Did You Know?

According to the DVD, the names of the nine boats seen in the Sydney harbor are: Sea Monkey, Major Plot Point, Bow Movement, iBoat (a reference to iTunes, the company created by Pixar CEO Steve Jobs), Knottie Buoy, For the Birds, Pier Pressure, Skiff-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (a reference to Song of the South's most famous song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"), and The Surly Mermaid.

Co-writer Bob Peterson doubled as the voice of Mr. Ray.

Afraid that kids would try releasing their pet fish by flushing them down a drain, a company that manufactures equipment used by water filtration and sewage treatment plants released a warning the Thursday after the film came out saying that, even though drains do eventually reach the ocean, before it got there the water would go through equipment which breaks down solids, and went on to say that in real life the movie would more appropriately be called "Grinding Nemo".

The waiting room in the dentist's office was modeled after the waiting room in a real dentist's office in Emeryville, California, where Pixar Animation Studios has its headquarters.

One of the boats is named Jerome's Raft, after Jerome Ranft, a Pixar art department sculptor.

Work first began on the movie in 1997. Physical production actually began in January 2000 with a crew that ultimately comprised 180 people.

The look and feel of the underwater world was essential to the film's success. To that end, the production crew were all exposed to visits to aquariums, diving stints in Monterey and Hawaii, study sessions in front of Pixar's own 25-gallon fish tank and even a series of in-house lectures from an ichthyologist.

Andrew Stanton pitched his idea and story to Pixar head John Lasseter in an hour-long session, using elaborate visual aids and character voices. At the end of it, the exhausted Stanton asked Lasseter what he thought, to which Lasseter replied, "You had me at 'fish'."

There are up to 200 turtles in the background of the turtle drive sequence.

One of the dentist's patients is "little Davy Reynolds", a reference to David Reynolds, one of the film's writers.

According to the DVD, there are some references to Massachusetts in the film as one of the creators is from Rockport, Massachussetts (a small town on Cape Ann, about one hour north of Boston). In the dentist's office are two "lighthouse lamps" modeled after the twin lighthouses on Thatcher Island (just off the coast of Rockport). Also in the dentist's office is a framed picture on the wall of "Motif Number One", a very frequently photographed (by tourists) building on a dock in downtown Rockport. Finally, while various sea creatures are relating Marlin's quest across the ocean, one step is a group of lobsters that speak with Boston accents and slang ("wicked daahhk"). The DVD commentary is not incorrect about lobsters in Australia. While it is true that Australia has lobsters, the featured lobsters are clawed lobsters. Australian lobsters, indeed most of the world's lobsters, are actually spiny lobsters. However, since the lobsters seen discussing Marlin's quest have New England accents and use words such as "wicked," it is likely that they are from near Massachusetts; emphasizing the point that Marlin's story is known all around the (sea) world.

Claimed the all-time first day USA record for home-release sales with 8 million copies sold (80% of which were on DVD).

Though never mentioned in the film, it is revealed by the directors in the commentary that Crush and his crew of thrill-seeking turtles are headed for Hawaii. Also mentioned in the commentary is that the young turtles' shells are modeled after Hawaiian shirts.

Rendering a frame which lasted about 1/24th of a second in the film could take up to four days because of the complexity of the underwater environment with sunlight coming through the water and hitting fish scales.

Dory Lane and Marlin Drive are intersecting streets in the Bay Area suburb of Redwood City, just across the bay from Pixar's home.

Director Andrew Stanton originally planned to reveal the fate of Marlin's wife gradually through flashbacks seen periodically as the story unfolded. After a few early in-house screenings, he found that Marlin came off as too much of a worrywart, and decided to reveal the entire back-story up front, thus making Marlin more appealing by establishing the reason for his over-protectiveness.

Animators studied dogs' facial expressions, paying particular attention to the eyes, to animate the expression of the fish.

Pixar developed a very realistic look of the surface water, but had to make it look more fake so people wouldn't think it was real footage of the ocean surface.

EASTER EGG: On the Bonus Features menu on disc 2, highlight the return symbol, then press down, and a green fish will appear. Select this to see a commercial for the Aquascum 2003.

Jacques' character is partly based on actor Fritz Feld, whose trademark was to "pop" his mouth by slapping it with the palm of his hand to indicate his "superior" annoyance.

Dory is the first role ever written specifically for Ellen DeGeneres.

Nigel's line, "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta eat" is a reference to the line "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly," in the song "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" from the Broadway musical 'Show Boat'.

The great white shark's name in the movie was Bruce. "Bruce" was the nickname given to the models used for the shark in the original "Jaws", named after Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer.

Per the DVD extras, Albert Brooks spent an entire day in the recording studio improvising badly mangled versions of the anemone joke; no two tellings were fumbled in the same way. He had the recording technicians in stitches for the duration.

The dentist's camera's model number is A-113, a number which appears in all Pixar movies as a reference to the California Arts University room where the animators of Pixar Studios attend.

On the bottom of a tank is an algae-coated model boat, on top of which is the mermaid from Knick Knack.