Despite being released more than a decade ago, Finding Nemo still has a soft spot in our hearts—and we are going to reminisce over this movie by revealing some facts you will love. With that, here is a list of the top Finding Nemo facts.
1. The CEO of Disney thought that Finding Nemo would turn out as a failure
Michael Eisner was Walt Disney’s chief executive officer at the time the movie was released. According to him, the film will turn out as a reality check for—in his words— “a yet unchallenged Pixar.” And obviously, his prediction was far from what really happened since Finding Nemo ended up being Pixar’s highest-grossing film—until Toy Story 3 was released. So inspirational!
2. Finding Nemo was the first Pixar film TO ever show blood on screen
If you can recall, Dory gets hit by a scuba mask on the face at one point. And then blood started escaping her nose. Eventually, the smell of her blood attracted Bruce and his fellow sharks.
3. Marlin would eventually be Nemo’s mother
Let me explain, Nemo and Marlin are classified under protandrous hermaphrodites. This means that while they were born male, they can turn into females later in life. Because when female clownfish die, the males will turn into females to make up for the loss. Consequently, Marlin will eventually turn into a mother. Weird, right?
4. The tiki heads in the fish tank are the Pixar employees’ caricatures
You may have spotted the three tiki heads located in the fish tank at one point in the movie. Amazingly, these faces are caricatures of production artists Peter Sohn and Nelson Bohol, and art director Ricky Nierva. And did you know that figurines of these heads are being sold online?
5. The population of clownfish declined after the release of the movie
We all went crazy for Nemo, but some children took it a step further and purchased actual clownfish. And because of the extreme spike in demand, their population dropped drastically.
6. “Anti-flushing” announcements were released because of Finding Nemo
In the movie, Gill claimed that “all drains lead to the ocean.” And while this has some truth to it, fish will not arrive at the ocean alive once flushed. So, Water treatment company JWC Environmental and Australia’s Marine Aquarium Council made announcements informing the public that flushing your pet fish will most likely kill them.
7. The squawks of the seagulls were translated into multiple languages
Remember the scene where all the seagulls were saying “mine” while trying to grab Marlin and Dory? Apparently, this dialogue was translated to German, Spanish, Greek, French, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Japanese, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, Russian, Hebrew, Czech, Tagalog, Farsi, and Nepalese.
8. Pixar easter eggs can be spotted throughout the film
The yellow Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story was briefly featured in the scene where Gill was formulating a plan to escape. And in the scene when Nigel, the pelican, was attacking Darla, a kid can be spotted reading a comic book. And if you look closely, the book was a Mr. Incredible comic. This was Pixar’s upcoming animated movie at the time. How clever!
9. Darla was named after the producer of Monsters, Inc.
Darla Anderson, an award-winning producer, has made a lot of jokes towards Andrew Stanton—the director and writer of Finding nemo. And Darla believes that Andrew naming this character after her was his little way of getting back at him.
10. The director’s overprotective nature inspired the film
Learning about the origin of every film is remarkably interesting. Andrew Stanton, like Marlin in the movie, is a protective parent too. According to him, he remembers going to the park and worrying about his son getting injured or wounded. Stanton then became preoccupied trying to protect his child that he forgot to be more present as a father.
11. Gill was a villain in the original version of the story
With a long beak, dark colors, and a scarred face, Gill surely fits the role of an antagonist. And the creators did a great job of making him look intimidating. However, we learned that he has good intentions. We are glad they ended up making him a good guy. What do you think?
12. The shells of the young turtles were meant to appear like Hawaiian shirts
One of the most loved characters of the film was Crush—the chilliest turtle you will ever meet. In the movie, he can be seen with a group of young turtles with interesting shells. It was revealed that this familiar pattern was that of Hawaiian shirts—flowers and tie dye. This is because the crew was headed to Hawaii!
13. Dory was meant to be a male
Director Andrew Stanton revealed the original plan of Dory as a male on the audio commentary for the Finding Nemo DVD. And he said that one day, while he was writing the script in his house, his wife was watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Amazingly, the sound of Ellen’s voice was enough to change his mind. And of course, Ellen gladly accepted the role when it was offered to her. How cool is that!
14. The jellyfish sequence made Pixar invent a new computer system
One of the craziest, but the most beautiful scenes was the one where Marlin and Dory were surrounded with jellyfish. And Pixar created a computer system called ‘transblurrency’ to achieve the elegance and beauty of the jellyfish in the movie. John Lasseter, the producer, said that “Technically, we’ve pushed things beyond anything Pixar has done before. Just animating fish was difficult, but our technical team has created an underwater environment that is graceful and beautiful.”
15. The water had to be re-animated because it was too realistic
Woah, the Pixar team is really something else. They had to study and observe the underwater environments when creating the movie. And apparently, they studied too well since people were not able to see the difference between real water and their animated water. How can you be so good you have to force yourself to fail?
16. The art team had to go through marine training prior to production
Let us talk more about this incredibly hard-working and talented team. Like what we have mentioned earlier, the team had to do a lot of research and studying. Part of this educational process was taking lectures and courses on marine biology, ichthyology, and oceanography. They even had to enroll in scuba diving classes!
17. The expressions of the fish were based on dogs
Have you ever seen a fish smile? Exactly, so imagine how hard it was for the team to visualize how fish would express their feelings. Eventually, they decided to observe and apply the expressions of dogs.
18. Crush was voiced by Director Andrew Stanton
Known for his laid-back and chill voice, Crush remains to be one of the most iconic characters in the animated film history. And for Andrew to achieve this vocal style, he recorded all his lines lying on the couch!
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