Finding Nemo

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Finding Nemo's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Finding Nemo completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 10 August 2003.

Overall comments and recommendations

Finding Nemo is an animated film by Pixar and the animation is very well done. The visual effects, particularly of the Great Barrier Reef are stunning and the storyline and the quality of acting are all very entertaining. Adults and children will enjoy the humour in the film also.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Finding Nemo contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Marlin and Coral are Clownfish who live on the Great Barrier Reef and are soon to be new parents. They are eagerly awaiting the birth of their many babies when a vicious shark appears, killing Coral and all of the babies except one. Marlin is left to raise his son Nemo alone and the trauma of losing all his family has left him afraid of everything and very overprotective of his son. Nemo is not allowed to do anything on his own and one day rebels against his father and ventures out into the unknown. He is caught by divers and taken to live in a dentist’s surgery aquarium in Sydney harbour.

Marlin is distraught and sets out to travel the vast ocean to find his son. On the way he meets Dory, a Regal Blue Tang, who desperately wants to help Marlin find Nemo but unfortunately suffers from short term memory loss, so is often more of a hindrance than a help. However Dory has hidden talents, such as speaking in many different fish languages (and whale) and reading English! She becomes a real help to Marlin and together they have many adventures and encounter many dangers trying to reach Sydney Harbour, they have found out that Nemo is.

They meet friend and foe along the way including Bruce, Anchor and Chum, sharks who belong to the Fish Eaters Anonymous group, all reformed fish eaters or trying to be. Then there are the really cool sea turtles who love to ‘surf’ the ocean currents and help carry Marlin and Dory to their destination. The journey turns Marlin from the scared, cowardly fish he was, to a real hero and Dory too overcomes her memory loss problems at times. Meanwhile Nemo’s life in the fish tank takes on a monotony of its own which is only broken by his new friends and their aspirations to escape. They inspire him to stay hopeful that one day he will be reunited with his father.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is quite an amount of violence in this film including the following scenes:

• At the start of the film, Coral and Marlin are eagerly awaiting the birth of their hundreds of babies when they are viciously and suddenly attacked by a shark killing Coral, the mother, and all but one of the babies.
• Marlin chases after a boat and is knocked into a rock in its wake.
• Bruce, the white pointer, goes into a frenzy when he smells blood and chases Marlin and Dory all over the place, intent on killing them. He bashes his head repeatedly against a grill door trying to get in.
• A bomb lodges in Bruce’s mouth which explodes.
• Marlin is chased and attacked by a large fish with sharp, jagged teeth and a dangling light it uses to attract its prey.
• Marlin repeatedly beats against the Whale’s baleen trying to escape.
• Dory and Marlin are attacked by seagulls.
• Gill, one of the aquarium fish, attacks the dentist’s niece to help save Nemo

Some of the violence is set in comic context as in the following:

• The dentist’s treatment of his patients is quite brutal, making one of them yell in pain.
• A pelican flies into the dentist’s window, flattening itself.
• The dentist throws the pelican out of his rooms.

Material that may scare children

Under eight
Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

The violent scenes mentioned above could all frighten children in this age group, particularly all the fish babies being killed.

Other scenes that would scare children in this age group include:

• The shark that attacks them at the start has huge teeth and is very scary looking.
• The deep sea divers are made to look scary to the fish.
• Nemo being caught in the net.
• Bruce the white pointer and his mates from the Fish Eaters Anonymous group; Chum the Mako Shark and Anchor the Hammerhead shark all look really scary and Bruce has an evil laugh.
• The dentist’s niece who is going to have Nemo looks really evil and scary and killed the last fish she took home.
• Marlin and Dory swim into a place of total darkness which is quite eerie.
• The light they see turns out to be a very nasty fish that wants to eat them.
• Marlin and Dory have to swim through jellyfish; Dory is stung many times and nearly dies.
• Nemo gets stuck in the filter tube and is nearly sucked into the fan.
• The whale that swallows them also looks huge and scary.
• The whale’s voice is very loud
• Nemo is injured when he tries to help fish escape from a net.

Aged eight to thirteen
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened

Children in this age group would most likely understand that this is fantasy however they could still be upset by some of the scenes particularly the start where all the fish babies are killed and when Bruce the White Pointer goes into a frenzy.

Over the age of thirteen
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

There is nothing in this movie that would frighten a child in this age group.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in this movie.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity in this movie.

Use of substances

There is no use of substances in this movie.

Coarse language

There is no coarse language in this movie.

The movie's message

The ‘take home’ message of this movie is that parents can’t protect their children from all danger and that by being too overprotective they will prevent their children from gaining their independence and might make them resentful.

Values that parents may wish to encourage include:

• friendship
• loyalty
• courage / bravery
• endurance through adversity
• collaboration
• overcoming problems
• empathy
• trust
• selflessness.

Values that parents may wish to discourage include disobeying a parent.