Finding Nemo is a 2003 CGI animated film. It was written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks), who along with a regal tang called Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), searches for his son Nemo (Alexander Gould). Along the way he learns to take risks and that his son is capable of taking care of himself.

The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was a financial blockbuster as it grossed over $864 million worldwide. It is the best-selling DVD of all time, with over 40 million copies sold as of 2006 and is the highest grossing G-rated movie of all time. In 2008, the American Film Institute named it the 10th greatest American Animated film ever made during their 10 Top 10. It was also the first Pixar animations studio film not to be released in November.

Plot

Shortly after the Ocellaris clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) and his wife Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), move into a new home, Coral is eaten by a barracuda along with all of their eggs, except for one. Marlin finds that egg and promises it he will never leave it, naming it Nemo as suggested by Coral. The attack has left the egg damaged.

Some time later, Nemo (Alexander Gould) begins his first day at school, but is frustrated and embarrassed by his overprotective and neurotic father. Marlin has constantly warned Nemo about the dangers of the ocean because he himself fears them, and also because one of Nemo's fins is much smaller and weaker than the other due to the damage to his egg (his "lucky fin"). Disobeying his father in order to show him that these fears are unfounded, Nemo deliberately swims out to open water; in the process, he is captured by a scuba diver. Marlin races after the diver's boat but quickly loses it. As he desperately searches for help, he bumps into Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a regal tang who suffers from short-term memory loss but is nonetheless relentlessly optimistic, in contrast to Marlin. The pair soon encounter three sharks, Bruce, Anchor and Chum (Barry Humphries, Eric Bana and Bruce Spence respectively), who are members of "Fish Eaters Anonymous," an organization modeled after AA.

Marlin and Dory find the diver's scuba mask and, in a scuffle over the mask, inadvertently spark Bruce into a feeding frenzy and are forced to flee into a deep trench, only to be nearly eaten by an angler fish. Dory remembers that she can read and they discover that Nemo has been taken to Sydney, Australia. Dory surprises herself by being able to remember the name and address written on it. A passing school of fish (one of whom is voiced by John Ratzenberger) gives them directions to get there via the East Australian Current, and also advises them to go through the trench that leads to it. However, only Dory hears the warning and she quickly forgets it. Marlin doesn't like the looks of the trench and leads Dory over it, where both are nearly stung to death by a mass of jellyfish.