Mr. Ray is a friendly teacher, although he’s not particularly strict, not even noticing four members of his class walking towards the drop-off, risking their safety. He’s too busy looking at something else with his other students. To be honest, the ratio of students to teachers is way too low here, so no wonder an incident like this occurred. Mr. Ray should really look at hiring a teacher assistant… Bob Peterson voiced Mr. Ray and he is also a Pixar employee. Peterson had worked on the earliest Pixar movie, Toy Story (1995), within the animation department, and has continued to work on other Pixar films in both a story and voice acting capacity. For example, Peterson co-wrote the screenplay for Cars 3 (2017), and co-directed Up (2009), also voicing the characters of Alpha and the much-loved Dug. Another Pixar character he has voiced is Roz in Monsters, Inc. (2001). Peterson also wrote, created, and directed the animated short series Dug Days (2021-23), and reprised his voice role of Dug.
Finally, we have John Ratzenberger, Pixar’s “good luck charm”. Ratzenberger voiced a character in every Pixar movie up until Onward (2020), later returning to reprise his voice role of Fritz in Inside Out 2 (2024). He is particularly known for voicing the character of Hamm in the Toy Story franchise. In Finding Nemo, Ratzenberger voiced the school of moonfish, the ones who like to play charades with random swimmers-by.
PRODUCTION
Pixar had already received critical acclaim for their first four movies, starting with Toy Story in 1995. With every release, audiences started to have expectations of the studio and were excited to see what they would come up with next.
It might seem like workers at Pixar would’ve started to feel confident about their movie-making abilities. Even critics were commenting on the studio’s “reliability”, and yet, within the company, all this gave the filmmakers was an increasing amount of pressure to not mess up and ruin their streak of luck.
In the case of Finding Nemo, the team working on this movie were dealing with a tightly controlled budget, after Monsters, Inc. (2001), despite being a hit, had come under fire for its extraordinary budget, with much development work not even making it into the film. They were also only too aware of Brad Bird’s The Incredibles taking much of the focus away from Finding Nemo, since everyone was expecting that movie to be their hit for 2004. Many actually thought Finding Nemo would be a flop, including CEO of The Walt Disney Company at the time, Michael Eisner, who apparently believed it would be Pixar’s first box-office bomb. During the intense production process, even director of Finding Nemo Andrew Stanton was starting to have doubts about it.
The story of Finding Nemo was devised by Stanton, with a few inspirations. One was Stanton’s childhood visits to his dentist, who happened to have a fish tank. Stanton would look at these fish and wonder what it was like to have humans staring into your home all day. He assumed that these fish all came from the ocean and must’ve been wanting to get home[2]. Another came in later life, when Stanton went for a walk with his five-year-old son to the park. He’d wanted some father-son time together; however, Stanton began to notice how he was taking away from that time by being overprotective to ensure his son didn’t get hurt. He realised he wasn’t being present enough[3]. With these two influences combined, it is clear to see how the story started to take shape, containing a similar father-son dynamic alongside a fish’s journey from fish tank to ocean, and vice versa.
Stanton had initially written a full screenplay, however, after storyboarding, the team found the story didn’t quite work. The story department began to collaborate together to help with rewrites, spending years getting to the point where the story was right and work could begin on the animation, which is pretty standard procedure, but this does mean that many elements initially present in the story did not remain in the final film.
The biggest story element not to exist in the final edit of Finding Nemo was something Stanton was enjoying experimenting with, and that was telling Marlin’s backstory through various flashbacks during the course of the movie. It was meant to gradually show the audience where Marlin’s panic around protecting his son had come from, and would’ve been split into around five flashbacks. The first saw Marlin meeting Coral for the first time, trying to get her attention. The next saw Marlin showing Coral their new anemone home. The third saw Marlin and Coral getting ready to be parents. Another had the two talking about names for their eggs, where Coral said she’d like to name one “Nemo”. The final flashback was to show the tragedy of the barracuda attack, where all but Marlin and Nemo were lost. This was going to be played alongside scenes of Nemo in the fish net with Dory at the end of the film. Although Stanton was excited to tell the story in this format, they found during early screenings of the film that by doing this Marlin wasn’t likeable enough. Stanton was advised to tell the story in a linear format, which was less interesting for him, but after spending over a year seeing people not warm to the character of Marlin, he decided he’d have to try it. Sure enough, by having the introductory scene show Marlin losing the love of his life and most of his children, audiences immediately emphasised with this character[4]. William H. Macy was initially on board to voice Marlin and recorded all of his lines. But when Pixar decided to make the film lighter, and avoid the use of all those dark flashbacks, they felt Macy was no longer right for the part and brought in Albert Brooks, to bring much-needed humour.
There were some others changes to characters as well along the way. Crush was going to be a too-chilled-out hippie sea turtle, who didn’t seem to have much going on his brain! Pixar made test footage of Crush which used Sean Penn’s voice, taking vocals from his 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It is unclear whether this meant Pixar intended to, or actually did, approach Sean Penn for the part, although it is known that this style of test footage was used to recruit Tom Hanks as Woody in Toy Story, and Billy Crystal as Buzz in the same film, though Crystal turned down the role[5]. Gill was also supposed to lie to Nemo about his past, something that Nemo figured out from watching a parent reading a book to their child in the dentist’s waiting room, because everything Gill had told him was in that book word-for-word. In this same scene, the tank fish were also watching a soap opera on the dentist’s TV, this apparently being their pastime instead of watching the dentist’s more complicated appointments[6]. Dory was initially being written as a male fish, however, Stanton was supposedly watching an episode of the sitcom Ellen, starring Ellen DeGeneres, as he was working on the movie. He liked how Ellen’s character on the show talked so fast and changed subject seemingly at random, and felt she’d be perfect as Dory. Megan Mullally, famed for her character Karen Walker on Will & Grace (1998-2006, 2017-20) was also approached to voice a character in Finding Nemo, however, Pixar wanted her to sound just like Karen, which Mullally did not want to do, so she was allegedly let go for this reason[7].
With the story in place, animation could begin, but not before a significant amount of research took place. Firstly, some of the filmmakers had to take scuba lessons in Monterey Bay so they could dive and look at marine life up close. They also took dives in Maui, Hawaii. Here, they learnt that the reef can be split up into three simple ideas: that there are ground masses; tall, vertical shapes; and flat, horizontal areas. This allowed the filmmakers to present this reef to an audience in an easy way. Research was also taken in Sydney and around the harbour. With the seagull chase, when Nigel the pelican is trying to get Marlin and Dory to Nemo, this was meant to go through the city, but whilst looking at the harbour, they thought it would be more recognisable to set it across the bay, as the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are famous tourist attractions, making it easy for the audience to locate the setting of the sequence. They even did some research at a water treatment centre and sewage plant, with this being the intended setting for a sequence, following Nemo’s journey from toilet to ocean, that was ultimately cut[8]. What a waste!
The underwater world was quite difficult to recreate, as there needed to be a balance between realism and creativity. Although the animators were able to mimic actual shots in a simulation, they found this made the ocean too real, so they had to figure out a way of toning that down, but keeping some of that believability. Light was an important factor in achieving this, as they wanted to created mood as well as reflect natural times of day in the seascape. For example, it starts off as bright, blue water by Marlin and Nemo’s home, before getting darker and greener as they approach Sydney. Different types of light had to be factored in as well, such as light travelling differently through sewage water and harbour water compared to the open ocean. They even animated surge and swell in the water to reflect true activity.
On studying fish, it was decided that animating fish characters was going to be difficult. Fish don’t have any emotion in their faces, so instead, the animators turned to dogs. They saw that dogs use their eyebrows to emote, so this idea was put into the fish characters. Animating how fish move was an added challenge, since Pixar had animated non-human characters before but they had mostly walked on two legs. Here, they’d have to study how fish move their fins and propel themselves through the water[9]. They also had to explore how light goes through fish. In the end, they likened the effect to holding a gummy bear up to the light, and gave their fish this gummy sort of surface, before adding the correct texture to the skin and scales.
Other animation challenges in Finding Nemo included some effects and specific environments. One of these was recreating the anemone. After some time experimenting with ways of animating this, they discovered that covering a tennis ball with fur from Sulley in Monsters, Inc. and sticking it upside down managed to simulate the movement of the anemone, and they could just thicken the fur as needed from that point. With simulations of the large school of moonfish, they used Pisces software to make this, simply “killing” any misbehaving fish from the shot. So, although no actual fish were harmed in the making of Finding Nemo, it would seem that some computer-animated fish were! This was a similar type of process to the fishing net sequence towards the end of the film.
For some specific effects, they studied how silt moves in the ocean, specifically in relation to the rusting shipwreck that the sharks live in. When Bruce hits into parts of the ship, you can see silt, rust, and dust being kicked up. These particles move differently in water than they do in air, so they had to be animated realistically. They did the same with how a mine would explode underwater, creating a mushroom cloud of smoke, with one mine setting off the one next to it, and so on. The whale’s mouth was a particularly difficult challenge for many departments, as it is a dark environment, causing a problem for lighting, and the water trapped in the water looks and behaves differently to the ocean water, with splashes of water and smaller particles running down the whale’s tongue.
Finding Nemo contains many fun Easter eggs. For example, their famous “A113”, referencing a classroom at CalArts were some of Pixar’s animators studied, appears on the diver’s camera here, and the Pizza Planet truck appears outside the dentist’s office on the road, during the imaginary escape sequence, when we see a bag of water rolling itself into the harbour. You can also see a Buzz Lightyear toy in the dentist office, and a boy waiting to be seen by the dentist is reading a Mr. Incredible comic book, continuing the Pixar tradition of referencing their next film, in this case The Incredibles (2004). In Monsters, Inc., the movie preceding Finding Nemo, Nemo appeared as a toy in Boo’s room at the end of the film, and could be found hanging on the wall inside the door that Randall is thrown into by Sulley, also towards the end of the film. Nemo even appeared as one of the fish in the net that is destroyed by Kenai riding on a mammoth in an early scene in Disney’s Brother Bear (2003).
Other fun references in Finding Nemo include the fact that the character Darla was named after Pixar producer Darla K. Anderson, producer of A Bug’s Life (1998) and Monsters, Inc. (2001), who believes her history of playing practical jokes on Andrew Stanton was the reason for this, thinking naming the “villain” of Finding Nemo after her was some kind of payback! You can also see witty names of boats in the Sydney Harbour sequence, such as “Pier Pressure”, “The Surly Mermaid”, “iBoat”, and “Knottie Buoy”[10].
MUSIC
Although Randy Newman had composed the music for all four previous Pixar movies, the composer for Finding Nemo was someone different. But not someone too different, as the composer was Thomas Newman, Randy Newman’s cousin!
After Finding Nemo, Thomas Newman continued to work on the music for other Pixar movies, like WALL-E (2008) and Elemental (2023). He also became known for his compositions for other hit movies, like the Bond movies Skyfall (2012), for which he won the BAFTA for Best Original Music, and Spectre (2015). Prior to Finding Nemo, Newman had composed the music for American Beauty (1999), winning the BAFTA for Best Original Music, along with a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. He would later win the Grammy award again, and be nominated for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards too, for Skyfall. Newman also won an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music for the series Six Feet Under (2001-05), and recently composed the music for Netflix’s miniseries Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024) with Julia Newman.
The Finding Nemo soundtrack mostly consists of instrumental music, because this isn’t a Disney movie so these fish don’t sing! The score had to get across a wide range of emotions and feelings throughout the movie, as Marlin, Dory, and Nemo deal with their fair share of highs and lows, threats and happy moments. For me, I particularly like the pieces “First Day”, which is a more positive, upbeat moment, at least for Nemo as he gets ready for his first day of school, as well as “Finding Nemo”, which sees Marlin and Nemo reunited at last. “Nemo Egg (Main Title)” is also a nice song, showing Marlin vowing to protect his son for the rest of his life, although it is slightly melancholic too. Within the more tense moments, I quite like “Lost”, where Marlin is desperately trying to figure out where the boat and divers who took his son have gone, and “Friends Not Food”, as Marlin and Dory are trying to escape from Bruce. “All Drains Lead to the Ocean” is another good piece of music here.
The only actual song to appear on the movie’s official soundtrack is the End Credits song “Beyond the Sea”. For Finding Nemo, this song, originally titled “La Mer” and performed by Charles Trenet, was performed by British singer, and former member of Take That, Robbie Williams. It features on his 2001 album Swing When You’re Winning. There was also a music video released of this song, but only with clips from the film; you won’t see an animated fish version of Robbie. “Beyond the Sea” was written by Charles Louis Trenet, Albert Lasry, and Jack Lawrence.
Other music does, however, appear in Finding Nemo, and these songs were credited. One was “Psycho (The Murder)” written by Bernard Hermann. The opening notes of this music were used when Darla appears in the dentist’s office to collect Nemo, to show that she is terrifying to the fish. “Fandango” written by Bob Bain and “The Girl from Ipanema” written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes, and Norman Gimbel are also both credited, although I can’t find specifically when they are used, other than they seem to be used as background music during the scenes in the dentist’s office and its waiting room.
Newman’s score won the Annie Award for Music in an Animated Feature Production, as well as the BMI Film Music Award. It was also nominated for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards, and Best Original Score at the Satellite Awards, however, it lost out to Howard Shore’s music for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Hans Zimmer’s score in The Last Samurai, respectively. Newman also missed out on the Saturn Award for Best Music to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’s score.
RECEPTION
After around three years of production on Finding Nemo, the movie was ready to be shown to the public. The premiere of Finding Nemo was held at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on 18th May 2003, before being widely released in the US on 30th May 2003, becoming the first Pixar movie to be released in the summer, and not November, although in some countries, Finding Nemo would not be released until closer to November. Finding Nemo was also released alongside a customary Pixar short. In this case, Pixar re-released a short from their past, Knick Knack from 1989, about a snowman in a snow globe desperately trying to get free so he can hang out with the other ornaments on the shelf.
November has always been considered a good time to release a movie, but so is summertime. However, it was likely still a little bit concerning for Pixar to be releasing a movie outside of their usual timeframe. Yet, they had nothing to worry about because Finding Nemo did amazingly well, both at the box office and with critics. Audiences loved it too.
Finding Nemo achieved the best opening ever at the box office for an animated picture at the time, taking $70.6 million, more than Monsters, Inc. with $62.5 million. Finding Nemo’s box-office performance was followed by Bruce Almighty, The Italian Job 2003 remake, and The Matrix Reloaded[11]. By the end of the year, it was confirmed that Finding Nemo’s domestic takings had reached just under $340 million, and the movie reached the No. 2 spot for 2003 box-office results with just over $870 million; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took the top spot. Comparing these results to Disney’s animated release of the year, Brother Bear reached No. 14[12]. At one time, Finding Nemo was the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, but has been surpassed many times since.
In terms of reviews, the overwhelming majority of these were positive, although there have been some more negative comments, especially in more recent times. These include that Finding Nemo may’ve been overhyped simply because of its incredible use of computer animation; Pixar was way ahead of the competition, that is a well-known fact. Others say it was less ambitious than previous films, which I can only assume they mean in way of story, as it can get a bit samey after a while, something I understand, but the animation was clearly ambitious. There were comments that Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. are funnier Pixar films, which I agree with, and that sometimes Marlin and Dory got a bit much for some viewers, who found them grating and annoying at times. Some also say some moments in this film are too scary for young children, such as the shark scene, although I’d disagree with that.
On the positive side, many praised the beautiful animation and casting, particularly liking the chemistry between Marlin and Dory. It was seen to be a real story, easily recognisable as a story about the human condition, with messages around parenting and loss in particular. It was entertaining, clever, and imaginative, proving to be popular with adults and children alike. It has since been lauded as a timeless classic.
Finding Nemo’s critical acclaim and financial success were rewarded with a brilliant award season. Arguably the biggest achievement was winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, this being Pixar’s first win in this category. Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds were nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category and Best Sound Editing was another category where Finding Nemo was nominated.
Finding Nemo also won the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film, and won Favorite Movie at the Kids’ Choice Awards. Pixar also swept the Annie Awards with Finding Nemo winning the Best Animated Picture; Character Animation and Design; Directing; Effects; and Writing categories. Finding Nemo won every category it was nominated in. Finding Nemo was also named Best Animated Film of 2003 by the National Board of Review.
Outside of that, the screenwriters were again nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the BAFTAs. Finding Nemo was also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes but lost to Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. The Golden Globes did not have a Best Animated Feature Film category until 2007.
LEGACY
Following on from its theatrical release, Finding Nemo broke more records with its DVD release, becoming the best-selling DVD of all time, still holding on to that top spot and winning awards for its bonus features and games. Some of these included behind-the-scenes footage, as well as information around marine life, presumably to encourage children to learn about the underwater environment. One of these included a television special with French oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau called Exploring the Reef, which also saw him being joined by Dory, Marlin, and Nemo, to explain the importance of coral reefs and other marine life in the natural world.
A video game based on the events of Finding Nemo was also released in 2003, and Finding Nemo characters have since been added to other Disney-affiliated games, like Disney Friends and Disney Infinity.
Finding Nemo was also re-released in 3D in September 2012 for a limited time. The successful 3D re-release of The Lion King in 2011 may’ve had something to do with this. The 3D release made just under $70 million worldwide, increasing Finding Nemo’s total worldwide box-office takings to just over $940 million.
It was then announced in early 2013 that Finding Nemo would be getting a sequel, with the name being revealed as Finding Dory. It was due to be released in November 2015, however, ended up being released in June 2016. Ellen DeGeneres was confirmed to be back to reprise her role as Dory, and Andrew Stanton was confirmed as the director of the sequel after directing the original. It was announced that Alexander Gould would be unable to return to voice Nemo due to the gap between the movies and the nature of voices changing with age[13]! Finding Dory became the fifth sequel or prequel to come from Pixar.
Due to Finding Nemo’s popularity over the years since 2003, it is no surprise that the Disney Parks have created experiences based on the film. A very early one of these was a means of promoting the movie at the parks, particularly the US parks. This was done with a moving Nemo vehicle who roamed around the parks, being spotted at Epcot at Walt Disney World in Florida, as well as featuring in a mini-parade at Disney California Adventure Park at Disneyland in California, alongside fish puppeteers and dancers. This same Nemo was also used for the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade in December 2003, complete with a coral reef stage and the End Credits song from the movie “Beyond the Sea” playing.
At Walt Disney World, changes to its parks to incorporate Finding Nemo began early on. The Living Seas pavilion in Epcot, first opened in January 1986, complete with the largest saltwater aquarium tank in the world at the time; a restaurant, Coral Reef Restaurant; and exhibits. Guests were even taken to this “Sea Base Alpha” in “hydrolators”, large elevators that supposedly went deep underwater but only moved a couple of inches. The Living Seas area began being re-themed to Finding Nemo in early 2004. First, Nemo’s Garden, a collection of statues of the characters from the movie, was installed outside the pavilion, remaining there to this day as a good photo spot. Then, Turtle Talk with Crush, an interactive show where guests can speak to Crush on-screen, making the show different on every viewing, opened within the old Sea Base in November 2004. The Sea Base began to be changed, with specific signage referencing the Finding Nemo characters’ real-life fish counterparts as well as Bruce’s Shark World, an interactive exhibit, being added. The Living Seas pavilion was closed in August 2005, reopening as The Seas with Nemo & Friends alongside a new attraction in January 2007. This attraction, matching the name of its pavilion, saw guests ride through the aquarium tanks, with projections of Finding Nemo characters added to the real-life marine life, as they go through scenes inspired by the movie in “Clamobiles”, ride vehicles made to look like clams. This is an omnimover-style attraction, so it is continuously moving. The ride ends with characters singing a new song, “Big Blue World”, written for a new show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, the two who wrote the songs for Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019)[14].
This new Animal Kingdom show was Finding Nemo – The Musical, which began performances at the Theater in the Wild, which used to house Tarzan Rocks! from 1999 to 2006, on 24th January 2007. This used to be an outdoor theatre but became enclosed for this new show. Finding Nemo – The Musical contained fourteen new original songs, and was a forty-minute show. It featured live actors and puppetry, such as a huge Crush puppet measuring the same size as a VW Beetle, and a Nigel the pelican puppet being 22-foot-tall. Many puppets were held up with rods by live actors. Crush himself needed four puppeteers to operate, and an additional singer, since all songs were performed live on stage. Michael Curry, who co-created the puppets for The Lion King musical on Broadway, was on hand to create these puppets. The show was directed by Peter Brosius, and choreographed by John Carrafa. Finding Nemo – The Musical won the Themed Entertainment Associate Award for Best Live Show in 2009. Guests could also own the soundtrack on CD, as I did, because it really was a fantastic show. Finding Nemo – The Musical closed in 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic closures, and did not reopen until 2022, with a slightly shortened, altered show, and some songs were cut – including my favourite song…[15]
There is also a Walt Disney World hotel that features suites and courtyards themed to Finding Nemo, alongside those themed to The Lion King (1994), Cars (2006), and The Little Mermaid (1989). This hotel is Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, which officially opened on 31st May 2012, becoming Walt Disney World’s 26th resort. The Finding Nemo suites opened first on 31st May, with the other three sections opening in the following four months. The Finding Nemo rooms feature coral-shaped chairs, lights shaped like bubbles, a porthole mirror, and a vaguely shipwreck-themed bathroom complete with sharks on the shower curtain. The suites also have brightly coloured painted motifs and furnishings to match the coral reef in the movie. The “Big Blue Pool” is the main pool of the resort, the largest hotel pool at Walt Disney World, and includes large statues of characters and settings from the movie, like Crush, and Marlin and Nemo in their anemone. The Drop Off pool bar is nearby, as is a small children’s splash pad. Initially, the space where Disney’s Art of Animation sits, across a lagoon from Pop Century Resort, was meant as an expansion to Pop Century. Pop Century features buildings themed to a specific decade, from 1950s to 1990s, opening in 2003. A “Legendary Years” section, going from 1900s to 1940s, was planned to open in 2007, with some year markers and buildings already in place. This was never built and it was not until Summer 2010 that construction began on this leftover hotel space, with the theme changing to represent some of Pixar and Disney’s best animated films[16].
At Disneyland, specifically in Disney California Adventure Park, Turtle Talk with Crush opened in July 2005 at the Disney Animation area of Hollywood Land. The biggest Finding Nemo addition to Disneyland though was the reimagining of the Submarine Voyage ride at Tomorrowland in the original Disneyland Park. Submarine Voyage opened in 1959. Guests entered a real submarine and went underwater in a manmade lagoon. Portholes allowed guests to view the underwater scene. The story of this attraction was that you were on a voyage to the North Pole. A similar version of this ride later opened at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, but themed to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). This ride opened in 1971 and closed in 1994. The Magic Kingdom lagoon was eventually filled in, around 2004, and is now Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, opening as part of their New Fantasyland expansion in 2014. Submarine Voyage was no longer a popular attraction with guests by the 1990s, and Disneyland imagineers feared a similar future to this ride as the one at Walt Disney World. They knew it needed to be updated, and it was felt the perfect opportunity had come when Disney Animation released Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). This movie contains a specific chase sequence with sea monster the Leviathan, but as the movie flopped, the plans were abandoned. After seeing the success of Pixar’s Finding Nemo, a new retheme was devised. Submarine Voyage closed in 1998, and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage did not open until June 2007. The submarines were repainted, the “wreckage” in the lagoon was changed to match the Australian coral reef setting of the movie, although some of the original ship graveyard from Submarine Voyage was kept. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage now follows the story of visitors helping Marlin and Dory find Nemo once again and characters from the movie are projected into the water scenes, similarly to The Seas with Nemo & Friends attraction, at points throughout the ride[17].
Although the US Disney Parks appear to have the most Finding Nemo-themed experiences, there are more at the other four international parks. At Disneyland Paris, specifically at the Walt Disney Studios Park – soon to reopen in 2026 as Disney Adventure World – in the Worlds of Pixar area is Crush’s Coaster, a thrilling, spinning rollercoaster, taking you through moments from the film, including the sharks’ shipwreck and a ride through the EAC. It opened in June 2007.
At Shanghai Disneyland, there is a play area called the Junior Explorers Camp at Adventure Isle with an area themed to Finding Nemo. Two other areas are themed to The Lion King and Up (2009). At Tomorrowland in Shanghai Disneyland, there is an interactive exhibit called Pixar Adventurous Journey, with exhibits themed to different Pixar movies. One of these is Finding Nemo. At Hong Kong Disneyland, there used to be a Turtle Talk with Crush attraction, however, it was only open through the summer of 2008, and did not return. However, you can see Nemo, Dory, and Peach the starfish, though they are just stuck on wall, within the it’s a small world attraction there. At the Disney Explorers Lodge Hotel here, there is also a children’s indoor play area themed to Finding Nemo called Nemo’s Recreation Reef. At Tokyo Disneyland, specifically at Tokyo DisneySea in the American Waterfront area, guests can experience Turtle Talk with Crush, just like the US Parks, which opened in October 2009. You can also see Nemo, Marlin, and Dory on a wall within the it’s a small world attraction.
For parades and shows at the Disney Parks, Finding Nemo has frequently featured in some of these, for example, during the Disney Stars on Parade at Disneyland Paris, there is a whole float featuring the characters of Finding Nemo, including Crush, Dory, Bloat, and of course, Nemo. A small clip of Finding Nemo is shown during World of Color – Season of Light at Disney California Adventure during the festive season. Another clip of Squirt and Crush in the EAC, following by Dory and Marlin speaking to the whale, also featured within the original World of Color show, but that show has been updated so many times now, I doubt the original will come back. Nemo even flew over Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty castle during the Disneyland Forever fireworks back in 2015 for the park’s 60th anniversary celebration, “recreating” his initiation into the “Tank Gang”.
On the Disney Cruise Line, since cruises take place on the ocean, it makes sense that Finding Nemo would be referenced on some of their cruise ships. For example, there is the Nemo’s Reef water play area on the Disney Fantasy and Disney Dream. On the Disney Wish, Disney Treasure, and Disney Destiny, “Go with the Flow”, from Finding Nemo – The Musical, is performed as part of the Disney Seas the Adventure musical stage show. You can even experience a version of Turtle Talk with Crush at Animator’s Palate on some ships.
Many pieces of merchandise have been available over the years featuring Finding Nemo characters, such as toys, clothing, games, pins, and MagicBands. Finding Nemo is one of those movies that is consistently referenced at the Disney Parks and there is no need for fans of the film to wait until a milestone anniversary to find something new.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Finding Nemo did brilliantly both commercially and critically on its release, exceeding even those at Pixar’s expectations who couldn’t believe their luck that each of their first five movies had been big hits.
The movie was not only funny, moving, relatable, full of quotable lines and memorable characters, but it had an impact of society. Finding Nemo made clownfish and blue tangs in particular globally recognised reef species, something that children can quickly point out. It’s impossible to go to an aquarium and not hear someone say “I found Nemo!”, or hear someone saying “Mine!” whenever seagulls are around.
More importantly, it made many of us think about how we as humans interact with the ocean world, and just how fragile an environment it is. Not only should we not take creatures from the sea away from their natural habitats purely to collect them, but we also need to consider whether underwater tourism, like scuba diving and snorkelling, is worth the harm and risk it can cause to reefs.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘In His Own Words: Joe Ranft’, CartoonResearch.com, 7th June 2019.
[2] Credit: Ben Sherlock, ‘Just Keep Swimming: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Finding Nemo’, ScreenRant.com, 21st February 2020.
[3] Credit: Pixar, “Visual Commentary Index”, from Finding Nemo (2003) UK DVD 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (2004).
[4] Credit: Pixar, A Lesson in Flashbacks (2012), Disney+.
[5] Credit: Jim Hill, ‘Tales of the VES: Behind-the-scenes on “Finding Nemo”’, JimHillMedia.com, 20th July 2003.
[6] Credit: Pixar, “Visual Commentary Index”, from Finding Nemo (2003) UK DVD 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (2004).
[7] Credit: Ben Sherlock, ‘Just Keep Swimming: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Finding Nemo’, ScreenRant.com, 21st February 2020.
[8] Credit: Pixar, ‘Filmmakers’ Roundtable I Finding Nemo’, Special Features Archive YouTube Channel, 16th March 2025.
[9] Credit: Pixar, “Making Nemo”, from Finding Nemo (2003) UK DVD 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (2004).
[10] Credit: Pixar, “Visual Commentary Index”, from Finding Nemo (2003) UK DVD 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (2004).
[11] Credit: The Guardian, ‘Disney finds box office gold with Nemo’, TheGuardian.com, 2nd June 2003.
[12] Credit: Box Office Mojo, ‘Domestic/Worldwide Box Office For 2003’, BoxOfficeMojo.com.
[13] Credit: BBC, ‘Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory, to be released in 2015’, BBC.co.uk, 3rd April 2013.
[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘The Seas With Nemo And Friends’, YourFirstVisit.net, 14th May 2021.
[15] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Fridays with Jim Korkis: Finding Nemo – The Musical’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.
[16] Credit: Jim Korkis, Hidden Treasures of WDW Hotels (2021), “Art of Animation”, pp. 147-154.
[17] Credit: Pixar, ‘Reinventing the Submarine Voyage I Finding Nemo’, Special Features Archive YouTube Channel, 16th March 2025.
The Disney Purist 