movie: Finding Nemo

This is a movie that a lot of adults are likely to miss dismissing it as a cartoon movie – which are after all supposed to be for kids. But luckily I saw it, and felt its nothing short of a brilliant masterpiece! The story, animation, the ideas, the funny one-liners, so many facts of real nature inspite of the unlimited creativity, every single thing… simply beautiful! 🙂

What Kind of Creature Is It? Finding Nemo – Cast of Characters

This link lists not just the “actors” but the real ones! Explains each fish and description of each of them. Particularly interesting is Jacques – Cleaner Shrimp 🙂

I wondered if I was the only one who got totally lost on Mr. Ray’s song so dug up the script (pdf file) and here it is… 😀

MR. RAY
[singing]..mesopolagic, bathyal, abyssalpelagic. All the rest are too
deep for you and me to see.

MR. RAY
Huh, I wonder where my class has gone?

KIDS
We're under here!

MR. RAY
Oh, there you are. Climb aboard, explorers. [singing] Oh, knowledge
lyrical, when you think thoughts that are empirical.

MR. RAY
Don't worry. We're gonna stay together as a group. Okay, class, optical
orbits up front.And remember, we keep our supraesophogeal ganglion to
ourselves...that means you, Jimmy.

JIMMY
Aw, man!

...

MR. RAY
[singing] Oh, let's name the species, the species, the species. Let's
name the species that live in the sea.

NEMO
Whoa.

MR. RAY
[singing] There's porifera, coelenterata, hydrozoa, scyphozoa, anthozoa,
ctenophora, bryozoas, three! Gastropoda, arthropoda, echinoderma, and
some fish like you and me. Come on, sing with me. Oh...!

MR. RAY
Just the girls this time. [singing] Oh, seaweed is cool. Seaweed is fun.
It makes it's food with the rays of the sun...

MR. RAY
Okay, the drop off. All right, kids, feel free to explore but stay
close. [gasps]
Stromalitic cyanobacteria! Gather. An entire ecosystem contained in one
infinitesimal speck. There are as many protein pairs contained in this...

TAD
Come on, let's go.
...

There were some interesting things in it that really reflected human nature, especially in the aquarium…

Bubbles: This fish is so crazy about air bubbles (that rise from the aerator) – he just keeps running after them saying “my bubbles – my bubbles” as they rise up – and then he’s so posessive, that he slams the aerator shut, just to “protect” his bubbles! Here we see that he is shutting off the very source, without realising that its actually infinite!

Deb: She thinks her reflection in the glass tank is her sister, Flo. And she says to Nemo discreetly “Don’t listen to anything my sister says, she’s a bit crazy”! And, when the tank gets murky and no reflection is seen, she swims around asking, “Has anyone seen Flo?” –

————-

There’s an example of real faith – absolute devotion – in the scene inside the whale’s mouth. Marlin and Dory are inside the whale’s mouth, Marlin is absolutely terrified because of the uncertainity there, but Dory’s just cool about it and is swimming around cheerfully. Finally there’s this moment when they go towards the back of the whale’s throat and Marlin’s absolutely sure that the whale wants to eat them! They’re both holding on tightly for life to the whale’s tongue.

MARLIN
Dory!

DORY
He says it's time to let go! Everything's gonna be all right!

MARLIN
How do you know!? How do you know something bad isn't gonna happen!?

DORY
I don't!

And in that one instant of time, Marlin for a change takes one step beyond the boundaries of his fear. He does close his eyes, and lets go.

———————

Plenty of pretty profound concepts beyond the subtle humor – really hits you when you’ve finished laughing! There’s plenty to learn from this movie.