The Father Who Found His Son: A Movie Review of "Finding Nemo"

Original 2003 poster

2012 3D release poster

If you're a Disney fan, like me, you have probably seen most (if not all!) Disney/Pixar films. Furthermore, if you are a high school Disney fan, like me, you very likely grew up with films such as Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. The last one is the story of a young fish kidnapped by divers and his father's hunt to find him. 

Finding Nemo won the Academy Award for Best Animated Picture (and was nominated for three additional categories). It is also the 27^th highest-grossing film of all time, and the AFI (American Film Institute) named it the 10^th greatest animated film of all time. The movie stars the voices of Alexander Gould as Nemo, a young clownfish, Albert Brooks as his father Marlin, and Ellen DeGeneres as Dory, a forgetful blue tang. 

SUMMARY

   Clownfish Marlin and his wife Coral have a cave-full of eggs, ready to hatch soon. They love their home (on the Great Barrier Reef) and each other, and they are excited about the prospect of being parents. 

   *SPOILER* However, a barracuda attacks their home. Marlin tells Coral the eggs will be fine, and that they need to hide in their anemone. But, sadly, Coral doesn't listen. She swims for her eggs, and the barracuda dashes after her. Marlin tries to save her, but he is knocked unconscious. When he awakens, he is alone. *END SPOILER*

   Marlin looks for his wife and checks the cave of eggs, but he finds the cave empty. As he mourns, he notices something on the sea floor below him. He sees a slightly damaged egg. He picks it up and reassures the tiny fish inside, and he names it Nemo (which was a name Coral wished for one of the baby fish). 

   Time goes by, and Nemo has started to grow up. Although, due to the damage from the barracuda attack, one of his fins is small than the other (that results in some difficulties swimming). Nemo wakes up his dad, announcing that it is time for the first day of school.

   On their way, Marlin demonstrates his "over-protectiveness" (which is understandable if you lost all but one of your eggs in a barracuda attack!). 

   At the school yard, Nemo meets his science teacher, Mr. Ray. Marlin explains Nemo's fin problem and encourages Mr. Ray to give him some time-outs (much to Nemo's chagrin). The class takes off on their field trip. However, the other dads swim up to Marlin and compliment him on his calmness. Marlin says you can't hang on to them forever, but when a dad mentions the "drop-off" (i.e. where the reef meets the open sea), Marlin freaks out and swims after the class.

   During the field trip, Nemo and some other fish sneak away. They see a boat and dare each other to see who can get closest to it. Nemo is not so sure about it, but suddenly Marlin appears and scolds Nemo. Marlin and Mr. Ray discuss the situation, but now embarrassed, Nemo disobeys his father and begins swims to the boat. 

   But his back is turned to a human diver, who scoops Nemo up in a net. While Mr. Ray protects the students, Marlin goes after his son. Another diver temporarily blurs Marlin's vision with an underwater camera. The divers take Nemo above the ocean, into the boat. As they sail away, a diver accidentally knocks his mask into the ocean (this is important later).

   Marlin chases the boat, but he quickly loses it. While crying over the loss of his son, he is approached by a female blue tang. She introduces herself as Dory and tells him that she just saw a boat pass by, leading him in the correct direction. However, Marlin soon discovers Dory has "short term memory loss," so she forgets things almost instantly.

   The two are confronted by "friendly" sharks, but one eventually attacks them. They survive and find the mask the diver knocked off the ship. Fortunately, an address (42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, but it's not a real address...I've checked) is stamped on the strap. 

   While Nemo is taken to a dentist office fish tank, Marlin and Dory survive many dangers while "finding Nemo."

CONTENT

   Finding Nemo doesn't have too much violence, but there are some scenes/characters that could frighten younger children. Some talking fish are shoved around and harmed. One character gets hurt, and we see a little blood floating in the water (this triggers a shark attack, where two fish are almost devoured for lunch). In that scene, some mines explode, but no one is hurt. Marlin and Dory encounter an anglerfish which is probably the most frightening fish in the film. They also are electrocuted by jellyfish and encounter a dark passage full of fish bones. A man hits his head on some dentistry instruments. A little girl violently shakes a bag of water that holds a fish, and the fish goes belly-up (but he's just pretending). Some fish are captured in a fishing net and pulled above water; they breathe heavily and choke because of this. A man screams while a dentist does work in his mouth (if you have children who are fearful of the dentist, this might not do you any favors, as the dentist is the "villain"). 

   The worst of the language is a "darn" and a "gosh," as well as a few uncompleted utterances of "What the...?" 

   As far as anything else offensive, there is a joke made about a pelican passing gas (he doesn't really, it's just assumed). A squid releases an ink cloud when she is scared, saying, "You guys made me ink." Some fish belch a couple times, and there is a scene that briefly includes seagull droppings. Also, Dory says evolution is what made her a fast swimmer. 

   Marlin sacrifices his safety to find and rescue Nemo. This is a great example of a sacrificial father. Christ as our spiritual Father saved His people from sin, just as Marlin saves his son from danger. A sacrificial father character is so hard to find in today's entertainment (let alone even a competent one). In a culture full of father images from The Simpsons, it's encouraging when movies or other forms of media promote fatherhood as a good and noble calling. Finding Nemo does exactly that (though Marlin blames himself for Nemo's disobedience, which is not right). 

   As far as a family film, Finding Nemo is rather clean (it is far cleaner than many of Dreamworks' animated films like Shrek or Madagascar).  Despite some frightening scenes for younger kids, and some "roll of the eye" moments, I loved the movie. Unless your kids can't handle some of the more violent parts (you could always skip those), I highly recommend families to enjoy this great movie!

GENERAL INFORMATION

Length: 100 minutes

Rating: G (PG would have been a more appropriate rating)

Director: Andrew Stanton

Producer: Graham Walters

Music: Thomas Newman

Year of release: 2003
Primary audience: Kids, Family