Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo (2003)

1:40 (100 min)

Animation, Family, Adventure

United States

8.1/10
1 611 617

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no scores

7.8/10
21126

8.2/10
1200000

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All about film

Video 18

Photo 130

Actors and characters

1:53

Photo 130

Production

Pixar

Release date

30 May 2003

Budget

$94 000 000

Revenue

$895 614 978

Director

Andrew Stanton

Scenario

Andrew Stanton

Author

Composer

Thomas Newman

Producer

Graham Walters

All team (362)

Actors

Albert Brooks

Marlin (voice)

Ellen DeGeneres

Dory (voice)

Alexander Gould

Nemo (voice)

Willem Dafoe

Gill (voice)

Geoffrey Rush

Nigel (voice)

Brad Garrett

Bloat (voice)

Allison Janney

Peach (voice)

Austin Pendleton

Gurgle (voice)

All actors and roles (10)

• During the scene with the turtle ride, approximately 200 turtles were drawn in the background.
• When the dentist takes Nemo out of the aquarium, you can see his bag with a zipper on top. The next time the bag is shown, the zipper is gone.
• Blot (Longnose pufferfish/Diodon holacanthus) and Jacques (Cleaner shrimp/Lysmata amboinensis) should not be kept in the same aquarium because invertebrates are a primary food source for Diodon holacanthus.
• Dory is the first role written specifically for Ellen DeGeneres.
• William H. Macy was originally intended to voice Marlin, and all of Marlin’s dialogue had been recorded with him. However, he was ultimately replaced by Albert Brooks.
• Director Andrew Stanton initially planned to reveal the fate of Marlin's wife gradually through flashbacks appearing periodically throughout the film. After several test screenings, he felt that Marlin came across as a very anxious character, and he decided to reveal the entire backstory, resulting in Marlin becoming more relatable due to the reason for his overprotectiveness being revealed.
• Co-writer Bob Peterson also voiced Mr. Ray.
• The flowing strands of the anemone on the seabed are animated using the same program that was used to create Sully’s hair in the animated film "Monsters, Inc." (2001).
• In the scene where the pelican arrives with Marlin and Dory, there's a moment where a boy is sitting with his mother at the dentist's office reading a comic book about Mr. Incredible from the future movie "The Incredibles" (2004).
• The dive flag (red with a white stripe) on the dentist's boat is an American marine flag designed to warn others that underwater descents are being made from the vessel. This flag is not used in Australia, and it is unlikely to have appeared on the Great Barrier Reef. The Australian version is blue with a white flag.
• Marlin and Dory are advised to swim in the back of a whale's throat and then be blown out through the whale's blowhole. This is physically impossible, as the whale's mouth and digestive system are not connected to its respiratory system.
• Andrew Stanton shared his ideas and story with Pixar's head, John Lasseter, during an hour-long conversation, using elaborate visuals and character voices. At the end of his presentation, exhausted Stanton asked Lasseter what he thought, to which Lasseter replied, "You've reeled me in."
• The film is dedicated to the memory of Glenn McQueen (1960-2002), a Pixar animator.
• Crush (the sea turtle) claims to be 150 years old and still young. In reality, the lifespan of a sea turtle is only 80 years. Contrary to popular belief, no species of turtle has a lifespan exceeding 100 years. Land tortoises are known as long-lived creatures. Currently, the record stands at 188 years, not much older than Crush.
• Work on the film initially began in 1997. And production actually started in January 2000 with a team that eventually numbered 180 people.
• Dory Lane and Marlin Drive are intersecting streets in a suburb of Redwood City, directly across the bay from the Pixar offices.
• Initially, composers Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer were considered to write the music.
• If a fish is in a bag of water that is floating in the ocean, the water level inside the bag must be equal to the ocean's surface.
• The dentist's office was modeled after a real dental practice located in the same building as Pixar.
• When Bruce is chasing Marlin and Dory, the mask in his mouth is sometimes on the left side and sometimes on the right.
• Nigel the Pelican is an American brown pelican, scientifically known as Pelecanus occidentalis. The film is set in Australia, where brown pelicans are not found, but Australian pelicans are, known as Pelecanus conspicillatus. These birds look completely different.
• Processing a single frame lasting about 1/24th of a second in the film could take up to four days, due to the complexity of the underwater environment with sunlight passing through the water and reflecting off the fish scales.
• For the DVD extras, Albert Brooks spent an entire day in the studio improvising heavily altered versions of the sea anemone joke; none of the versions he told were repeated. And throughout the day, he was accompanied by a team of technicians recording his improvisations.
• In one of the promotional trailers for the Moldovan TV channel "Jurnal TV", a clownfish, Nemo, was in the aquarium.
• Although this was never mentioned in the film, according to the director in the commentary, Crush and his team of adventure-seeking turtles were swimming to Hawaii. The commentary also notes that the shells of the young turtles were modeled after Hawaiian shirts.
• There was concern that after viewing the film, children would try to release their pet fish into the wild, flushing them down the toilet. A company that manufactures water filtration equipment and is involved in wastewater treatment issued a warning on Thursday, after the film's release, stating that while sewage does eventually reach the ocean, before it gets there the water passes through equipment that breaks down solid matter. Furthermore, the company said that in real life the film would more appropriately be titled "Grinding Nemo."
• The dentist's camera model number is A-113, and this number appears in all Pixar films as a reference to the audience of the California Institute of the Arts, where Pixar Studios animators work.
• For the jellyfish scenes, Pixar staff created an entirely new shading system they dubbed “transblurrency” – transparent, yet blurry, like a frosted bathroom window.
• Gill's facial coloring mimics the characteristic lines around the mouth of his voice actor, Willem Dafoe.
• When Nemo swims with Mr. Ray in the school scene, he hides behind his right eye, and then reappears on his back at the end of the scene.
• The dentist's diploma is taken from the Pixar University School of Dentistry.
• When the fish in the ocean swim downwards to escape the fishing nets, a piece of wood breaks off when the net falls to the bottom. However, the wood is not visible in subsequent shots.
• In Latin, the word “Nemo” means “no one.” This is also a reference to Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
• When the fish in the aquarium observe the dentist at work, Blott asks if an isolation dam and clamp were used. Another fish replies that they were, but when the patient is shown, they are not present.
• The seagull scene is a parodic quote from Alfred Hitchcock's film 'The Birds'.
• Among the toys in the waiting room are a Jack-in-the-box and Buzz Lightyear, and on the shelf is the airplane he used to fly in "Toy Story" (1995), and a ball with the Pixar logo from "Luxo Jr." (1986).
• Animators studied dog facial expressions, paying particular attention to the eyes, to bring life and make the fish's facial expressions more emotional.
• When the girl Darla smiles, music from the film "Psycho" (1960) plays (the main scene with the knife in the shower).
• When Gill is thinking about escaping, the camera pans to the window, and outside, a "Planet Pizza" truck from the animated film "Toy Story" (1995) can be seen.
• The look and feel of the underwater world were crucial to the film's success. To this end, the entire development team was sent to an aquarium, then scuba diving in Monterey and Hawaii, they were given lessons in front of Pixar's own 25-gallon aquarium, and a series of lectures were even given by an ichthyologist.
• The highest box office gross for an animated film following its American release (May 30, 2003).
• Nigel the pelican has nostrils. Pelicans do not have nostrils. They breathe through their mouths.
• In the English version, Breeze (Deb)'s sister (reflection) is named Flo. This is a direct reference to a character from the future films "Cars" (2006) and "Cars 2" (2011).
• At the bottom of the aquarium, algae cover a model boat topped with a mermaid from the cartoon "Tin Toy" (1989).
• The names of the two main turtles are also the names of popular citrus soda brands in the US: Crush and Squirt.
• When Mr. Ray sings his song “Let’s Name the Species,” he is not actually naming species. Sponges, cnidarians, ctenophores, bryozoans, arthropods, echinoderms, and chordates are all phyla. Hydroids, scyphoids, and coral polyps are classes within the phylum Cnidaria (cnidarians), and gastropods are a class within the phylum Mollusca. The order of classification is: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Phyla and classes are certainly not the same as species, although the DVD mentions that Mr. Ray is not a real scientist. In that case, it is quite possible that he mistook one for the other, unaware that he was spreading misinformation.
• Andrew Stanton always believed that Albert Brooks would be best suited to voice Marlin. Although Brooks had participated in several episodes of "The Simpsons," working on a full-length animated film was significantly different for him in that he had to work alone, rather than with the other actors. He didn't particularly enjoy this kind of experience.
• When Marlin tells his story to the little turtles (55:47), their shells look different than in other scenes.
• Initially, the whale that swallows Marlin and Dory approaches them from the front. This version was present in early trailers. The final version, where the whale appears from behind, was created after being inspired by early animation tests showing the whale emerging from the darkness of the ocean behind a small fish.
• For research purposes, key figures involved in the film's creation had to obtain scuba certification to travel to the Great Barrier Reef at John Lasseter's insistence.
• Nigel's line, "Fish should swim, birds should eat," is a reference to the phrase "Fish must swim, birds must fly" from the song "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" from the Broadway musical "Show Boat."
• One of the boats is named after Pixar sculptor Jerome Ranft.
• Wallaby Way Street is named after a graphic design agency on Commonwealth Street in Sydney.
• One of the dentist's patients, "little Davey Reynolds," is a reference to David Reynolds, one of the film's screenwriters.
• Coral should be larger than Marlin. Female clownfish are typically larger than males (often even twice as large).
• Mr. Ray is not actually a 'Mr.' as he lacks claspers (male reproductive organs).
• The instrument the dentist is using is called a "Gates Glidden" drill, not a "Gator Glidden" drill. It is also visible that the dentist is using it to access the root canal. This instrument is actually used for cleaning and shaping it. The correct instrument used for endodontic access is a solid carbide bur.
• According to the DVD, the names of the nine boats from Sydney Harbour are: Sea Monkey, Major Plot Point, Bow Movement, iBoat, Knottie Buoy, For the Birds, Pier Pressure, Skiff-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (a reference to the most famous song from the film 'Song of the South' (1946) – 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah') and The Surly Mermaid.
• To see how realistic the picture could be, the art team was asked to make exact copies of shots of the underwater and above-water worlds. Ultimately, the results were deemed "too realistic" for an animated film.
• The number of people on the animation team ranged from 28 to 50.
• As of January 2005, it was the best-selling DVD in the world of all time – 22 million copies sold.
• The great white shark in the film is named Bruce. This name was given to the shark model used in the film "Jaws" (1975), named after Steven Spielberg's lawyer – Bruce Ramer.
• The character Jacques is partially based on actor Fritz Feld, whose signature move was to slap his lips with his hand to express his superiority and annoyance.
• To make Nigel's voice sound the way it does when Marlin and Dory are in his mouth, Geoffrey Rush pressed his tongue while voicing him.
• The divers' boat has a pivoting column with two propellers. When it starts working, both propellers rotate in the same direction, but they should rotate in opposite directions.
• One of the musical themes composed by Thomas Newman for the film never appeared in the final cut, but it is featured in one of the trailers and on one of the DVD menus for the film.
• According to information on the DVD, the film contains several allusions to Massachusetts, due to the fact that one of its creators is from Rockport, Massachusetts (a small town on Cape Ann, about an hour north of Boston). In the dentist's office, there are two 'Lighthouse Lamps' modeled after the twin lighthouses on Thatcher Island (practically adjacent to the Rockport coastline). The office also features a framed painting – 'Motive Number One,' a building frequently photographed by tourists in downtown Rockport. Finally, while various marine creatures discuss Marlin’s adventures throughout the ocean, in one scene a group of lobsters converse with a Boston accent, using slang. The DVD commentary corrects the error that lobsters are found in Australia. They are, but the lobsters shown in the film are clawed lobsters. The world's most abundant lobsters, Australian lobsters, are actually spiny lobsters. However, since the lobsters discuss Marlin’s adventures with an English accent, it is quite likely they are from areas adjacent to Massachusetts, emphasizing that Marlin’s story is well-known throughout the marine world.
• At the end of the credits, Mike Wazowski from the movie "Monsters, Inc." (2001) appears.
• When Dory and Marlin are inside the whale’s mouth, they see a uvula at the back of the throat. No animal has a uvula, it is unique to humans.
• In the USA, the animated film set a record for first-day sales – 8 million copies sold (80% of which were on DVD).
• Darla was named after Pixar producer Darla K. Anderson.

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