Finding Nemo Analysis
Thesis: Through their adventures, the paranoid father
learns not to micro-manage his son’s life, and the son
learns the values of initiative and teamwork.
By:
•Dawn Castlebury- PowerPoint
Presentation, Plot Summary, Colors,
Light vs. Shadow.
•Kelly Felts- List of Characters,
Camera Angles, Scene Summary.
• Lashanda Jones- Props, Costumes,
Blocking.
•Sara Burton- Setting, Sounds, Music.
Characters
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Nemo- Marlin & Coral’s surviving son
(protagonist) learns to survive in the open
ocean—and the value of home.
Marlin
Dori- Befriends Marlin and helps him find
Nemo; forgetful and impetuous
Coral- Nemo’s mother who dies in attack
with all her eggs but one
Crush-The big, old turtle who teaches
Marlin to let kids struggle a bit on their
own; Squirt’s pop
Squirt- One of the baby turtles; Crush’s
son
Mr. Rays- Manta Ray; Nemo’s teacher
Bruce- Biggest shark who struggles with
“Fish are friends, not food.”
Tank Gang
Gill-big, scarred fish; clever but grim
Blow-blowfish who inflates when startled
Jacque- crab; compulsive cleaner
Auntie Deb- blue fish with stripes
Peach-starfish and lookout
Darla-destructive metal-mouth niece of
the dentist
Nigel- the pelican that hears of Marlin’s
quest and saves Nemo from the seagulls
Plot Summary
• Nemo, a young clownfish is caught by a scuba
diver when he ventures into the open ocean
and is taken to an aquarium in a dentist’s
office. While Marlin, his father, overcomes
his fears of the ocean to find his lost son, he
meets Dory, who has a very short memory.
Marlin and Dory search for Nemo,
encountering many types of ocean life.
Eventually news spreads about Marlin’s quest
and Nigel, a pelican, comes to the tank to
rescue Nemo and reunite him with his father.
• “Finding Nemo” is set in the
ocean between the home of
Marlin and the East Australian
Current and the Australian
dentist’s office in Sydney. The
story of a lost child and his
father’s adventure and mission
to reunite them is all depicted
and played out in this vast area
of the southern Pacific.
Overall, the director used the
ocean as a microcosm to satirize
human foibles while showing a
quest for serenity.
In SCENE # 17, Nemo has been placed into the fish tank by
the dentist. After he is ceremonially welcomed to the tank, Gill
reveals his plan for escape—which requires a small, strong
fish. The tank gang has to act before Nemo is given to Darla, an
insensitive human girl who kills fish just by looking at them (and
shaking them to get them to perform for her.
Nemo’s dad, Marlin, a clown fish has told other fish about
his quest to find Nemo and those fish told more fish who tell
more. Finally, the pelican, Nigel, who has met Nemo, hears the
story and alerts the tank gang. Nigel rescues Nemo and Dory,
who has found him after splitting with Marlin, and gets them to
the harbor near the dentist’s office. Nemo plays dead in order
to get rinsed into the sewer system that eventually vents into
the harbor, where he runs into Dory, who leads him back to
Marlin. In the end, Nemo not only rescues himself, but he also
rescues Dory with his father’s trust and aid.
Sound
Effects
Sound effects during this particular
scene of the film help foster
realism and set the scene shift.
Specific sounds are heard while in
the East Australian Current (EAC)
with the quick moving of the water
and the sounds of each sea turtle.
A specific sound of Dory and Marlin
exiting the EAC is heard, and then
a quiet lull is present. The
quietness helps with the transition
of setting from the current to
Sydney harbor. Bubbling, waves,
seagulls “barking”, and Dory and
Marlin’s swim are an example of the
specific sounds that are heard
during this scene.
The DVD reveals that the sound of
Nemo’s malformed fin was made
with fluttering tissue paper.
Sounds
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During the movie sound and sound effects are an essential part
of the development and progression of this movie. Disney uses
multiple sounds to depict characters and to essentially describe
the ocean in sound. With many of the main characters a specific
sound is used to identify the character.
Nemo is identified by his damaged fin. The fin makes a
distinctive fluttering sound, which establishes that he has less
use of this fin.
Marlin, the overprotective father of Nemo has a very fast
moving tail. One could say that this shows how neurotic and
overprotective his father is.
Dory, the companion of Marlin on his mission to find Nemo, has a
smooth glide to her fins and tail. This shows that she is going
through life with a good attitude and enjoying everything she
does with no concerns. This also shows her mental flightiness
(amnesia).
Each shark has a deep protruding voice showing dominance and
strength.
Props
2nd Setting in the
Scene: The Harbor
1st Setting in the
Scene: The Ocean
Leaves, flowers, sand, rocks,
and a treasure chest set the
scene in the open ocean.
Trees, bushes, land, boulders
in the water, boats, and the
Sydney Opera House in the
distance set Sydney Harbor.
3rd Setting in the Scene: The Tank
In the fish tank, an old rusted container, blue, rocks, bubbles,
plastic pink tall plants, a sea shell with a pink ball inside, tall plastic
green plants, the filter, and beyond the glass the dentist’s chair and
tools, his patients, cabinets, pictures on the wall. The window
overlooks the harbor, and Nigel.
Costumes
Semi-Realistic Cartoon Animations of the Underwater World
Nemo's father (Marlin)
* orange & white with a outline of
black on fins
* big white eyes
* small framed mouth
Nemo
* small orange fish
* orange, white and with a little
trim of black
Turtles
* green, with a darker green in
certain areas on shells
Crabs
* orange & yellow, and small,
green
* with claws & pincers
Pelicans
* long wings
* long faces
Dori
* blue fish
* yellow tail
* big eyes that blink blankly
to show her forgetfulness
Seagulls
* short beaks to bark “Mine!”
* wings
* small, blank eyes
Fish
*Different colors for
different species
Dolphins
* grey and white
* long bodies
Light vs. Shadow
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There were shadows of the sea life on the
ocean floor from the sunlight—which took a
lot of trial and error by the animators.
There were also reflections on the ocean
from the sun, stars, moon, and the city lights.
The most effective scene was the initiation
ceremony to welcome Nemo into the tank in
order to establish him as a member of the
escape team.
Colors
• The colors in Finding Nemo were mostly
shades of blue and green, since it takes place
underwater.
• The underwater plant life consisted of all
different colors such as, purple, green, pink,
yellow and many other colors.
• The characters (fish) were the most colorful
from the bright orange clownfish and the blue
and yellow blue tang fish.
• One effective scene showed a meeting of the
sharks that used gray shades for their
sinister environment to show they differ from
the brightly colored fish.
Camera Angles
• The camera angles under the water are mostly looking from a
side view, sometimes straight at the characters in order to show
their normalcy.
• Sometimes, the camera looks down into the water, reminding us
the usual perspective we humans see from the world above.
• Shots from the tank sometimes show Nemo, as well as the
marina outside the dentist’s window in Sydney harbor.
• Many of the shots in the tank look down at the characters to
show their smallness, especially Nemo in the filter tube; but
some shots look out into the dentist’s office to help establish
that the fish are familiar with his procedures and tools, so they
must have been there for a long time, which implies a sinister
future for Nemo.
Selected positions for scene 17
In the EAC
• The fluid motions of the turtles
show how they have adapted to
traveling in the swift Eastern
Australian Current.
• Marlin’s confusion and Squirt’s
getting bumped out of the current
show the speed of the current, as
well as the contrast between the
harbor and the current after Marlin
and Dory have exited.
Inside the whale
• The rush of water and the rolling of
Dory and Marlin on the whale’s
tongue establish the danger of their
situation, which Marlin and the
audience feel, but Dory ignores
because she is fascinated by the
experience as she learns to “speak
whale.”
The Crab vs. the Seagulls
• When a crab is tossed into the
center of a bunch of seagulls, humor
and irony follow.
• The crab on the rock, though
surrounded, is not defenseless. The
gulls fear his snapping claw and
eventually lose him as he escapes
into the water.
• The stupidity of the gulls is
established when all of them shout
“Mine!”—with one shouting “Mine!”
even after the crab has escaped into
the water.
The Pelican vs. the Dentist
• One wacky scene, involving a lot
of slapstick, shows Nigel, the
pelican, loose in the dentist’s
office, creating chaos.
• The mismatch between the
pelican and the dentist’s tools,
glass cabinets, and his frustration
at not being able to keep the bird
off his equipment all create a mad
scene.
Nemo vs. the Filter
• The contrast between Nemo’s
first, unsuccessful attempt to
stop the filter and his second,
successful attempt makes Nemo
look even braver.
• Especially when Nemo struggles
up the tube, we can see his fear
the first time and his
determination the last time.