PLOT
After his mate Coral and the rest of their offspring are eaten by a barracuda, Marlin, an apprehensive clownfish who lives on the Great Barrier Reef, is very controlling of his only child. His son, Nemo, has an abnormally small right fin, his "lucky fin", which causes Marlin to worry over his swimming ability. On his first day of school, Nemo boldly ventures away from the reef and touches the bottom of a boat. This makes Marlin angry, and starts an argument in front of Nemo's classmates. To his father's horror, Nemo is captured by a scuba diver and driven away in the boat.
In search of help, Marlin meets Dory, a naïve but optimistic regal tang fish with short-term memory loss. While meeting would-be vegetarian sharks Bruce, Anchor and Chum, Marlin discovers a diver's mask that was dropped from the boat. During a hazardous struggle with an anglerfish in the deep sea, Dory is able to read an address written on the mask and discovers that it is from a place in Sydney. After receiving directions from a large school of fish, Marlin and Dory set out to find Sydney. They encounter dangerous jellyfish and later befriend a surf cultured turtle named Crush while "riding" the East Australian Current (EAC). In the current, Marlin reluctantly shares the details of his journey with a group of young turtles, and eventually, his story reaches Sydney through word of mouth.
Meanwhile, Nemo's captor, a dentist, drops him into a fish tank in his office on Sydney Harbour, and Nemo meets its residents, a group of fish called the "Tank Gang". The gang is led by a crafty and ambitious moorish idol fish named Gill. The fish are frightened to learn that the dentist plans to give Nemo to his niece, Darla, who has previously killed a pet fish in a bag of water by shaking it. Gill gives Nemo a role in his most recent escape plan, which involves jamming the tank's filter and forcing the dentist to remove the fish from the tank while he cleans it manually. Nemo attempts to jam the filter using a rock, and his first attempt fails and nearly kills him, but he later succeeds after Nigel the pelican visits with news of Marlin's journey. The plan, however, is thwarted when the dentist installs a more advanced filter and has no need to take the fish out of the tank.
Upon leaving the EAC, Marlin and Dory become lost in a huge cloud of polluted water, and are trapped inside the mouth of a blue whale. The whale carries them to Sydney Harbour, where Marlin reluctantly trusts Dory and allows himself to be ejected from the whale's blowhole at the risk of being eaten. They are then met by Nigel, who recognizes Marlin after hearing stories of him and transports him and Dory to the dentist's office. By this time, the dentist has put Nemo into a bag and is preparing to give him to Darla. Nemo plays dead in hope of saving himself, but Marlin sees him and mistakes this act for the actual death of his son. After a chaotic struggle, Gill helps Nemo escape into a drain through a sink plug-hole.
Overcome with despair, Marlin leaves Dory and swims back toward his home. Without Marlin, Dory loses her memory and becomes confused, but meets Nemo, who has escaped into the ocean from an underwater drain pipe. Dory at first does not realise who Nemo is, but her memory is suddenly restored after she reads the word "Sydney", and she guides Nemo to Marlin. The two joyfully reunite, but shortly afterwards, Dory is caught in a fishing net among a school of grouper. Nemo convinces Marlin to let him attempt to save Dory, by entering the net and telling the school to swim downward - a technique he learned from the Tank Gang. The fish succeed and escape, and Marlin, Nemo and Dory return to their home on reef. No longer overprotective or doubtful of his son's safety, Marlin sees Nemo off as he leaves for school.
A short scene after the film's conclusion shows the dentist complaining about the breakage of the new tank filter. The Tank Gang have escaped into the harbor, but realize they are still confined to the bags of water that the dentist put them into when cleaning the tank.
PRODUCTION
It was so arresting. I had no idea what kind of fish they were, but I couldn't take my eyes off them. And as an entertainer, the fact that they were called clownfish—it was perfect. There's almost nothing more appealing than these little fish that want to play peekaboo with you."[4]
Pre-production of the film took place in early 1997. Film production began, according to IMDb, in January 2000 with a crew of 180. It was Pixar's final use of Sun Microsystems[5].
In an interview, 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 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.[6]
The movie was dedicated to Glenn McQueen, a Pixar animator who died of melanoma in October 2002, seven months before the film was released.
