The animated movie Finding Nemo was released in 2003 by Disney Pixar. Directed by Andrew Stanton and written by Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds. The narrative paradigm that all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling is seen in this film. Finding Nemo is a story that interprets meaningful messages. As a film directed towards children it is able to maintain the attention of its audience in order to fulfill its purpose to entertain and teach a message. Finding Nemo is wonderful film for all ages that is successfully able to get its message across while entertaining its audience. The film gets it core message of living life to the fullest across with its supporting themes of overcoming your fears, taking risks, trusting in others, and persevering to achieve your goals.
Finding Nemo is about two clownfish, Marlin and his son Nemo, who live in the ocean. Nemo was born with a deformed fin, which causes his father to be more cautious with him and overprotective. A diver takes Nemo from his home on the Great Barrier Reef all the way to Sydney, Australia. Marlin becomes determined to get him back. At the beginning of Marlin’s quest to reach his son he meets another fish named Dory, who suffers from short term memory loss. Because of Dory’s short term memory she is impulsive and fearless. This is a continuous frustration for Merlin because he is the exact opposite of Dory, he fears everything, can never see the positive in situations, and is overly cautious. Merlin and Dory face many obstacles in their quest to reach Nemo, but everyone is reunited in the end.
The writers and director are able to entertain and get their message across successfully by creating a film that was vividly breathtaking to watch. The bright colors, animated voices of the characters, and beauty of the ocean makes it impossible to take your eyes off of and keeping your attention, which is the goal of any film. It can be assumed that the writers and director are in tune with children and that they too have good values. The plot keeps you interested by adding elements of suspense, while all the while keeping you tuned in to see if Marlin and his son are able to be reunited. With the film being directed towards children the writers knew that the parents would also have to watch the film. They were able to make the message and themes relatable to both age groups by using their personal experiences of parenting. Helping parents to see that being overprotective doesn’t necessarily protect their children, and having the core message and themes be something that someone of any age can benefit from. The writers and directors were rewarded for making a superb film by receiving an Academy Award for best animated feature film. Finding Nemo was the second highest grossing film of 2003 with revenue of $921 million. When released on DVD Finding Nemo became the bestselling DVD of all time reaching 40 million copies sold.
The themes are all shown through Marlin, and his quest to reach Nemo. Having Marlin’s character start out with a fearful, and overly cautious personality helps to see how he progressively changes throughout his travels. He is confronted with many situations that he must overcome in order to continue on his path, and with the help of Dory and his desire to reach his son he gets through each one. Dory and Marlin’s opposite personalities end up helping to balance each other out. Dory helps Marlin to get through obstacles with her fearless outlook, and Marlin helps Dory with her short term memory issues by being a constant in her life. Marlin learns to trust in Dory even when he doubts her. Even when faith seems lost Marlin and Dory find a way out of the situation and keep going till they reach Nemo.
Overall, this is a very effective movie at entertaining its audience, and teaching valuable life lessons. The story does this through its characters in a way that relates to all audiences. By analyzing the film and how it is told viewers can learn that the benefits of perseverance, facing fears, and trusting in others help to live a full and happy life, while all the while delivering an entertaining film. Based on its continued success and a sequel in the making it can be determined that millions of people would also agree that Finding Nemo is a wonderful example of how to reach your audience.
