Kevin GasikGasik1English 106

Park 10:30am

9/4/13

The Unfunny Clown Fish

The Ocean’s vastness cannot be fathomed; the number of gallons of water on earth is so great that we as humans cannot even comprehend such a number. It makes sense that most species of animals live in the ocean, but what if they could talk! What if they too could have great adventurous tales? What if we could listen to stories of the ocean, like the history of our own species? Pixar dives into this new and creative world with a married couple of clown fish, Marlin and Coral, who just got a new home on the barrier reef for their hundreds of eggs. Suddenly a Barracuda attacks and leaves Marlin alive, but takes the lives of his wife and all of his unborn children, except for one that has a scratch on it. He names the one and only child “Nemo” and becomes especially protective towards the world around him. Nemo was born with a weak fin because of the incident. From the beginning of the movie Marlin ticks off the viewer by being too protective, too strict, or as one would say on land a “Tiger Mom”. Marlin’s attitude is dull, no gives him the time of day and he is constantly worrying about everything in his and Nemo’s life. This influx of constant worrying becomes detrimental to Nemo’s health and Nemo becomes the classic rebellious teen. A parent’s sole meaning in life is to protect its offspring; however, over protecting causes deterioration in camaraderie between parents and children. Throughout the course of the movie Marlin and Nemo both develop from butting heads to a mutual father-son love that they didn’t realize existed. The film is one of the best because it is for all people and all ages. People will remember this movie for years to come and making this a box office hit.

Pixar’s ability to capture emotion throughout the film is over the top! It’s impressive that the animators are able to communicate emotion from fish, which would be hard to begin with when animating people. The Conflict of the movie appears when Marlin crosses the line, by treating Nemo like a baby in “Marlin and Dory, notice their expressions”

front of all of his friends. Nemo touches the “Butt”, which is actually a boat but because their children they wouldn’t know any better. When he touches the boat, ominous music plays while a dark shadowy figure rises up! This movie also incorporates good sound technique for example the fish swimming, the east Australian current, and the dark scary music in times of danger. When the threatening music plays, a scuba diver snatches up little Nemo and takes him away on his boat. Marlin is destroyed, as this was his only connection to his love of his life, Coral. He swims desperately to catch the boat, but the chase was futile. He begins to

just wander aimlessly in the direction of the boat. Pixar captures the emotion of what a real parent would be feeling. Their animation style depicts the emotion even though limited by the body type of a fish. Marlin seems as though he is lost and without direction. He then finds Dory, a blue fish played by the Comedian Ellen DeGeneres, that joins him on the journey to find Nemo. Dory provides the movie with comical relief from the stressful situation at hand, she does a great job at making the adventure throughout the movie entertaining and funny. The director understood how to make these fish come alive and put you into the scenario.

Since Finding Nemo has the genres of adventure, mystery, and comedy; it is able to make this movie entertaining and intriguing for all. Marlin with his new sidekick, Dory, set off into the open ocean searching for Nemo and looking any clues. Dory and Marlin meet three fish free eating sharks that cause an abandoned submarine to explode. Marlin and Dory venture off to Sydney, Australia, meeting deadly stinging jelly fish, and surfing “bros” turtles, a huge hump back whale, and many more interesting creatures of the sea. Its extraordinary what this film does to each of its sea life members, they capture the perfect essence for each design. For example turtles are really slow moving, peaceful and relaxed in the film they are portrayed as laid back and down to earth or should I say “Down to the sea floor”. This film goes deep into how each type of fish acts and portrays that in their character and voice, it opens up the imagination making the reality of Ocean Life talking come alive.

Meanwhile Marlin is traveling to find Nemo in Syndey. Nemo is transported to a tank in a dentist’s office where it may seem he spend the rest of his life. He is introduced to some weird characters, a fish who loves bubbles and shrimp who must clean, an angel fish who must escape the tank, etc.

“Picture of the interesting characters Nemo incounters”

Nemo’s faced with a new environment and at first he incredibly scared of everyone and everything; however, he begins to grow into an independent young fish by overcoming his weak fin and swimming across the bubbling volcano where he proves himself.

The only weakness I saw in this movie was that during times of seriousness, or times of peril Dory would make jokes or their danger didn’t seem apparent. This is understandable though because for kids under the age of 10 who see this do not want to be scared of fish, sharks, jellyfish, etc.

Marlin and Nemo both go from a uptight family with every restriction possible to the other extreme. Nemo’s dad traveled across the entire ocean just to find his son, crossing the jellyfish trench, fighting sharks, surfing with turtles, and being swallowed by a whale. At the end of movie Marlin realizes that being such a strict parent, what he thought was to bring him closer spread them apart over great distances, was actually not the best course of action for his son who is growing up in the vastness of the ocean. The director’s ability to show the contrast between child and parent really makes Finding Nemo stand out against the other animated movies. I encourage every movie-goer to watch this wonderfully directed spectacle, and enjoy its simplistic storyline; to find the little clown fish, Nemo.