Finding Nemo
(coloring pages)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 28, 2003, and in the UK on October 10, 2003. The movie is the fifth Disney/Pixar feature film.
The movie was released on a two-disc DVD on November 4, 2003 in the United States and Canada, and in Australia on January 16, 2004. It went on to become the best selling DVD of all time at 28 million copies sold.
Plot synopsis
The film tells the story of a widowed clownfish named Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) who lives on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Marlin, after losing his wife, Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), and all but one of his children in a barracuda attack, tries his best as a parent to protect his only remaining son Nemo (Alexander Gould), but has a tendency to over-parent and stifle his son. Because Nemo has a fin smaller than the other (his "lucky fin"), and because he promised to not let anything happen to him, Marlin constantly warns his son of the ocean's dangers.On Nemo's first day of school, taught by Mr. Ray (Bob Peterson), Marlin is horrified that the class is heading out to the edge of the reef, and chases after them. Nemo follows some of his classmates out to the very edge, and sees a boat anchored out in the open sea. The kids dare each other to get closer and closer to the boat. Nemo is hesitant, but then Marlin turns up and starts talking about Nemo not being ready for school yet. Annoyed by his father's constant overprotection, Nemo ventures out to the boat and touches it, to assert his independence. On his way back to the group, Nemo is netted up by a scuba-diving dentist. Marlin, despite not having left the reef since Coral's death, swims after the boat as it speeds away, but cannot keep up with it.
In one of the sea lanes Marlin bumps into Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang who claims she saw a boat pass by not too long ago. After a while of chasing after her, she starts swimming erratically, before wheeling around and telling Marlin to quit stalking her. She suffers from short-term memory loss. Deciding that following Dory will be no use, Marlin decides to travel on his own, only to bump into a great white shark, Bruce (Barry Humphries), who invites them to a "party" in a sunken U-boat surrounded by a minefield. His menacing manner belies his purpose: Bruce and his friends have formed a support group, to encourage them to give up eating fish, in order to improve the image of sharks everywhere.
At this meeting, Marlin spots a diver's mask, which he recognizes as the one the diver who took Nemo was wearing. In his excitement, he hits Dory's nose, who gets a nosebleed. This blood triggers a feeding frenzy in Bruce, who chases them throughout the submarine as the other two sharks try to stop him telling him that fish are friends, not food! When Dory reveals she can read, Marlin asks her to read the address written on the mask. She doesn't get a chance. In the chase, Bruce accidentally throws a disused torpedo at the minefield, causing a massive explosion.
Meanwhile, Nemo is put in an aquarium in the dentist's office in Sydney, where he meets several other fish, such as Deb (Vicki Lewis), a damselfish who believes her reflection in the aquarium glass is her sister Flo, Bloat (Brad Garrett), a blowfish who tends to inflate when over-excited, Bubbles (Stephen Root), a yellow tang, who likes bubbles (in a maniacal way), Peach (Allison Janney), a starfish who tends to explains what's going on outside of the tank, Gurgle (Austin Pendleton), a royal gramma who is germaphobic, and Jacques (Joe Ranft), a French Pacific cleaner shrimp who has a habit of always cleaning. He also meets the pelican Nigel (Geoffrey Rush), who likes to watch the dentist perform dental procedures and discuss them with the fish in the aquarium.
The dentist reveals that he believed that, because of his small fin, Nemo was struggling out at the reef and that he "rescued" him, in order to give him to his niece Darla, as a birthday present. Nemo is terrified to learn that the last fish she got died when she kept shaking the bag. In his attempt to escape, he gets trapped in the water filtration unit. Gil (Willem Defoe) speaks calmly to Nemo, assuring him he can wriggle out himself. Nemo says he can't, because of his bad fin, for that's what Marlin always said. Gil comments that it never stopped him, and shows Nemo that his own fin is badly damaged. Inspired by this, Nemo wriggles out of the pipe, much to the delight of the fish.
Back to Marlin and Dory: the mask is cast into a deep, dark chasm. Marlin and Dory cautiously find their way down, eventually becoming hypnotised by a strange light. The is revealed to be a hungry anglerfish, who attacks them. As Marlin swims for his life, Dory reads the address on the mask. They eventually have to leave it behind, as they use it to trap the anglerfish so they can escape. Dory recites the address perfectly, which is a big deal for her, because she doesn't remember things very well. They continue on their way, Dory happily repeating the address: P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney.
That night, Jacques wakes Nemo up and gets him to follow him. All the fish are chanting around a plastic volcano, which they call "Mount Wannahockaloogie", with Gill presiding over Nemo's "initiation" into their club. After he successfully swims through a stream of bubbles from the volcano, Gill names Nemo "Shark Bait", and outlines his plans for the fish to escape: Nemo will swim into and sabotage the water filtration unit. With the unit broken, the tank will eventually become filthy, and the dentist will have to put them in individual plastic bags while he cleans it. While in these bags, the fish will roll out the window and into the harbour. Emboldened by his new friends, Nemo agrees to it.
Marlin and Dory are still swimming, Dory reciting the address. Marlin tries to ask a school of Moonfish (all voiced by John Ratzenberger) for directions. They completely ignore him. Marlin tries to tell Dory that he doesn't need her anymore, but she starts crying. The moonfish return, and try to cheer her up with impressions. She eventually tells them about Marlin's problem, and they give her directions to the East Australian Current, which will take them right to Sydney. As Marlin swims excitedly away, they also warn Dory that when they approach a trench, to swim through it, not over it. She acknowledges this and swims after Marlin.
Dory catches up with Marlin just as they reach the trench the moonfish described. However, her memory of the warning has faded to just an uneasy feeling about going over the trench, which Marlin, who didn't hear the warning and is scared of how dangerous the trench looks, finds ridiculous. He distracts Dory and swims over it. The EAC in sight, all seems to be going well, until they are suddenly surrounded by dangerous jellyfish. Marlin tries to lead them out to open water, but they get stung several times, falling unconscious as they clear the jellyfish.
As the dentist takes a bathroom break, the fish put their plan into action. Nemo swims inside the filtration unit and jams the cogs with a pebble. He then proceeds to swim through the now still pipe. However, the pebble comes loose, and the unit starts up again, the pipe sucking Nemo back to a fan which will shred him. The fish barely get him out. Peach (Allison Janney), a seastar, tells Gill that they won't be doing that again. Gill, who had been caught up in his own desire for freedom, agrees.
When Marlin awakes, he is on the back of a sea turtle, Crush (Andrew Stanton), inside the EAC. Crush tells him about how he took on the "jellies" with amazement. Marlin looks down at Dory, seemingly unconscious. Marlin swims down to her, feeling responsible for ignoring her warnings, when she suddenly wakes up: she was just playing hide and seek with the younger turtles, including Squirt (Nicholas Bird), Crush's son. When Squirt falls behind, Marlin goes to rescue him, but Crush stops him, wanting to see how Squirt handles himself. Squirt regains control and catches up with the group, much to Crush's excitement. Marlin asks Crush how he knew Squirt would do that. Crush says you can't really know, that you just have to let go one day.
Marlin then proceeds to tell the turtles (and Dory, who has forgotten most of it), everything that has happened to him. The turtles tell passing fish, who in turn tell their friends, and eventually, the whole ocean knows of Marlin's quest to find Nemo. Eventually, the news reaches Sydney Harbour, where Nigel is talking with his Pelican friends. Upon hearing Nemo's name, he races to the dentist's office to tell Nemo that his dad is looking for him. Inspired by his father's heroic escapades, and before anyone can stop him, Nemo swims back into the filtration unit and successfully sabotages it, and gets out without any trouble. All the fish have to do now is make sure the tanks gets as dirty as possible.
After a while, Marlin and Dory part ways with the turtles as the EAC "exit" for Sydney approaches. Before they leave, Crush informs Marlin that he is 150 years old, "and still young". Marlin makes a note to tell Nemo, who had asked about it. However, with the current gone, the sea is devoid of landmarks they can use for directions. Marlin spots what he thinks is a small fish, but it turns out to be a whale. Dory tries speaking to him in "whale" (very slowly), and Marlin stops her, thinking it ridiculous. She asks him to trust her. He's about to retort when he spots a scar under her fin, from when the Jellyfish attacked them. Remembering what happened the last time he ignored her, he lets her continue. Eventually, the whale swallows them, leaving them trapped in its mouth.
Back at the tank, it's completely filthy. The dentist notices this and resolves to clean it before Darla arrives, much to the fish's joy and excitement.
In the whale, Marlin keeps trying to burst through its mouth, to no avail. Dory swims down to comfort him, and Marlin comments that he promised he'd never let anything happen to Nemo. Dory thinks this a silly promise to make, for if nothing happened to him, life would be boring. They don't have time to contemplate this, as the water in the whale's mouth is receding. According to Dory's translation, the whale wants them to swim to the back of its throat, which Marlin thinks is an attempt to eat them. Holding on to the whale's tongue as the water recedes, Dory encourages Marlin to let go and slide into its throat.
Marlin finally lets go. The two fish are blasted through the whale's spout, and land in Sydney Harbour. After thanking the whale, they start looking for the boat that Nemo was taken in.
The next morning, the fish in the tank wake up, excited that they're going to escape. However, to their horror, they realize the tank is clean. The dentist fitted an electronic filtration unit as they slept, which has automatically cleaned the entire tank. With no time to sabotage it or dirty the tank, they panic about what they're going to do. The dentist suddenly uses a net to grab Nemo. In desperation, all the fish swim into the net and swim down with enough force to knock the net out of the dentists hand. This victory is short-lived, as the dentist just scoops up Nemo in a bag and puts him in a safe place so he can't roll away. Then Darla arrives.
Marlin and Dory are still swimming about the harbour, looking for the boat. They are suddenly scooped up by a pelican who tries to swallow them, only for Marlin to jam himself in his throat, watching this pelican choke, Nigel sees the two fish. He heimlichs the pelican, and tries to convince the fish to trust him, when a flock of seagulls (All voiced by Andrew Stanton) surround them. After flying around the harbour with Marlin and Dory in his mouth, Nigel shakes them off and heads to the dentist.
The dentist is about to give Nemo to Darla, when he notices Nemo is "belly up", much to the horror of the fish. However, Nemo winks slyly at them: he's pretending to be dead so the dentist will flush him down the toilet, as the drains will lead to the ocean. However, the dentist does not approach the toilet, but instead heads towards the trash can. In the nick of time, Nigel, egged on by Marlin, flies in the room. In the resulting bedlam, Marlin sees Nemo belly up, and assumes the worst. The dentist gets Nigel out of the surgery, and Darla picks up Nemo's bag and starts shaking him violently. Gill hatches a plan which sees him launched out of the plastic volcano, landing on Darla's head, flopping constantly, trying to make her release Nemo from her hand. She drops the bag on the dental tool tray, making it burst. With Darla screaming incesently, Gill dives onto the tray in front of Nemo. Exhausted and near to death from suffocation, Gill tells Nemo to tell his dad that he said hi, and gives one last strength to flip over on the handle of a dental mirror Nemo was laying on, causing him to fling into the chair-side sink like a catapult, and gets sucked into the drain. Laying there suffocating on the tray, Gill gets spotted by the dentist, and gets put back in the tank, just in time. With the tank gang's confidence that Nemo will be all right, Nemo gets sucked down through through a bunch of sewage into the ocean.
At the edge of Syndey Harbour, Nigel leaves off Marlin and Dory and offers his sympathies before leaving. With nothing left, Marlin swims away. Dory begs him not to go, because while he's been around, she's remembered things better, and she doesn't want to forget their friendship. Marlin says he does want to forget it, and leaves her, swimming along a pipe.
At a hole in this pipe, Nemo pops out, having followed the drains to the ocean. He starts searching for his father, only to find Dory, agitated and anxious because she thinks she's lost something, but can't quite remember. Since they're both looking for something, Nemo offers to go with her. Upon telling her his name, Dory comments: "Nemo?! That's a nice name..." The two swim along the pipe, until Dory spies a word which, with difficulty, she reads as "Sydney", the word jolts her memory of the past few days. Re-recognising Nemo, she takes him to find Marlin.
Marlin is swimming apathetically among a group of trout, when he hears someone calling for him., he turns around to find it's Nemo and Dory. The happy reunion is short-lived, as a trawler is catching all the fish. Dory pushes Marlin and Nemo out of the way, only to get trapped herself. Determined to rescue her, and with his Father's reluctant approval, Nemo slips inside the net and encourages all the fish to swim down, like Gill did in the tank. Eventually, they apply enough force that the net breaks off the ship, and all the fish are free. Nemo, however, is knocked out on the sea bed. Marlin approaches him gently, his mind cast back to the night he found Nemo after Coral was killed. Nemo wakes up and the two reconcile, Marlin telling Nemo how old sea turtles can be.
Some time later, Marlin is much more outgoing, excitedly waking Nemo up in their home as he takes them to school. While waiting on Mr. Ray, he bumps into Dory, who is hanging out with her new friends, the sharks. Mr. Ray arrives, and Nemo climbs aboard, along with Squirt, who is on transfer from the EAC. Just before Mr. Ray leaves, Nemo hugs Marlin and tells him he loves him, before they go off to explore the reef.
Back in the surgery, the dentist is complaining about the electronic filter, which has mysteriously broken, despite a lifetime guarantee. He then notices the fish have disappeared. Across the street, Peach is the last of the fish to splash down into the Harbour. Everyone, still in their bags, cheers that they've escaped. After a short pause, one asks "So, now what?"
