Finding Nemo (2003)
Trivia
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, an exhausted Stanton asked Lasseter what he thought, to which Lasseter replied, "You had me at 'fish.'"
Director Andrew Stanton did the voice of Crush the sea turtle. Stanton never intended to do the voice of Crush, only providing the voice for the film's rough cut, but when it proved popular in test screenings, he decided to do it for the final film. Stanton recorded all of Crush's dialogue lying on his couch in his office.
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.
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 (1975), named after Steven Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce M. Ramer. Before Barry Humphries was cast, many other Australian actors were considered for the part. They include John Jarrett, Ray Meagher, Ross Higgins, Peter Moon, Glenn Robbins, Russell Gilbert, Jamie Dunn, Bert Newton, Mark Mitchell, Paul Hogan, Bryan Brown, Michael Veitch and Kim Gyngell.
As of September 2015, Finding Nemo (2003) is the best-selling DVD of all time in the world, with 41 million copies sold.
Dedicated to the memory of Glenn McQueen (1960-2002), a Pixar animator who would later be honored as the namesake of Lightning McQueen in Cars (2006).
This movie surpassed The Lion King (1994) to become the highest-grossing animated film at that time. The Lion King (1994) producer Don Hahn called director Andrew Stanton to congratulate him and said, "It's about time."
Rendering a frame (at a resolution of 1600x900), 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.
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. This idea would eventually be used in the film's sequel Finding Dory (2016), where Dory starts to have flashbacks about her family, and starts to remember who she is.
Nemo's father Marlin was originally voiced by William H. Macy. According to James B. Stewart's book "DisneyWar," it was after seeing an early cut of the film with Macy's voice that then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner infamously told his board of directors, "This will be a reality check for those guys...It's OK, but nowhere near as good as their previous films. Of course, they think it's great. Trust me, it's not." Director Andrew Stanton recast the role of Marlin with Albert Brooks, and the film went on to get some of Pixar's best reviews ever and become the highest-grossing animated film of all-time. Even worse for Eisner, Disney's distribution contract with Pixar was close to expiring at this time and thus he was facing a difficult position of trying to renew it with Pixar's owner, Steve Jobs, who already loathed Eisner before that insult. That situation of Disney in danger of losing their most consistently successful producer of films because of Eisner's denigration proved to be one of the numerous complaints about him to finally prompt the shareholders to fire him.
Film makers were worried that comedian Ellen DeGeneres would not be able to perform the dramatic scene where Dory begs Marlin not to leave, so at the end of a day of recording other scenes, they asked her to record a trial reading of the scene, with the intention that she go home with a recording of it to work on her actual performance. DeGeneres agreed, but her trial reading was so heartfelt and emotional that (apart from a few small edits) this is what was used in the final cut of the film.
Crush's son Squirt is voiced by Nicholas Bird, the young son fellow Pixar director Brad Bird. Director Andrew Stanton was inspired to cast Nicholas when Brad was showing home movies around the Pixar offices.
SERIES TRADEMARK: When Gil is thinking ahead about how he and the fish will escape, as the camera pans toward and out the window, the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story (1995) can be seen on the outside. This is the first film where the truck has a distinctive appearance, being a right-handed vehicle driving on the left side of the road, since it's in Sydney, Australia.
In order for it to sound like Nigel had Marlin and Dory in his mouth, voice actor Geoffrey Rush held onto his tongue as he said his lines.
Dory Lane and Marlin Drive are intersecting streets in the Bay Area suburb of Redwood City, just across the bay from Pixar's home.
For the jellyfish sequence, Pixar's Ocean Unit created an entire new system of shading which they called "transblurrency," see-through but blurred, much like a frosted bathroom window.
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 (the branch of zoology that deals with fish).
To see how realistic they could make it appear, the art team was asked to make exact copies of actual underwater and above-water shots. Ultimately, the results were simply deemed "too realistic" for a cartoon.
Dory does get Nemo's name right a total of seven times, four of them without being corrected first. Of course, some of these times are in quick succession. She also calls him Chico, Fabio, Bingo, Harpo, and Elmo, in that order.
Demand for tropical fish exploded right after the film's release, especially for clown fish and blue tang, the main characters' species. And just like Darla, many new pet buyers had no idea how to take care of their pets and ended up killing them. It was later revealed that saltwater tropical fish need a 30-gallon aquarium with carefully controlled salinity levels, as anything less will kill them. The rise in demand took fish importers by surprise and the population of clown fish dropped by 75 percent in some areas. Although this isn't the first time something like this happened, Finding Nemo was different because this time, the whole premise of the movie was freeing the animal from being a pet. Then again, pet owners who took that premise to heart did not respond much better. Some released their venomous fish into the ocean, ruining Florida's ecological balance. Others flushed fish down the toilet to free them and these fish died before even reaching the sewers.
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.
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.
Animators studied dogs' facial expressions, paying particular attention to the eyes, to animate the expression of the fish.
Albert Brooks was always Andrew Stanton's first choice to voice the part of Marlin. Although Brooks had done several episodes of The Simpsons (1989), he found voice work for a feature length cartoon to be substantially different in that he had to do it in isolation, and not alongside any other actors. He didn't particularly enjoy the experience.
In Latin, the word nemo means "nobody" or "no one." It is also a reference to Captain Nemo in Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
Dory is the first role ever written specifically for Ellen DeGeneres.
SERIES TRADEMARK: 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.
When Dory is comforting Marlin in the whale, the animators used the same sequence earlier in the movie when Dory meets Marlin for the first time.
EASTER EGG: On the Bonus Features menu on Disc 2, if you highlight the return symbol, then press down, a green fish will appear. Select this to see a commercial for the Aquascum 2003.
As "research," the key figures of the production crew had to get SCUBA certification and go to the Great Barrier Reef, on the insistence of John Lasseter.
In the original cut of the movie, the whale that swallows Marlin and Dory approaches them from the front. This version of the scene appeared in an early trailer. The final version, with the whale coming from behind, was inspired by an early animation test showing a whale emerging from the murk of the ocean behind a small fish.
Megan Mullally revealed that she was originally doing a voice in the film. According to Mullally, the producers were quite disappointed to learn that the voice of her character Karen Walker on the television show Will & Grace (1998) wasn't her natural speaking voice. The producers hired her anyway, and then strongly encouraged her to use her Karen Walker voice for the role. When Mullally refused, she was fired.
The coloration of Gill's face simulates the characteristic lines around the mouth of voice actor Willem Dafoe.
Mike from Monsters, Inc. (2001) can be seen snorkeling in the closing credits.
As well as Crush, director Andrew Stanton also voiced the seagulls that go "Mine, Mine, Mine".
Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story (1995) is on the floor of the waiting room.
Two experiences in Andrew Stanton's life shaped the film. The first one was recalling trips to the dentist as a child and being fascinated by the aquarium there, the second was realizing that he was naturally over-protective of his young son.
Most of the fish are actual saltwater fish that can be found in the Pacific Ocean. Nemo is a clownfish (so is Marlin), Dory is a Regal Blue Tang, Gil is a Moorish Idol, Bloat is a Porcupinefish, Bubbles is a Yellow Tang, Peach is an Ochre Starfish, Gurgle is a Royal Gramma, Jacques is a Cleaner Shrimp, and Deb is a Damsel Fish.
Work on the movie first began in 1997. Physical production actually began in January 2000, with a crew that ultimately comprised of 180 people.
Dory never says Marlin's name in the whole movie despite being with him throughout most of the film.
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 by Apple, the company created by Pixar CEO Steve Jobs), Knottie Buoy, For the Birds (2000), Pier Pressure, Skiff-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (a reference to Song of the South (1946)'s most famous song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"), and The Surly Mermaid.
Darla is named after Pixar producer Darla K. Anderson. Director Andrew Stanton gave her that name as revenge for Anderson playing pranks on him.
The waving strands on the anemones on the seabed move about using the same computer program that animated Sully's hair in Monsters, Inc. (2001).
An animator recalled a story of one of their consultants talking about the biological inaccuracies in their final fish designs. The animator replied, sheepishly, "Well... in real life they don't talk either, so..."
Ellen DeGeneres loved playing Dory so much that she was constantly asking Pixar to make a sequel, which they eventually did with Finding Dory (2016).
The theatrical release poster is based on a food web that displays on what order animals eat from small to big.
The names of the two main turtles are also the names of citrus soda brands popular in the United States, Crush and Squirt.
Co-writer Bob Peterson doubled as the voice of Mr. Ray.
On the bottom of a tank is an algae-coated model boat, on top of which is the mermaid from Knick Knack (1989), the short which accompanied this film.
One of the boats is named "Jerome's Raft," after Jerome Ranft, a Pixar art department sculptor, who'd replace his brother Joe Ranft as the voice of Jacques after his death in 2005.
Ellen DeGeneres was cast when Andrew Stanton heard her in the background during an episode of her sitcom in which she essentially changed the subject about 5 times in the space of a few minutes.
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.
The scene were Nigel evades a group of seagulls by narrowly passing between the mast and mainsail of a yacht recalls a similar scene in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). In that movie, Harrison Ford's character Han Solo flies his ship, the Millennium Falcon, through a narrow canyon in order to evade the pursuit of a group of TIE fighters. In both instances, the hero, at the last instant, rolls 90° and flies through the opening, while his pursuers hit the surrounding walls (or sails in the case of the seagulls).
According to the DVD, there are some references to Massachusetts in the film as one of the creators is from Rockport, Massachussetts. 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").
HIDDEN MICKEY: When Dory and Marlin are racing through the jellyfish, one of the jellyfish makes the shape of Mickey's face.
One of Finding Nemo's crew members, head shader Robin Cooper, took photos inside a dead, beached gray whale in order to portray the inside of the whale accurately. In addition, while whales' mouths and blowholes aren't connected, director Andrew Stanton had to "defy reality" in order to move the plot, as the other ways that Marlin and Dory could escape from the whale weren't appetizing.
The submarine that the sharks take Marlin and Dory to is an American Gato-class World War II-era submarine. The Submarine is USS Flier (SS-250) which was sunk by a mine on a war patrol out of Brisbane.
William H. Macy was considered for the role of Marlin.
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.
John Lasseter considered Danny Elfman to score the film. When he turned it down, Hans Zimmer was asked, but he turned it down as well.
The fact that Dory suffers from short-term memory loss is a humorous reference to the widespread but mistaken belief that goldfish only have a three-second memory.
The scene where Bruce chases Dory and Marlin is a clear reference to The Shining (1980). The famous line "Here's Johnny!" is changed to "Here's Brucie!".
Director Andrew Stanton cast Austin Pendleton because Stanton had always been a fan of Pendleton's work in The Muppet Movie (1979).
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."
One of the dentist's patients is "little Davy Reynolds," a reference to David Reynolds, one of the film's writers.
One musical theme that Thomas Newman composed for the score did not end up in the final film but still appeared in both one of the trailers and on one of the DVD menus.
It is implied that Crush's (and to a lesser extent, Squirt's and the other turtles') home is actually Hawaii, and he and the other turtles are using the EAC to return there.
This film holds the record for "Best-Selling DVD" release of all time, selling over 40 million copies.
Marlin and Dory have opposite personalities. Their body colors are also opposite colors on the color wheel, orange and blue.
Ranked #10 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Animation" in June 2008.
Claimed the all-time first day USA record for home-release sales, with 8 million copies sold (80% of which were on DVD).
This is the second Pixar film after A Bug's Life (1998) to say the end at the end. Both of these films had directorial efforts done by Andrew Stanton.
In the scene where the silver fish are playing charades with Dory, one of the shapes is that of an old ship. The fish are whistling "Whale of a Tale", which was sung by Kirk Douglas in the beginning of the 1954 Disney movie, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). The submarine captain in that movie was named "Nemo".
The first Pixar film to not have bloopers since their first film, Toy Story (1995).
Gill's species, Moorish Idols, are notoriously difficult to keep in captivity due to their diet and mannerisms. This may be an interesting way to show Gill's deep desire for escape from the aquarium and into the ocean. In addition, Gill was pressuring Nemo to follow his challenging orders on his escape plan.
Brown pelicans' (Pelecanus occidentalis) geographical distribution don't extend to Australia; they are only found in the Americas.
Darla, in a way, is very similar to Sid Phillips, as they are both naughty human children who serve as antagonists towards the main character's races (toys and fish, respectively), although while Sid is a genuinely nasty child (in the first Toy Story (1995)) who relishes in his sick experiments, Darla appears to be much more innocent and seemingly did not mean Chuckles and Nemo any real harm, and apparently genuinely caring for Nemo (evidenced by her calling out to Nemo when he went down the drain). Unlike Sid though, Darla does not learn any lesson.
Chum is the most hyper out of all three sharks. This would be fitting his nature, given that mako sharks are the fastest of all shark species
The tiki heads in the tank are caricatures of Pixar employees Peter Sohn, Nelson 'Rey' Bohol and Ricky Nierva.
"Bruce" is also the stereotypical name for any male Australian, just as "Mick" or "Paddy" is for an Irishman and "John Bull" is (though now rarely) for an Englishman.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, sea turtles can actually live up to 152 years. This contradicts what Crush said about still being young at age 150, it could be possible that he feels young instead of literally young.
The anglerfish appears to be female, as only females possess the glowing bait that characterizes the species. They are also larger and more dangerous than males, who are 40 times smaller than females.
Dory says the address eleven full times (counting figuring it out at first as one). She also says it nine partial times (three of them were stating they were in Sydney).
Last of the 3 consecutive Pixar films to have Lee Unkrich as the co-director. He wouldn't be able to direct another Pixar film until Toy Story 3 (2010) and Coco (2017) 7 and 14 years later respectively as the main director.
In reality, clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites they are born male but change sex later in life so whenever a female clown fish within a school of fish dies, a male will change gender to make up for the death and mate with the other male, if the movie had been more accurate in nature Marlin would have become a female shortly after his wife's death which would have made him Nemo's mother not his father.
Another reference to the film Jaws (1975) is shown in the scene when Dory and Marlin are stuck in a torpedo tube and release the torpedo, which gets stuck in Bruce's mouth, allowing them to escape.
The model for Gurgle was reused for the fish in Boundin' (2003).
All drains do lead to the ocean (or at least a river or lake). It's just that raw sewage isn't dumped directly into the water; there are a number of mechanical and chemical processes in the way that, if depicted in the movie, would probably not be pleasant. A deleted scene would have had Nemo going through and struggling to dodge the filtration machines, but it was cut out of the film with only a hint given that his small size allowed him to survive.
Albert Brooks fell in love with the Deconstructionist aspect of Marlin - a clownfish who isn't funny - and ran with it. Director Andrew Stanton states "we have about an hour of audio from Albert telling a series of jokes really, really badly. They didn't make any sense, but that was the part that was funny.
The first Pixar film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), and Toy Story 2 (1999) all came out before the award was introduced, and Monsters, Inc. (2001) lost to Shrek (2001).
As pointed out by Nigel, a marlin is actually a type of billfish (such as the sailfish and swordfish) that is popularized by sport fishing.
Dory's species is known by several common names, including, regal tang, palette surgeonfish, blue tang, royal blue tang, hippo tang, flagtail surgeonfish, Pacific regal blue tang, and blue surgeonfish.
Anchor's statement against dolphins being their friends makes sense: in addition to dolphins being mammals instead of fish, dolphins are prey to sharks and are capable of killing them.
Unlike real jellyfish, the jellyfish in Finding Nemo sting by electrifying other fish, while real ones poison other fish with a really poisonous toxin with no antidote.
The name of the fish that yells "Oh, my gosh! Nemo's swimming out to sea!" is Kathy, who's never mentioned by name in the film itself.
The first Pixar film not to have a score by Randy Newman. Instead, his cousin Thomas Newman was this films composer.
While Darla is being attacked by Nigel, a kid in the waiting room is seen reading a Mr. Incredible comic which was a nod to Pixar's next film after Finding Nemo, The Incredibles.
Dory wondering where her family is and when she asks Nemo if they are searching for his dad or her dad at the end, foreshadows the sequel.
The actors who voice Nemo (Alexander Gould), Marlin (Albert Brooks), and Coral (Elizabeth Perkins) also portray main characters in the Showtime series Weeds (2005): Gould as Shane Botwin, Brooks as Len Botwin and Perkins as Celia Hodes.
On the Disney website, they mistakenly refer to Dory as a Yellowtail Tang. Although she does have a yellow tail, this is a different species of fish.
Peach was bought from eBay; however, buying live animals on eBay is prohibited. Of course, it is possible that this particular sale was overlooked by the eBay redactors, as this sometimes happens.
Peach appears to have eyes and a mouth. In real life, starfish do not have faces like vertebrate animals. This was done to accompany the fact that the film is set through the perspective of Marine Life.
Gill's voice, as Dafoe said, is based on the character Earl Copen, whom he plays in the movie Animal Factory.
Like all porcupinefish, Bloat sucks water into a compartment in his stomach to inflate, and also like many blowfish species in real life, Bloat often has trouble deflating. Also worth noting Bloat doesn't have the chameleon-like eyes and color-changing abilities that real porcupinefish and pufferfish do.
Even though the jellyfish do not return in Finding Dory (2016), model jellyfish can be seen hanging from the ceiling above the Marine Life Institute's "Open Ocean" exhibit.
Whenever Darla is mentioned like when Nemo heard about what happened to Chuckles and when she first appears at the dentist the theme music from Psycho (1960) can be heard.
When Nemo sees the treasure chest in the waiting room, inside the treasure chest, the famous Pixar ball can be briefly seen.
Of the 260 reviews it has on Rotten Tomatoes, 258 are fresh while only 2 are rotten, making for this film's Tomatometer of 99%.
Bruce never knew his father, so he was likely closer to his mother. Ironically, real great whites never care for their sons and leave them, as their babies are highly precocious or it is possible his dad died before he was born.
In real life, barracudas do not eat clownfish, other coral reef fish, or their eggs, this could be because barracudas live in the open ocean while clownfish live in reefs.
Pre-production began in 1997 when Andrew Stanton was in post-production on A Bug's Life (1998).
Based on the fact that Crush's father is named Mr. Turtle, this would make Crush's full name Crush Turtle, or C. Turtle (sea turtle) for short.
Only Pixar film with Andrew Stanton as the main director to not have any characters voiced by Sigourney Weaver.
Tad is voiced by Jordan Ranft, the son of Joe Ranft, who voiced of Jacques the Shrimp in this film.
The name of the underwater bubble-volcano, which Nemo must swim through, can be heard phonetically as "Wanna-hawk-a-loogie?"
When Nigel is trying to rescue Marlin and Dory from the hungry seagulls, one of the boats on the harbor says "For The Birds" which is a reference to the Pixar short, For the Birds (2000).
Brad Garrett's second Pixar film. The first one being A Bug's Life (1998) (which was co-directed by this film's main director Andrew Stanton), and his third one would later be Ratatouille (2007).
The highest grossing G-rated film until Toy Story 3 (2010) came along 7 years later.
Only Pixar film that has Andrew Stanton as the main director to release on VHS.
Albert Brooks and Willem Dafoe both share a birthday (July 22) 8 years apart.
Blue whales have black baleen plates and tend to be larger. And while the whale has a uvula hanging above his soft palate, whales don't have uvulas at all, however this wasn an intentional mistake by Andrew Stanton as he thought audiences would see that Marlin and Dory were inside the whales mouth if it had a uvula as "stage dressing".
The Barracuda can be heard roaring as it attacks Marlin and Coral, in a similar vein to Glut the shark from The Little Mermaid (1989) this may have been done merely for dramatic purposes.
None of the sea turtles seem to worry about having to breathe. They also don't travel in flocks, but this was intentional.
Gil was going to lie to Nemo about his life in the sea in order to look more impressive. Nemo would then find out that Gil was lying when one of the patients starts reading a storybook about pirates that shared the exact same details. This subplot was cut because it made Gil too unlikeable.
Thomas Newman's score was performed by a 105-piece orchestra.
At the beginning, Pearl says one of her tentacles is shorter than the rest, but it's hard to tell especially when she twirls them side to side. On octopi, the short tentacle is the genitalia.
At one point, Dr. Philip Sherman euphemistically states that he needs to "see a man about a wallaby." This may or may not be authentic Australian English slang, but it is similar to the British English euphemism "going to see a man about a dog/horse," which has the same meaning (going to relieve oneself).
While many fans of Finding Nemo (2003) believe Bruce to be a villain, he actually is not, since he was nice to Marlin and Dory, and never showed any signs of true evil, aside from his natural predatory instincts taking over him after smelling Dory's blood.
The scene where Crush tells Marlin not to puke over his shell, since he just waxed it, is a reference to the carwash and wax brand called 'Turtle Wax'.
In production at the same time as DreamWorks' Shark Tale (2004) which came out the following year and made about a third of the box office take of Finding Nemo (2003), although these films are not similar due to each film's protagonist being a different species of marine fish, taking place in a different part in the ocean, and having different plotlines, this film has humans and the fish live like fish in real life do, while the other computer-animated film taking place in the ocean has no humans and the fish are civilized as humans, although experienced voice actor Carlos Alazraqui and Frank Welker are one of the few only cast members of the film to appear in both this film and the other.
Pixar's first film where the director or a co-director has a major role, not being simply listed in the additional voices, with Andrew Stanton as Crush.
It is unknown what Bruce's opinion on dolphins is. He may be the kind that does not mind dolphins, as long as they do not bother him. While Anchor and Chum were making fun of dolphins, Bruce did not say anything; he just called the meeting to order. Ironically, great whites are one of the few sharks who are known to hunt and eat dolphins, excluding Orcas.
Despite being a male shark, Bruce for some reason does not have any claspers. This is a trait he shares with his friends Anchor and Chum.
In the LeapPad Finding Nemo (2003) book, Gurgle's only way of communicating is blowing bubbles.
According to the book Finding Nemo: The Essential Guide, Jacques the cleaner shrimp was one of the pets of the President of France and given to Dr. Sherman as a gift.
The Seagulls bear some resemblance to Feathers McGraw, the antagonist penguin from the Wallace and Gromit movie "The Wrong Trousers".
In the Polish dub of the movie, the Seagulls say, "Daj! Daj! Daj!" (pronounced like the English word "die"), which actually means "Give" in English.
Jacques is the second Pixar character to've been voiced by Joe Ranft to be recasted at a later point the first being Red in Cars Toons: Tales From Radiator Springs (2013) as Ranft tragically passed away in 2005.
The comment about the fishing boat being a "butt" actually does have some literary significance, though it might not be the reference the writers were going for: in Shakespeare's play The Tempest, the protagonist, Prospero and his daughter Miranda were exiled from Italy by Prospero's brother Antonio, set adrift on the ocean on "a rotten carcass of a butt" which was the word Shakespeare used for "boat".
Clownfish do live in anemones but they also live in harems dominated by one male and one female, with a lot of non-productive males in the rest. Clownfish will also reproduce with their relatives in times of emergency. This particular tidbit has raised eyebrows at the choice of clownfish for the film. It has been stated the clownfish was chosen because they don't typically travel very far from their homes.
The voice of Peach the Starfish Allison Janney in one episode of The West Wing (1999), her character CJ had a root canal, and in Finding Nemo (2003) Peach describes a root canal.
To see Buzz Lightyear in Finding Nemo (2003), you won't even have to press pause. But you probably didn't see the plane Buzz was flying on in Toy Story (1995). This is a reference to the scene from Toy Story (1995) where Buzz was flying on the plane hanging on the ceiling.
The nicknames Dory gave to Nemo (in order of appearance) are Chico, Fabio, Bingo, Harpo, and Elmo. The first four are a reference to the Marx Brothers (excluding Groucho), while the fifth is a reference to the red Muppet monster from the children's puppet show Sesame Street.
Even though Darla is the main antagonist in the film, she is mostly seen in her picture rather than in person she does not appear in person until later in the film.
Stephen Root and Brad Garrett's second collaboration. Their first was The Country Bears (2002), released a year prior, which was also by Disney.
This is the last Pixar film to be featured in a 1:85:1 aspect ratio until Up (2009).
When the fish start bashing the AquaScum 2003 for foiling their escape plan before Dr. Sherman scoops Nemo out of the tank, Gurgle appears to hate the AquaScum the most, with him swimming up to it and yelling, "CURSE YOU, AQUASCUM!!!" Ironically, after Gurgle yelled, "CURSE YOU, AQUASCUM!!!" his wish that the AquaScum filter would break down came true at the end of the movie when he and the rest of the Tank Gang escaped to freedom. Also, it would contrast on his phobia on germs that the AquaScum 2003 cleans the tank and his doubts about escaping the tank.
According to one of the Finding Nemo (2003) books, the shirt Darla was wearing in the film was given to her by her uncle after her pet fish Chuckles died.
Chum has a fishing hook lodged in his snout which he kept as a "souvenir" after a tussle with a fisherman.
Marlin mentions seeing a whale (or pretending to) in the opening scene. He and Dory are taken to Sydney in the mouth of one.
Pearl, Nemo's little octopus schoolmate ("You guys made me ink!") bears strong resemblance to Pinky the ghost from Pac-Man. Ditto for her dad.
On her first take of Dory begging Marlin not to leave her, Ellen DeGeneres, already emotional from the scene itself, was so distraught from having thought she flubbed the line that she was crying by the second. The first ended up being used.
The second Pixar film to take place through an animal's perspective, the first being A Bug's Life (1998), which also featured Brad Garrett and Frank Welker in which Brad Garrett voiced an insect and Frank Welker provided bird shrieks in A Bug's Life (1998) additionally Brad Garrett in this film voices a fish and Frank Welker provided the Barracuda's sounds and Whale bellows.
Darla is the first female Pixar main villain, as well as the first main villain in a Pixar film to have the shortest amount of screen time.
Andrew Stanton started writing the screenplay when he was in the middle of post-production of A Bug's Life (1998).
Burt Newton, Rove McManus, and David Koch, are just a few famous television personalities from Australia, with uncredited cameos. They actually play the three crabs, closer to the end of the film.
One of the boats moored at Sydney Harbour is called The Surly Mermaid, which is the name of an Australian pub.
The third animated film to be the winner of the academy award for best animated feature after Shrek (2001) and Spirited Away (2001) (with the english dub release being 2002), the former of which had also been made in North America.
Bryan Brown, Ray Meagher, Paul Hogan, Sam Neill, Glenn Robbins, Russell Gilbert, and Warren Mitchell were considered for the role of Bruce.
Albert Brooks and Willem Dafoe mutually appeared in films directed by Martin Scorsese. Brooks starred in Taxi Driver and Dafoe starred in The Last Temptation of Christ.
Now are good guys in Air Conditioner (The Brave Little Toaster), Bruce, Anchor and Chum (Finding Nemo), Mr. Nebbercracker (Monster House) and Debbie (Angry Birds Movie 2)
Before Vicki Lewis voiced Deb The Damselfish, she played Dr. Else Chapman the Paleontologist in the Live Action sci-fi film Godzilla (1998). At least she wasn't eaten because Godzilla (1998) eats tons of Fish.
Sea turtles don't live anywhere near 150 years; that honor belongs to tortoises. Their expected lifespan is still quite impressive at 80 years.
When the moonfish form the shape of a sailing ship, they start singing "Got a whale of a tale to tell you, lads..."
Peach, played by Allison Janney (more famous for playing C.J. Cregg on The West Wing) announces that the dentist is about to do a root canal, bringing to mind the hilarious West Wing episode "Celestial Navigation". There are a couple of allusions (the song "Beyond the Sea" and the line "That's my boy.") to Albert Brooks in My First Mister
Three times in the film, Pearl and her father were shown squirting ink when scared. The first time was when Tad pulled Pearl away from the edge of the dropoff, the second was when Tad, Sheldon, and Pearl's fathers saw the sharks when Pearl's dad inked, and the third was in the credits where Pearl bumped into El Magnifico's credit. This is equivalent to wetting oneself in fear.
After Bloat belches from eating green filth, a disgusted Gurgle remarks, "Don't you people realize we are swimming in our own" but Peach interrupts him when she sees the Dentist coming. Gurgle was trying to refer to their own excrement. When the AquaScum 2003 first scans the tank, Gurgle covers his crotch.
Before Nigel gets Dory and Marlin out of Gerald's mouth, he exclaims, "Love a duck!" In Australian English, this is a generic exclamation of surprise, the child-friendly equivalent of "Bugger me!"
The fourth computer-animated film to release in a spring season after Dinosaur (2000), Shrek (2001), and Ice Age (2002) and the third to release in May.
Pixar's first film to not release in November and the first to release in May, starting with Cars (2006), June would now be the standard month, in which each film made by Pixar in the future would release, apart from Up (2009) (which also released in May), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Coco (2017), and Onward (2020).
There is a deleted scene as an extra in the Audio-Visual Commentary on the DVD, wherein Gill says that he has brothers and sisters named Marco, Polo, Lester, Linus, and Lulu. He also tells Nemo that he is from a place called Bad Luck Bay, a "rough part of the ocean" that is "shaped like a human's skull." Later, on a program comes on TV, where a man reads a book to his child about Marco, Polo, Lester, Linus, and Lulu's adventures in Bad Luck Bay, and Nemo finds out that Gill was lying to him.
The journey to school foreshadows the meeting with Bruce, Anchor and Chum in the submarine and the ride with the sea turtles on the EAC.
During the scene in which Bruce tries to ram a door in the submarine is a reference to the film Deep Blue Sea (1999) featuring three mako sharks. One of them attempts to ram two doors open and rip a hole in a submerged chain-link fence.
The name Blenny is quite likely a reference to the suborder blennioidei, which is commonly known as "blenny".
When Chum was a pup, he attended a posh predator boarding school where he learned a tough accent from a caretaker.
In the Finding Nemo essential guide sticker book, it is hinted that Chum hangs out with at least three different groups of sharks the first is the obviously FEA which includes Bruce and Anchor the second is a group of tough sharks that gave him the nickname "snaggletooth" in the third is a group that includes posh sharks and refers to the former two groups as a "reef raff".
The fullscreen version of the film (exclusive to the original 2003 US home release) accidentally (by expanding the aspect ratio vertically) reveals the visible portion of a woman's legs as she enters the waiting room, essentially showing some of her bare leg as the hem of her skirt is now seen.
Marlin has to rescue Dory from the jellyfish forest when she gets trapped and fails to make it out foreshadows the ending when, Marlin and Nemo then have to rescue Dory and a whole school of fish when Dory gets caught in the net.
At one point, Nigel refers to the dentist as "Diver Dan" - a reference to Australian dramedy Sea Change.
The stage adaptation - "Finding Nemo: The Musical" - at Disney's Animal Kingdom was the first Disney project for house songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
Pixar's first film to be worked on by Peter Sohn, Josh Cooley, Bradford Lewis, Mark Andrews, Brian Fee, and Adrian Molina after joining the studio shortly in 2002 during the production of this film, although Lewis later left the studio in 2011 after Cars 2 (2011) had been released.
Aside from digital alteration to lower the pitch, Bruce's voice is identical to the one Barry Humphries used for his Les Patterson character.
"All drains lead to the ocean." During Darla's visit, Nemo manages to get back to the ocean when Gill sends him down the dentist's spit sink.
Marlin has to rescue Dory from the jellyfish forest when she gets trapped and fails to make it out. Marlin and Nemo then have to rescue Dory and a whole school of fish when Dory gets caught in the net.
Cameo
Rove McManus: the crab threatened by Dory. Rove was the biggest late night talk show host in Australia at the time, with his show Rove Live (2000).
Spoilers
Pixar's characters are often planned years in advance. Nemo first appeared as a stuffed toy on a couch in Boo's room in Monsters, Inc. (2001). This movie introduces the main characters of post-2003 Pixar films. A boy in the dentist's office is reading a "Mr. Incredible" comic book, anticipating The Incredibles (2004). Luigi the car is driving by the dentist's office, anticipating Cars (2006).
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."
In the tank gang in the dentist's office, the germophobic purple and yellow fish is the only one never mentioned by name. His name was later revealed to be Gurgle.
The pre-end credit scene show all the aquarium fish from the dentist's office are free and out of their plastic bags. As the closing credits are about to end, there was a short segment where the angler fish swims up to the tiny green fish and the tiny fish opens its mouth and swallows the angler fish.
The first Pixar Film to show blood (not counting fellow Pixar film A Bug's Life (1998) where it was only a sample as opposed to someone bleeding from an injury and a drawing of the circus bugs battling the grasshoppers), as well as the only G Rated Film of Pixar's to have it shown. It was shown where Dory got hit in the face by a scuba mask when she was trying to show it to the sharks and read what the mask says, but Marlin refuses to have the mask be shown and he pulls it but Dory pulls back, and Marlin accidentally gave Dory a nosebleed after letting go of the mask.
