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Finding Nemo: Joyfully Overcomes Tragedy

By Bethan Power · August 20, 2013

CGI. A family’s multiple heartbreaks. A friend with short-term memory loss. No, I’m not on a psychiatrists couch trying to find the root cause of why I’m quite so…quirky, I’m describing elements of Pixar’s underwater conception. Finding Nemo is a heart-warming story of a father’s physical and emotional journey to find his son. Travelling across the ocean, Marlin the clownfish encounters many interesting folk and, along with his travelling companion Dory, ventures into dangerous waters in an attempt to find his only son Nemo, who was taken by a visiting tourist.

I won’t deny it, the first time I saw it, I cried. I have seen the film no less than eleven times. And I still cry. Don’t get me wrong, I laugh too, and during the whale sequence I have laughed until I have cried. But I have felt for and cried for those little fishies every time without fail.

These emotional stirrings are justified. In many ways, Finding Nemo is a tragic story. The pre title scenes hit you like a ton of bricks and when the premise is written down the heartrending tones are evident. A new husband and wife move into their new home, the wife expecting many children. The husband loses his wife and all but one of his children, who he then also loses despite being desperately overprotective. It brings a tear to the eye and doesn’t really seem overly fitting for a children’s film.

And yet, with the carefully selected combination of supporting characters that cushion the emotional blows and provide much-needed light relief throughout, we find that this dark, rich tale can actually work within a family framework. A pivotal character in this respect is Dory. Her quirky character that contrasts so much with Marlin’s starchy demeanour creates many a funny moment, and yet flashes of her unexpected (even by her) brilliance save the day on several occasions. The characters he meets along the way influence the gradual progression of Marlin’s character throughout the film, and it’s really heart-warming to see him drop the serious attitude occasionally and let his hair down.

My screenwriting senses tingle in excitement however, at the inciting incident. I mean, WOW. The protagonist, a clownfish of all things, is absolutely justified in hating the open ocean and never ever wanting to set foot (or fin) in it, and to keep his only son out of it too. What better way to create wonderfully ambitious stakes than to create an inciting incident that means the protagonist has to do the very thing he fears and hates most of all, in order to retrieve the only thing left in his life worth living for? It’s a truly sad moment and beautifully executed, making us all shed a tear for the poor soul of a hero. But even so, there was that small screenwriting geek inside of me doing a victory dance at just how well it works.

The rest of the film slots in perfectly. The caged-in character slowly flies free from his self-made prison because the stakes are so high that it seems only natural. Marlin does things throughout the course of the film that are pretty unbelievable, especially when you think back to how he was in the first act. And you egg him on. It’s a wonderful story of exploration and discovery of maturity, not just from Nemo’s point of view but Marlin’s too, and that really unifies the whole film’s theme of hero's journey. The choice of a single father character is relatively original and really well used, presenting a more diverse ideology than the traditional approach—because sometimes (as shown here) that is just not possible.

This film has taken many a viewers heart, torn it to shreds and then stuck it back together again with kisses to make it better. It explores the most tragic of situations in a safe cartoon environment and manages to make it entertaining, humorous and thought-provoking all at the same time. Putting fathers in such a positive light is a really lovely aspect that is repeated throughout—the sequence where Marlin and Dory ride along with the turtles is a prime example of this. Finding Nemo explores delicate ground with a clown hat on and it works. It really really works.