Finding Nemo

Animated movies can also be touching and inspiring. The ones smirking at the idea of an animated film being ‘touching’ can might as well stop reading. I watched Finding Nemo movie for the umpteenth time on my flight back to Germany a few days ago.

The story boasts of a wonderful relationship between a father and son - poignant and inspiring - similar to the one we saw in The Pursuit of Happyness. There's a cute clown fish couple: Marlin and Coral. Coral lays eggs which get eaten away by giant sharks and Coral gets killed in the encounter. Only one egg survives - Nemo. The survivor, Marlin, Nemo's dad, loves and pampers him a lot. Nemo asks his Dad, whether he has encountered sharks, how they are, and to what age does sea turtles actually live. Marlin, is a coward himself and has never been into risky areas in the ocean.

As days pass, other fishes of Nemo's age start going to school, but Marlin isn't confident whether his son is old enough for school. He thinks that Nemo can't swim as well as he can. Nemo, insists that he wants to go, and Marlin agrees and takes him there, and secretly watches his son. During one of Nemo's little adventures, he swims away from his shoal of fish, challenges his Dad, gets attacked by a submarine and gets caught by a diver from the submarine to be taken away to a domestic fish tank far away in Sydney.

The story takes its twist when Marlin sets out to find Nemo all the way to Sydney; thousands of ocean miles away. 

He is accompanied by Dory, a female fish, suffering from short-term memory loss. For a father who is on a mission to find his son, a partner with a short-term memory loss is a disaster. However, Dory tries to follow and help Marlin, as much as she could. The movie depicts a wonderful chemistry between Marlin and Dory. Dory is a friend, expects nothing in return, tries to overcome her weaknesses just to be with Marlin and to help him find his son. She tries to remember things and seems to overcome her weakness when Marlin is around! It is notable that Dory swims all the way up to Sydney even after Marlin tells her to leave. But something noteworthy over here is that, this kind of unconditional love and friendship might exist only among fish/animals.

On the way to Sydney, they come across many hurdles and during a shark attack, they both are eaten up! Marlin doesn't give up and they somehow escape from there. Sea turtles come for their help, and show them directions. There is one scene, where, amidst all these hassles, and not knowing whether Nemo is still alive or not, while bidding goodbye to the turtles, Marlin asks them how old they are as he wanted to tell Nemo!! Marlin wanted to tell him about the sharks and how old the turtles were when he meets him next!! Marlin was so positive that he would get his son back...! 

Finally after a movie-hour of challenging waters, sharks, and other hurdles, they reach Sydney. After some more adventures there is a father-son reunion, which is again a visual treat. 

Switching off my in-flight screen, I stretched myself and comfortably got lost in thoughts. 

Did I ever have a friend like Dory? If I were Nemo, would someone come for me, this far?