Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context WesternAnimation / FindingNemo

Go To

1%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1605887051074487600
2%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
3%%
4[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/finding_nemo_dvd.png]]
5 [[caption-width-right:333:''[[TagLine There are 3.7 trillion fish in the ocean.\
6They're looking for one.]]'']]
7%%
8
9->'''Marlin:''' Now, what's the one thing we have to remember about the ocean?\
10'''Nemo:''' It's ''not'' safe.\
11'''Marlin:''' That's my boy.
12
13''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 computer-animated film from Creator/{{Pixar}} and the first one from the company to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
14
15The movie takes place in and around the Great Barrier Reef near UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, and centers on an anxious clownfish named Marlin (Creator/AlbertBrooks). After losing his wife Coral and all but one of their 400+ eggs in a barracuda attack, Marlin becomes fiercely protective of his remaining son, Nemo (Creator/AlexanderGould). On his first day of school, Nemo gets fed up with Marlin's apprehension of the ocean and ends up overstepping his father's directives by going near a boat. Soon after, Nemo gets [[UnwantedRescue "rescued"]] by a scuba diver, and Marlin, going against all his anxieties, goes off to find him. Marlin joins up with a forgetful blue tang named Dory (Creator/EllenDeGeneres), and they brave all sorts of obstacles to, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin find Nemo]].
16
17Meanwhile, the scuba diver turns out to be a UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} dentist who puts Nemo in his office's aquarium and plans to gift the fish to his niece, Darla, for her upcoming birthday. The other fish in the tank, most of whom have gone insane due to years of confinement, decide to help Nemo escape (especially because Darla is described as a "fish killer", who, whenever she gets a fish, shakes their plastic bag too hard).
18
19A musical adaptation ''Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... And Beyond!'' was created in 2006 by the team behind ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Music/RobertLopez). While the main show is currently only performed at Disney resorts, the shorter kid's version ''Finding Nemo: Jr'' is licensed for youth theatre companies, drama clubs, and/or schools.
20There also exists a LicensedGame that was released around the same time as the film with [[VideoGame/FindingNemo the same name]].
21
22A sequel, titled ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'', was released on June 17, 2016.
23
24Not to be confused with the comic strip ''ComicStrip/LittleNemo''.
25----
26!!This film contains examples of:
27[[foldercontrol]]
28
29[[folder:Tropes A-H]]
30* AbnormalAllergy: Sheldon the seahorse is allergic to water. Given that he lives underwater, he's quite the sneezer.
31* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable:
32--> '''Dory''': Hey, look. "Ess-ca-pay". I wonder what that means? That's funny, it's spelled just like the word "escape."
33* AccidentalKidnapping: The dentist takes Nemo from his home and puts him in his fish tank, but only because he saw Nemo swimming alone near his boat and believed he wouldn't have survived on his own. Since [[AnimalTalk humans and fish can't talk to each other]], he has no idea that he separated Nemo from his father.
34* AccidentalMisnaming
35** The absent-minded Dory keeps misremembering Nemo's name. Over the course of the film, she manages to call him Chico, Fabio, Bingo, Harpo, and Elmo.
36** Sheldon's dad (Bob) calls Marlin Marty.
37* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: Sort of. The baby jellyfish's sting doesn't bother Marlin because he lives in an anemone and is already used to stings. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Adult jellyfish are still dangerous.]]
38* ActorAllusion
39** Peach, played by Creator/AllisonJanney (more famous for playing C.J. Cregg on ''Series/TheWestWing)'' announces that the dentist is about to do a root canal, bringing to mind the hilarious ''West Wing'' episode "Celestial Navigation".
40** There are a couple of allusions (the song "Beyond the Sea" and the line "That's my boy.") to Creator/AlbertBrooks in ''My First Mister''
41** Bubbles (played by Creator/StephenRoot) is rather possessive of his... well, his [[MeaningfulName bubbles]] in much the same way that [[Film/OfficeSpace Milton is possessive of his stapler]].
42* ActuallyQuiteCatchy: Despite complaining about it, Marlin ends up singing along and then enjoying Dory's "Just Keep Swimming" mantra. [[https://open.spotify.com/track/4n11g7lOMMk6iXqWdMD5IH Just Keep Swimming]]
43* AdvertisedExtra: For some reason, Bruce and Crush are always shown on just about every piece of promotional material as two of the film's central characters even though their screen time is limited to only a handful of scenes.
44* AffablyEvil: Subverted. Bruce appears to be this towards the beginning of the movie, but it's revealed that he's actually a NiceGuy. [[spoiler:Unless he smells blood.]]
45* AllThereInTheScript:
46** Gurgle's never referred to by name. He's the purple and yellow one.
47** Out of Nemo's classmates, only Sheldon's (the seahorse) name was said.
48** The dentist's first name is Philip.
49** The fish that yells, "Oh my gosh! Nemo's swimming out to sea!" is named Kathy.
50** The small, skittish green fish that Anchor brings to the meeting ([[spoiler:and seen in TheStinger]]) is named Blenny.
51** In the stage play, the students reference wanting to see an angelfish at school. According to the cast list, there's one in the ensemble right behind them.
52* AncestralName: Discussed when Marlin and Coral are considering what to name their children once the eggs hatch. Marlin decides to name half the children Marlin Jr. and the other half Coral Jr. Coral, however, prefers the name Nemo. After Coral and most of the eggs are eaten by the barracuda, Marlin names the one surviving egg Nemo to keep Coral's memory alive.
53%%* AndCallHimGeorge: Said outright by Dory. And Darla, possibly.
54* AnimalsLackAttributes: Neither Bruce nor Anchor have claspers, despite being male sharks. Strangely averted with Chum, however.
55* AnimalTalk: Most of the animals in the film talk to each other, even those that belong to different classes. The exceptions are those without complex nervous systems (sea anemones, jellyfish), predatory fish (except for the sharks), and the whale (although it does seem to understand Dory speaking whale).
56* AntiSmotherLoveTalk: The movie contains two instances of this:
57** A turtle, Crush, talks to Marlin about letting children do things on their own. When Marlin asks when will he know if the children are ready, Crush responds, "Well, you never really know, but when they know, you'll know, you know?"
58** [[HeroicBSOD At a low point in the journey]], Marlin murmurs, "I promised I'd never let anything happen to him." Dory's response serves as a low-key rebuttal to Marlin's overprotectiveness and helps him understand why Nemo tried to rebel against his precautionary measures:
59---> '''Dory:''' Huh, that's a funny thing to promise.
60---> '''Marlin:''' What?
61---> '''Dory:''' Well, you can't never let anything happen to him, then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo.
62* AntiVillain: Well, nearly every villain in this movie is either ObliviouslyEvil (like Darla and the jellyfish), predatory (anglerfish and barracuda), or just lacking in self-control (like Bruce and the seagulls). The closest thing to a bad guy would be the dentist, if only due to the first few seconds of his introduction, and even he's revealed to be perfectly pleasant and well-meaning but misguided.
63** Type 4: Jellyfish and the [[spoiler: fishermen]], under the "mere predator" definition.
64* ArgumentOfContradictions: There is a brief one as the Tank Gang debate what type of tool the dentist is using on a patient.
65-->'''Bloat''': Now he's using a Hedstrom file.\
66'''Gurgle''': That's not a Hedstrom. That's a K-Flex!\
67'''Bloat''': It's got a teardrop cross section--''clearly'' a Hedstrom.\
68'''Gurgle''': No, ''K-Flex.''\
69'''Bloat''': ''Hedstrom!'' \
70'''Gurgle''': '''''K-FLEX!!!'''''\
71'''Bloat''': '''''HEDSTROM!!!''''' (''puffs up'') D'oh! Th-There I go! Little help...over here...\
72'''Deb''': (''resigned'') I'll go deflate him. (''hissing'')
73* ArtisticLicense: The Aqua Scum 2003 measures the temperature of the aquarium in Fahrenheit, even though the film is set in Australia, which uses Celsius. Of course, the film was made by an American studio and primarily marketed towards an American audience...
74* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: The dentist puts the tiny Nemo into a tank clearly way too big for him, since he's almost immediately sucked into the aquarium's filter (this is vital to the subplot about the Tank Gang trying to escape, however). He also puts a wild fish directly into the tank, which is very easy way to introduce disease to the other fish, mostly stated to have come from captivity, in the aquarium.
75* ArtisticLicenseMarineBiology:
76** Barracuda don't have much of a taste for eggs. They prefer live prey. However, it's possible that the barracuda in the film was simply after Coral and just happened to consume the eggs in its pursuit of her.
77** The interior of the whale's throat is too large. While blue whales have a gigantic '''''mouth''''', their throat is tiny and unable to swallow anything larger than a beach ball. They also have respiratory and digestive tracts completely separated, so, you know, they don't unintentionally [[spoiler:sneeze fish out of their blowhole]]. [[HollywoodDarkness And where is the light inside its mouth coming from?]]
78** As stated in YouWontLikeHowITaste below, Marlin tries to dissuade the whale from eating him and Dory by holding one of its taste buds, to prove he doesn't taste good. [[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/05/whales-cant-taste-anything-salt As it turns out,]] whales (and dolphins) can only taste salt, so Marlin's "I don't taste good" excuse likely wouldn't work. (This may be justified, however, since Marlin likely had zero experience with whales beforehand, and probably didn't know this fact. [[CaptainObvious Or maybe he was just panicking in a stressful situation]].)
79** Chuckles, the gift fish who was killed by Darla, was a goldfish. Which live in freshwater. The other Tank Gang fish are saltwater fish. You can see where this is going.
80** None of the sea turtles seem to worry about having to breathe. They also don't travel in flocks, but this was intentional; see RuleOfCool below.
81** Green turtles rarely ever reunite with their young. After the mothers lay their eggs on the beach, they cover them in sand and then depart. The chances of the children ever seeing their parents after hatching are slim, and even then, what are the odds of them recognizing one another?
82** Sea turtles don't live anywhere near 150 years; that honor belongs to tortoises. Their expected lifespan is still quite impressive at 80 years.
83** One of Nemo's schoolmates is a young flapjack octopus named Pearl. [[MisplacedWildlife Flapjack octopus are not found in the Great Barrier Reef, they live in much colder, deeper waters further north.]]
84** Both the flapjack octopus and Peach the starfish have very evident FunnyAnimalAnatomy; Pearl has her mouth on her mantle when it should be under her tentacles, while Peach has eyes on her underside, when there should technically be one at the end of each arm (starfish don't have true eyes, they have more simple eyespots).
85** Deb is supposed to be a humbug damselfish, but for some reason she's blue and white instead of black and white as is the norm for the species.
86** The UnderwaterFartGag where one pelican mistakes a bubble that appears behind another pelican as a fart. Birds can't fart.
87** When Dory and Marlin are caught in the middle of the exploding underwater minefield, it only knocks them out for a little bit, when in reality the explosions would've turned them into scattered jelly.
88** Regal tangs like Dory are able to defend themselves with scalpel-sharp spines near their tail, but Dory never displays any use of it, even in situations where it would have been really useful (although, maybe she just forgot...).
89** Clownfish do live in anemones but they also live in harems dominated by one male and one female, with a lot of non-productive males in the rest. When the dominant female dies, the dominant male undergoes a GenderBender and becomes the new dominant female. Clownfish will also reproduce with their relatives in times of emergency. This particular tidbit has raised eyebrows at the choice of clownfish for the film.[[note]]Which, according to Podcast/RiffTrax, gives a [[ParentalIncest whole new meaning to Marlin's desperation to finding Nemo]]. Yikes.[[/note]] It has been stated though, the reason for the choice of clownfish was because they don't typically travel very far from their homes.
90*** Also, immature clownfish are actually sexless, only developing into male, and then female forms as they mature into adults (although in the presence of a dominant male and female clownfish, they might never fully mature).
91** Marlin and Dory swim to the bottom of the sea to retrieve the diving mask. However, coral reef fish, unlike the anglerfish they encounter, aren't adapted to the immense pressure in that depth, and they would've been crushed like soda cans in real life.
92** Interestingly, a featurette on DVD addresses the whole Artistic License issue. An animator relates a story of one of their consultants talking about the biological inaccuracies in their final fish designs. The animator replied, sheepishly, "Well... in real life they don't ''talk'' either, so..."
93* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: All drains ''do'' lead to the ocean (or at least a river or lake). It's just that raw sewage isn't dumped directly into the water; there are a number of mechanical and chemical processes in the way that, if depicted in the movie, [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath would probably not be pleasant]]. A deleted scene would have had Nemo going through and struggling to dodge the filtration machines, but it was cut out of the film with only a hint given that his small size allowed him to survive.
94* AscendedToCarnivorism: The movie ends with a [[TheStinger Stinger]] of [[spoiler: the little green fish Blenny from the sharks' meeting is the one gobbling up the [[FiendishFish Anglerfish.]]]]
95* AsinineAlternateActivity: Nemo wants to play in a flounder's backyard with three other sea creatures, but Marlin wants him to play on some sea sponges instead. Nemo, however, thinks the sponges seem boring, and the fact that the fish playing on them appear to be the fish equivalent of toddlers and babies doesn't help.
96* AstonishinglyAppropriateInterruption: When Marlin tells a joke to the sharks:
97--> '''Marlin:''' The sea mollusk says to the cucumber... ''(sees the same mask of the diver that took Nemo from him)'' Nemo!
98--> '''Chum:''' ''(laughing)'' Nemo! Nemo! ...I don't get it.
99--> '''Bruce:''' For a clownfish, he's not that funny.
100* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: A comedic example with Mt. Wannahockaloogie.
101* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: "Hello, I'm Dory. What, you want to look for your child? Ummm... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterograde_amnesia Hello, my name is Dory ...]]"
102-->'''Dory:''' Look there's a shiny thing! Hey that looks interesting.
103-->'''Marlin''' Please, Dory try to stay on task
104-->'''Dory:''' It says "P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney" Hmm, I guess it's nothing
105-->'''Marlin:''' No, Dory! That's the mask!
106-->'''Dory:''' Yay! We did it!
107-->-- [[https://open.spotify.com/track/4n11g7lOMMk6iXqWdMD5IH?si=f908bed7f1084a78 Just Keep Swimming]]
108** [[InvokedTrope Deliberately invoked]] by Marlin when he gets Dory to follow him above the trench rather than through it.
109* AxCrazy: Once he is exposed to smelling blood, Bruce loses all judgment and consciousness and becomes an absolutely deranged and homicidal fish-killing machine. Not even his own friends are able to control him. Just imagine [[Film/TheShining Jack Torrance]] as a shark.
110** And given what he is and what happens when they smell large amounts of blood, it's probably justified.
111* BadassOnPaper: Marlin gets through most of his adventures by gumption, desperation, and sheer dumb luck, but as his exploits are recounted over and over he starts to sound more and more badass. By the time the stories get to Nemo, his father is a PapaWolf who has battled sharks and fought off jellyfish.
112* BadassUnintentional:
113** Dory. She just wants to hang out with Marlin.
114** Thanks to [[PapaWolf his hijinks]], Marlin gets this reputation throughout the entire ocean area surrounding Sydney.
115* BaitAndSwitch: While Nemo is PlayingPossum so he can escape the tank, at first it appears the dentist is going to flush him down the toilet and return him to the ocean, but then he turns and it's revealed he's ''throwing Nemo in the trash.''
116* BehindTheBlack: The diver just sort of appears behind Nemo with no one noticing him before then.
117* BewareTheNiceOnes: Dory has this when a crab rudely refuses to tell her and Nemo where Marlin went.
118-->'''Crab:''' [[JerkAss Yeah, I saw him, Bluey. But I'm not tellin' you where he went.]] [[TemptingFate And there's no way you're gonna make me!]]
119-->([[DeathGlare Dory glares at him]], [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment cut to the crab being]] [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique lifted out of the water near a bunch of seagulls.]])
120-->'''Seagull:''' [[CatchPhrase Mine?]]
121-->'''Crab:''' AAH! ALL RIGHT!! I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK! HE WENT TO THE FISHING GROUNDS!!
122* BigDamnHeroes:
123** [[spoiler:Marlin saving Dory in the jellyfish forest, at great risk to his own life.]]
124** The Tank Gang saving Nemo from being killed inside the filter.
125* BigDamnReunion: Given how the plot of the film is Marlin trying to find his son, this outcome was inevitable.
126* BigNo:
127** Marlin at the beginning when the barracuda attacks.
128** Marlin, [[RapidFireNo several times]], when Nemo is taken by the divers.
129** Marlin, when he and Dory are about to be swallowed by a pelican. He goes on to choke the bird out.
130--->'''Marlin:''' NO! I didn't come this far to be breakfast!
131* BlackEyesOfEvil: Bruce, when he smells blood.
132* {{Blipvert}}: A high-speed montage of the beginning of their quest to when they finally reach Sydney plays when Dory remembers the address on the scuba gear.
133* BlownUpwardByABlowhole: Marlin and Dory get swallowed by a blue whale that was trying to gulp up a bunch of krill. Dory is able to communicate with the whale and finds out that it wants them to let go of its baleen and drop further back into its throat. Marlin is initially wary of doing this, thinking the whale just wants to digest them, but he eventually relents and lets go with Dory. The two get spewed out of the whale's blowhole right in Sydney Harbor, which they were trying to reach for most of the movie.
134* BodyMotifs: Three fish characters have an injured or otherwise unusual right fin -- Nemo (in the opening scene), Gill (before he's been introduced), and Dory (during her near-fatal encounter with the jellies).
135* BothSidesHaveAPoint: While Marlin's overprotective and frankly helicopter like parenting is shown as a very destructive and unhealthy coping mechanism, the movie also addresses that needless, possibly overly dangerous risks should also be avoided. While it was mostly in response to Marlin's nagging, attempting to touch the boat and come back was a significant risk which bore a significant cost. Same later with the first attempt to block the filter system.
136* BowelBreakingBricks: Octopus ink.
137* BracesOfOrthodonticOverkill: Darla dons a set of truly scary-looking headgear.
138* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: When Marlin thinks Nemo is dead and leaves Dory. Also with his son before he is kidnapped.
139* BrickJoke: Involving an actual joke--Marlin fails twice at telling a joke before getting it right at the end.
140* CallingTheOldManOut: When his father's paranoia for his well being humiliates him in front of his new friends and makes him feel even more worthless than usual, Nemo angrily looks away from Marlin and mutters [[WhamLine "I hate you."]] The entire movie is hinged on Marlin not wanting that to be the last thing his son says to him.
141* TheCameo / CastingGag: John Ratzenberger has his mandatory Pixar appearance, this time as the school of fish that gives Marlin and Dory directions.
142* CannotTellAJoke: Marlin at the start of the movie.
143* CarnivoreConfusion: "Fish are friends, not food!"
144** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in the case of the pelicans: they eat fish -- but not if they know the specific fish personally.
145* CensorshipBySpelling:
146-->'''Gurgle''': Whatever you do, don't mention D-A-R...\
147'''Nemo''': It's okay, I know who you're talking about.\
148''*Bloat {{dope slap}}s Gurgle*''
149* CheerfulChild: Nemo is quite optimistic and excitable in contrast to his neurotic father.
150* ChekhovsGun:
151** "P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney!" Also, the diver's mask itself.
152** Mount Wannahockaloogie, and the Ring of Fire. Both feature during Nemo's tank initiation, and come back when the Tank Gang need to save Nemo from Darla.
153* ChekhovsSkill:
154** Gill saves Nemo from the first net by having them swim down. Nemo then goes on to use this technique to save Dory and a whole school of grouper fish caught in a fisherman's net.
155** The clownfish's ability to swim through jellyfish unharmed works out for Marlin... [[spoiler: but not for Dory.]]
156** If he gets stung enough, [[spoiler:it even knocks Marlin out.]]
157* ChronicPetKiller: Darla.
158* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Dory. She is the '''QUEEN''' of Cloudcuckooland. Part of it's due to her short term memory loss but anyone who thinks they can speak whale and ask a shark for directions is working on strange logic indeed. Worth noting is that both things [[TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight WORK]].
159%%** Deb/Flo and Bubbles also count.
160* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Poor Marlin.
161* TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight: Dory really can speak whale.
162* ComeWithMeIfYouWantToLive: "Hop inside my mouth if you want to live."
163* CompanyCrossReferences:
164** [[Franchise/ToyStory Buzz Lightyear]] appears as one of the toys in P. Sherman's waiting room, a boy can be seen reading a [[Franchise/TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible]] comic book, and [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Mike Wazowski]] appears in the closing credits. As a bit of ContinuityNod, he's wearing some of the items he used to protect himself from Boo in his apartment.
165** On the Disney side of things[[note]]while Disney always worked with Pixar on their feature films, this was from before they bought them[[/note]], the original 2003 widescreen DVD's menu has Dory mentioning she always wanted to see ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}''.
166* TheComplianceGame: When Marlin and Dory are surrounded by jellyfish, he determines that they need to bounce on the tops of the jellyfish to reach safety. To prevent Dory (who has a very short attention span) from dawdling, he makes it into a race.
167%%* CoolTeacher: Mr. Ray.
168* CopycatMockery:
169** After the sharks say the pledge about fish not being food, Chum mockingly pretends to be a dolphin because he thinks dolphins are too self-centred, thinking they're cute and wanting to flip for humans.
170** When Marlin asks the school of charade-doing fish for directions, they form his shape and mockingly say, "Would somebody please give me directions?!" Marlin says, "I'm serious!", but they stay in his shape and chant, "Blah blah blah, me-me blah, blah blah blah blah me-me-me!". Marlin swims off to complain and in the background, they're still in Marlin's shape, mocking him.
171** When Dory says she "really, really" thinks they should swim through, not over, the trench, Marlin says, "And I'm really really done talking about this".
172* CoverVersion: A cover of Jack Lawrence and Charles Trenet's "Beyond the Sea" as performed by Robbie Williams appears in the ending credits.
173%%* CrazyPrepared: Gill.
174%%* CreativeClosingCredits
175* CreatorCameo: Director Andrew Stanton is the voice of the gnarly Crush and the lobster with the Boston accent.
176* CreditsGag: At one point during the end credits, [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Mike Wazowski]] swims by in scuba gear and waves to the audience.
177* CryingCritters: Dory bursts into tears when she thinks Marlin doesn't like her anymore.
178* CrypticBackgroundReference: Due to Dory's bad case of anterograde amnesia, she doesn't remember much about her past life, but the things she remembers subconsciously, such as the fact that she knows how to read and the fact that she [[TalkingInYourSleep sleep talks]] about events that happened before she met Marlin, implies that her life must've been interesting.
179* CubCuesProtectiveParent: When Marlin slaps away a baby jellyfish with his tail after it stings Dory, the swarm of adult jellyfish immediately start swimming toward them.
180* CueTheFlyingPigs: Marlin early on says that he'll ask a sea turtle how how old he is after he talks to the shark, definitely sarcastically thinking he would never meet either either.
181* CurbStompCushion: Marlin's fight against the barracuda goes very poorly, with the creature immediately knocking him out before (presumably) eating Coral and the eggs. However, Marlin does manage to dodge the barracuda's bites and even briefly stuns it before then.
182* CurseCutShort: "We are swimming in our own shi-" "Shh! Here he comes!"
183* DamselInDistress: Dory, three times. The first time is when she gets trapped in the jellyfish forest while racing Marlin out of it. He gets out, then [[OhCrap realises she isn't there]] [[spoiler:and rushes back in to save her. The second time is when Marlin abandons her after crossing the DespairEventHorizon and Nemo comes across her by chance. The third time is when she's caught in the net at the fishing grounds.]]
184* DangerouslyGarishEnvironment: The "Drop-Off" has a beautiful pink anemone, bright green seaweed, and other colourful flora. It's also home to a predatory fish, who [[MissingMom eats Nemo's mother]] and destroys most of her eggs.
185* DavidVersusGoliath: Marlin tries to face off against the barracuda to protect his wife Coral and their eggs. Though he [[CurbStompCushion dodges its bites and briefly stuns it]], the barracuda knocks him out a few seconds later.
186* DebatingNames: At the beginning, Marlin and Coral are debating what to name their unhatched children. Marlin wants to name half of them (presumably the boys) Marlin Jr. and the rest Coral Jr., but Coral wants to name one of the sons Nemo. When a predatory fish eats all but one of the eggs, and the resulting child is a boy, Marlin names the son Nemo.
187%%* DeadpanSnarker: Marlin.
188* DeclarationOfPersonalIndependence: Nemo tries to prove to his {{Helicopter Parent|s}} Marlin that he doesn't need to baby him, even though Nemo was born with a gimpy fin. He eventually does.
189* {{Dedication}}: The film is dedicated to Glenn [=McQueen=], an animator who passed away from melanoma before the film's release.
190* [[TheElevatorFromIpanema The Dentist's Office From Ipanema]]: When Nemo first arrives in the tank.
191* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment
192-->'''Dory''': [[AndCallHimGeorge I shall call him Squishy]], and he shall be mine, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs and he shall be my Squishy]].
193* DepthDeception: Dory and Marlin try to speak to a small fish while looking for directions to Sydney. Turns out, it's not small, so much as ''[[Series/FatherTed very far away]]''.
194* DerailedForDetails / CannotTellAJoke:
195-->'''Marlin''': All right, I know one joke. Um, there's a mollusk, see? And he walks up to a sea, well he doesn't walk up, he swims up. Well, actually the mollusk isn't moving. He's in one place and then the sea cucumber, well they . . . I mixed up. There was a mollusk and a sea cucumber. None of them were walking, so forget that I --
196* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Marlin, when he and Dory return to the sea after he believes Nemo to be dead, and Dory, after Marlin leaves her.]]
197* {{Determinator}}: Many characters in the movie, but especially Marlin, Dory, and Gill.
198-->'''Nemo:''' How many times have you tried to escape?
199-->'''Gill:''' Eh, I've lost count. Fish aren't meant to be in a box, kid. It does things to you.
200* DevastatingRemark: When Marlin says to Dory, "I don't want you with me", she bursts into tears, thinking this means he doesn't like her.
201* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler:Gill's plan to escape to the sea actually ''succeeds'' in the end. Too bad he forgot that they'd all be stuck in plastic bags once they got there.]] It's a hilarious reveal in that most of the audience probably didn't think it through, either.
202-->'''Bloat:''' Now what?
203* DidYouDie:
204-->'''Turtle''': ''(to Marlin)'' Mr. Fish, did you die?\
205'''Dory''': Sorry. I was a little vague on the details.
206* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Downplayed at first with Nemo as he tries to avoid Darla by playing dead, but is seen doing so by Marlin and Dory. Upon his return to the ocean, he finds Dory who then takes him to Marlin. Then played straight with the same character after he convinces Dory and a school of fish, who have just been caught in a big fishing net, to swim down together.]]
207* DistressedDude: Nemo, who is captured at the beginning and trapped in an aquarium for most of the film.
208* TheDitz: Dory, ''in spades''. Also, to a lesser extent, Deb.
209* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
210** The group of sharks who have sworn off eating fish is played as if it were an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or similar drug rehab group, complete with pledge ("Fish are friends, not food"), 'steps' and interventions if one of the members has / looks like they're going to fall OffTheWagon.
211** Marlin and Dory are [[spoiler:hanging on to the whale's tongue]] as it rises out of the pool of water [[spoiler:in its mouth]] vertically like the stern of a sinking ship, the two trying not to let go until it becomes apparent they have to. [[Film/Titanic1997 Hey, wait a minute...]]
212* ADogNamedCat:
213** As [[LampshadeHanging Nigel the pelican points out]], Marlin bears the name of "some kind of sport fish". Marlins are a subtype of billfish that are related to swordfish.
214** Likewise, Dory is a blue tang, not a dory fish.
215* DownerBeginning: The film opens with Marlin and his wife Coral happily discussing their future. Then comes a barracuda, and Coral dives down to try and save her eggs. Marlin gets knocked away, and wakes up to find his wife and all but one of his eggs are gone. [[TearJerker Here, have a tissue.]]
216* DramaticIrony: Marlin sees Nemo in the bag, thinking he’s dead, unaware he’s only faking it.
217* TheDreaded: Everyone in the fish tank fears Darla because she overexcitedly shakes the bag until whoever's inside dies.
218* {{Duck}}: It's not a duck, it's a PELICAN!! Cue an OhCrap.
219* DumbBlonde: Inverted with Dory, as in-universe, being blue is possibly the equivalent of being blonde (as she mutters "I'm a natural blue" in her sleep). This could possibly also apply to Deb as well, as she thinks her reflection in the tank is her "twin sister" Flo.
220* EarlyBirdCameo: Luigi from ''Franchise/{{Cars}}'' makes a brief appearance when the aquarium fish are escaping. The boy in the waiting room on Escape Day is reading a [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Mr. Incredible]] comic.
221* EarWorm: Dory's SurvivalMantra "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!" Marlin gripes that it's going to be stuck in his head.
222* EatMyDust: When Marlin and Dory race through the jellyfish, Marlin tells Dory "You're about to eat my bubbles!"
223* EatTheCamera: SubvertedTrope: When Bruce is dragging Marlin and Dory to his friends Anchor and Chum, we get a shot from Marlin's perspective zooming into Anchor's open mouth, making it look like Marlin's about to be eaten, only to cut to the next scene at the last second and revealing that Marlin is OK.
224* EitherWorldDominationOrSomethingAboutBananas: "He either said to move to the back of the throat, or he wants a root beer float."
225%%* EggEatersAreEvil: The DownerBeginning sees Marlin's wife Coral try to protect their brood of eggs from a barracuda. She and all but one of the eggs die in the attempt, explaining why Marlin is so protective of Nemo. Notably, real-life barracudas [[ArtisticLicenseBiology don't have much of a taste for eggs.]] -Unlaunched trope
226* EldritchOceanAbyss: Marlin and Dory accidentally swim into deep waters and encounter an anglerfish, which almost eats them.
227* ElectricJellyfish: While no electrical energy is actually seen, the jellies make electrical crackling and zapping sounds [[RuleOfPerception when they sting]].
228* EmpathicEnvironment: When Marlin [[spoiler:has crossed the DespairEventHorizon]] it's suddenly cloudy, contrasting with many other scenes in the film, particularly happy ones such as when he and Dory are riding the EAC and it's clearly sunny.
229* EruditeStoner: Crush.
230* EurekaMoment: Two.
231** Marlin gets one when he remembers the tops of jellyfish don't sting.
232** [[spoiler: Dory gets a big one near the end when her memory returns.]]
233* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Upon learning Nemo is from the ocean, the rest of the Tank Gang are in marvel, and Bubbles wants to know more:
234-->'''Bubbles:''' Wow, "the Big Blue"... what's it like?
235-->'''Nemo:''' Um... big. And... blue?
236-->'''Bubbles:''' I knew it!
237* ExplainExplainOhCrap:
238** "It's morning, everyone! Today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean, and we are getting out of -- (gasp) ''the tank is clean.'' '''The tank is CLEAN!'''"
239** "That's not a duck, it's a... pelican!"
240* ExplosiveBreeder: As shown in the opening, Marlin and Coral had at least 400 eggs. Sadly, only one -- Nemo -- survived the barracuda attack.
241* FaceOfAThug: The sharks, especially Bruce. Subverted that Bruce becomes dangerous if he smells blood.
242* FailedAttemptAtDrama: Not ''entirely'' failed, since it ends up being quite dramatic, but Nemo's initiation into the "Bond of Fraternal Tankhood" at Mount Wannahockaloogie initially hits a snag when Jacques, who has been tasked with starting "The Ring of Fire" (or rather, the bubbles from a fake underwater volcano), doesn't pay attention to Bloat's dramatic opening speech and misses his cue.
243* FakingTheDead: Nemo does this so he can avoid being given to Darla. While the dentist falls for it, Marlin sees this and believes he's actually dead.
244* FamedInStory: The story of Marlin's quest to find his missing son becomes legend, and Marlin himself is elevated to the status of folk hero.
245* FathersQuest: When Nemo gets taken away by a human, Marlin goes off to travel from the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney and back in a mission to find and rescue him.
246* FeatherFingers: Nigel. And, of course, virtually every character has fin fingers.
247* FiendishFish: The barracuda that ate Nemo's mother and all the other eggs.
248* FireForgedFriends: Marlin and Dory start off at odds because of Marlin's frustration at Dory's [[ForgetfulJones forgetfulness]], but the various misadventures they get into over the course of the movie eventually result in them becoming [[PlatonicLifePartners best friends]].
249* FirstDayOfSchoolEpisode: Nemo has his first day of school and gets lost.
250* FiveSecondForeshadowing:
251** "You're going to get stuck out there, and I'm going to have to get you before another fish does!" Turns out other fish are the least of Marlin's worries.
252** An overhead shot of the trench Marlin and Dory encounter shows a fish skeleton [[spoiler: that obviously fell from ''above'' the trench, not from within it.]]
253** Moments after Nemo swims up the filter tube, the pebble he used to jam the filter moves briefly. Moments later, the pebble comes loose.
254* {{Flanderization}}: Bubbles goes from being another fish with an eccentric personality trait like the rest of the Tank Gang for most of the film, to pretty much being reduced to a fish who can do nothing other than babble about bubbles in the final scene -- even when Peach is the last to cross the street into the harbor, all he does is mumble about bubbles.
255* ForDoomTheBellTolls:
256** This film does a variation on the trope. When Nemo is first captured and the boat sped away, the score plays a deep, haunting, and monotonous harp strike to simulate a ringing church bell.
257** In addition, the fishing boat [[spoiler:that caught Dory and a school of groupers]] has a small bell at the end of its crane that rings as the crane is lifting up. [[spoiler:However, the crane is successfully destroyed by all of the fish that forcibly swam down.]]
258* ForebodingFleeingFlock: Dory and Marlin are arguing that it's just as good the whale they were trying to talk to swam away, since he might have been hungry. Dory counters that whales only eat krill. Cue a cloud of krill swimming past them with a whale's open maw right behind them.
259* ForeignExchangeStudent: Squirt the baby sea turtle becomes one at the end of the movie.
260* {{Foreshadowing}}:
261** Marlin mentions seeing a whale (or pretending to) in the opening scene. [[spoiler:He and Dory are taken to Sydney in the mouth of one.]]
262** When Marlin and Dory are about to be eaten by the whale, Dory mentions that whales don't eat clownfish, but krill. Sure enough, it turns out [[spoiler:the whale wasn't actually going to eat them, but instead took them to Sydney.]]
263** The journey to school foreshadows the meeting with Bruce, Anchor and Chum in the submarine and the ride with the sea turtles on the EAC. See also TemptingFate below.
264** When Bruce is first seen, he turns around for a second and then [[JumpScare snaps his teeth right in Marlin and Dory's faces]]. He later goes into a feeding frenzy after smelling Dory's blood and tries to eat her and Marlin.
265** Bruce mentions to Marlin and Dory that they wouldn't want the "balloons" (mines) around his base to "pop". Guess what happens later on.
266** [[spoiler:Marlin has to rescue Dory from the jellyfish forest when she gets trapped and fails to make it out. Marlin and Nemo then have to rescue Dory and a whole school of fish when Dory gets caught in the net.]]
267** A subtle one. The first time Nemo tries to jam the filter, it takes him two attempts. The first attempt to jam the filter fails when the pebble comes out. The second attempt is successful.
268** "All drains lead to the ocean." [[spoiler:During Darla's visit, Nemo manages to get back to the ocean when Gill sends him down the dentist's spit sink.]]
269** While this was not the original intention, Dory wondering where her family is and when she asks Nemo if they are searching for his dad or her dad at the end, foreshadows [[WesternAnimation/FindingDory the sequel]].
270* FreezeFrameBonus:
271** During Gill's ImagineSpot on their escape plan, one of the cars driving by is the Pizza Planet truck from ''Franchise/ToyStory'', continuing their tradition of putting it in every Pixar movie.
272** One of the other cars that pass is an early version of Luigi from ''Franchise/{{Cars}}''.
273* FrenchAccordion: An accordion riff plays when Jacques the shrimp is introduced, to go with his French accent.
274* FunWithFlushing: Nemo's escape plan is to play dead and get flushed, because "all drains lead to the ocean". Many have pointed out that in reality, a fish would not survive the trip, as it would be ground up during the sewage treatment process, leading some to joke that the title should have been "Grinding Nemo".
275** Being Pixar, the creators had in fact painstakingly researched the Australian sewer system in order to show Nemo avoiding the perils therein, but the sequence was cut for time.
276* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
277** There are actually quite a few. A good one is when Marlin is trying to tell his joke at the start. Nemo at first has an 'Oh, boy' expression, then an embarrassed and apologetic smile.
278** A meta example occurs on the 2-disc DVD introduction: whilst Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich are talking about the included bonus features, in the background you can see John Lasseter waving and then miming diving over a rail.
279* FunnyOctopus: One of Nemo's classmates is a young, somewhat nervous octopus ([[BowelBreakingBricks "Aw, you made me ink!"]]).
280* FurryReminder: "[[BringMyBrownPants You guys made me ink]]."
281* GeniusDitz: Dory, who knows how to read human writing and understands whale language and knows about whales in general. "Don't worry, whales don't eat clownfish, they eat krill."
282* GenkiGirl: Dory whose perkiness and high energy buoy all her friends in rough times, or just annoy them.
283* GenreBusting: It's a road movie/coming of age/thriller/animal comedy/prison escape/surf movie.
284* GentleGiant: Bruce and the whale.
285* TheGhost: Nemo and Marlin's gossipy neighbor, Sandy Plankton, is mentioned quite a few times during the movie, but never appears.
286* GirlishPigtails: Darla.
287* GoodScarsEvilScars: Gill has extensive scarring on the right side of his body, mostly over his face (but [[EyesAreUnbreakable leaving his right eye intact]]) and his right fin (now as useless as Nemo's one) from a failed escape attempt, adding to his grizzled, fierce personality.
288* GossipEvolution: How the news of Marlin's adventure gets around - by the time the news reaches Nemo, he sounds considerably more badass than he really was. For example, he scared away the three sharks when Dory accidentally launched a torpedo. Nigel reports that he "blew them up".
289* GratuitousFrench: Jacques, the shrimp who speaks almost nothing but French. First time you see him, a stereotypical little accordion ditty plays. The one exception counts as GratuitousEnglish: when Jacques is leading Nemo to his induction into the Tank Gang, he at first says "Suivez-moi", which Nemo doesn't understand, so he has to repeat it in English: "Follow me".
290* GrillingTheNewbie: The other fish in the tank ask Nemo endlessly about the Ocean.
291-->'''Bubbles:''' "The old big blue, eh? What's it like?
292-->'''Nemo:''' "It's [[ShapedLikeItself big... and... blue]]?"
293-->'''Bubbles:''' "I ''knew'' it!"
294* GuileHero: Gill, even though his plans (almost) always fail. He's atypical in that he appears somewhat uncomfortable in this role: he's ashamed of himself after [[spoiler:Nemo almost gets filleted by the tank filter while partaking in one of his plans.]]
295* HandicappedBadass:
296** Despite his deformed fin (caused by the barracuda cracking his egg before he was born), Nemo remains a dauntless {{Determinator}} who never gives up on trying to escape the dentist's tank and eventually [[spoiler:saves a group of fish from a fishing net.]]
297** Gill. Extensive scarring on his right fin makes it as useless as Nemo's atrophied one. That doesn't prevent him from being a sort of mentor to Nemo.
298** In spite of Dory's short-term memory loss, as Marlin tells her later in the movie, he would never have got to Sydney without her. She is also the one who faced down the grumpy crabs to find out Marlin was at the fishing grounds.
299* HeartbeatSoundtrack: Heard very briefly during the fight in the dentist room when Marlin sees [[DramaticIrony what he thinks]] is Nemo lying belly-up and dead.
300* HeresJohnnyHomage: When Bruce is going AxCrazy and chases Marlin and Dory, the second they leave out the escape hatch he busts down the door and calls out, "HEEEERE'S BRUCEY!!!!!"
301* HeroicResolve: A notable instance by Marlin during the scene where him and Dory get snatched up by a pelican and are about to be swallowed. Instead of escaping their predicament through frenzied planning or sheer luck as they have throughout their adventure, an exasperated Marlin just braces his fins against the pelican's throat and chokes the pelican from the inside, determined to ''not'' have traveled across the ocean just to get eaten.
302* HeroicSacrifice:
303** Marlin's wife Coral faced down a barracuda to protect her eggs. [[SenselessSacrifice It was all for naught]], as she and all the eggs (barring [[SoleSurvivor Nemo]]) got eaten offscreen.
304** Subverted with Gill. [[spoiler:When Nemo is in danger of being shaken to death by Darla, Gill launches himself out of the tank - despite needing to be in water to survive - and onto her head to get her to let Nemo go. As they both lie on the dentist's table, Gill knocks Nemo into the sink to freedom. Fortunately, the dentist puts Gill back in the tank a few seconds later, saving his life.]]
305* HeyYou: Marlin is seldom addressed by name in the film. In Dory's case, it's likely because she can't remember it (she does in the sequel) while all the other characters don't know him well enough.
306* HoldYourHippogriffs:
307-->'''Gill:''' It'll be a piece of kelp.
308* HollywoodDarkness: Played straight in the whale's mouth.
309* HollywoodDensity: In the final scene where the aquarium fish finally escape, the water in their bags somehow floats above other water in the ocean.
310* HopeSpringsEternal: After they have escaped from a hungry shark and massive minefield explosions, Marlin and Dory are temporarily knocked out. Marlin is anxious to find his missing son, Nemo, but now he has lost his best clue for finding him - a scuba mask inscribed with the address of the diver who captured Nemo. Dory helps Marlin find hope. Discouraged, Marlin says, "That was my only chance at finding my son; now it's gone!" But Dory is not so easily deterred. "Hey, Mr. Grumpy Gills," she says. "When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim."
311* HopeSpot: When Nemo is about to be fished out of the tank and given to Darla by the dentist, the entire tank gang race to save him by dragging the net out of the dentist's hand. [[spoiler:They succeed in freeing Nemo, but ''the instant'' they start celebrating, the dentist puts Nemo in a bag and drags him out anyway.]]
312* HumansAreCthulhu: Played with: to the fish on the reef and in the ocean, humans are regarded as a source of fearful awe, bizarre and mysterious creatures (not helped by their "butts" and diving costumes) who occasionally snatch them up at will. To the fish in a dentist's fish tank, however, humans are familiar enough to be regarded as more a source of free entertainment than anything else (except the little one who upsets them by knocking on the side of the fish-tank with her finger and kills them by shaking them too hard when they're in the bag).
313[[/folder]]
314
315[[folder:Tropes I-Q]]
316* InfantilizationRetaliation: When Dory tries to adopt a small jellyfish who she names Squishy, she starts babbling to him affectionately, only for him to sting her.
317* IgnorantOfTheCall: Marlin thinks of himself as just a father who is desperately trying to recover his missing son. To Dory, and Nemo, the sea turtles, Nigel the Pelican, the fish in Dr. Sherman's tank, and many, many others, Marlin is a [[TheDeterminator determinator]] who is repeatedly triumphing over unbelievable odds.
318* InexplicableLanguageFluency: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]]
319* InnocentInnuendo: "I'm gonna go touch the butt!"
320* InterspeciesFriendship: Not only do different kinds of fish get along, but they also befriend sea turtles, and even species that otherwise prey on fish, such as sharks and pelicans.
321* ItsAllMyFault: The plot of the film revolves on this trope.
322* {{Jerkass}}: The crab who makes a point of telling Dory -- for ''no reason whatsoever'' -- that although he saw Marlin swimming past, he's not gonna tell her which way he went. [[TemptingFate "And there's no way you're gonna make me!"]]
323* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Gill. He initially comes across as cold towards Nemo when he tells him he has to get himself out of the filter tube when he initially gets stuck in it, and his plan to escape almost kills Nemo, but he's also a PapaWolf to Nemo and comes across as more like the father figure Nemo needed.
324* {{Joke of the Butt}}: Nemo's classmates think a boat is called a "butt".
325* KarmaHoudini: The barracuda and the jellyfish.
326* KeepAway: Around the beginning of the film, a couple of the kids in Nemo's class pull this on another kid.
327* {{Keet}}: Nemo on a good day. The baby sea turtles also count.
328* KilledOffscreen: We never actually see Coral and the eggs get eaten by the barricuda.
329* TheKilljoy: Nemo's father Marlin complains a lot and often disallows things because he feels they're too dangerous. This is due, in part at least, [[FreudianExcuse to his wife dying when Nemo was still an egg]].
330* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Implied with Sandy Plankton. He claims sea turtles live to be a hundred years old, and once saw a boat and called it a butt. Of course, both of these facts are wrong. Marlin lampshades this at the end: "Who is this Sandy Plankton who knows everything wrong?"
331* KnownByThePostalAddress: The diver who took Nemo has his name and address written on the mask that fell overboard; P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. It provides Marlin with the only clue as to the whereabouts of his son. Dory, who suffers from short-term memory loss, is surprised that she is able to remember the full address, and recites it constantly on their way to Sydney.
332* LandDownUnder: The film is set in equal parts between the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney. Naturally, Marlin and Dory arriving in Sydney is accompanied with [[EiffelTowerEffect an establishing shot of the Opera House.]] All the human characters have Aussie accents, as well as a few odd animals (like Bruce and Nigel).
333* LanguageBarrier: Humans can't understand fish, and ocean fish can't understand English. Ones raised in captivity can, like the Tank Gang, and [[CrypticBackgroundReference so can Dory]].
334* LaserGuidedKarma:
335** The {{Jerkass}} crab refuses to tell Dory, for no reason at all, which way Marlin went after she meets up with Nemo. [[BewareTheNiceOnes In retaliation]], [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique she lifts him out of the sea near some seagulls]] to force the answer out of him.
336** Not much, but the dentist hits his head and Darla gets squirted in the face with water.
337* LawyerFriendlyCameo: "The Prime Minister" makes a brief appearance as one of Dr. Sherman's patients. [[note]]For the record, the Prime Minister at that time would have been John Howard, whose electoral district actually was located in Northern Sydney.[[/note]]
338* LethallyStupid: Darla is actually a relatively normal girl (except for the braces), what makes her an antagonist is her bad habit to shake her fishes like crazy. This is justified, however, by how young and hyperactive she is.
339* LightIsNotGood: The anglerfish's light may look inviting but it leads to frightening teeth.
340* LivingEmotionalCrutch:
341** Marlin to Dory. Being with him somehow cures her amnesia.
342** And the other way around, as Dory's optimism, easy-going nature and encouragement helps rein in Marlin's neurotic side and keep him focussed.
343* LocalReference: Director Andrew Stanton is from Rockport, Massachussetts, so he included several references to it, including lamp replicas of two lighthouses in nearby Thacher Island and a photograph of "Motif Number One", a local landmark, as well as lobsters with thick "Bahston" accents and local slang ("Wicked").
344* LopsidedDichotomy: Dory translating whale speech:
345-->"Okay, he either said, 'move to the back of the throat,' or he 'wants a root beer float'."
346* LostInTranslation: The joke with the fish calling a boat a "butt" naturally loses its point in many other languages, and the joke is left to rely on a funny pronounciation.
347* TheLostLenore: The death of Coral and most of their children weighs heavily on Marlin and is the reason why he is so protective of Nemo.
348* LuringInPrey: Marlin and Dory fall for an anglerfish's lure after they escape the sharks, leading to a tense chase sequence.
349%% * ManicPixieDreamGirl: Dory to Marlin.
350* MassOhCrap:
351** Nemo, and then the rest of the Tank Gang, have one during the first attempt to jam the filter when the pebble slips out of place and it starts working again, ''with Nemo still inside it''.
352** The Tank Gang have this reaction again the second time Nemo tries to jam the filter, knowing what almost happened the first time.
353* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: The whale and jellyfish are seen in the background far before they become relevant in their respective scenes.
354* MeaningfulEcho: Lots. It is a Creator/{{Pixar}} film, after all.
355** "All drains lead to the ocean."
356** "Just keep swimming," and "Swim down."
357** "You think you can do these things, but you ''can't'', Nemo!"
358** "Trust me on this."
359* MeaningfulName:
360** A dory is a small fishing boat.
361** The Mako shark is named Chum.
362** Bruce is both the stereotypical term for any Australian male, and the nickname given by the ''{{Film/Jaws}}'' team to the mechanical shark they used.
363** Nemo is the name of the famous undersea captain in ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea''. It's also the name of [[ComicStrip/LittleNemo a little boy who goes on fantastic dream adventures]].
364** A marlin is a type of billfish. While Marlin the clownfish doesn't resemble his namesake in looks, billfish are notorious for their highly-stressed temperament- so much so that even being removed from the water can cause them to die of panic.
365* MemeticBadass: Marlin ends up as one in-universe as tales of his journey filter through the ocean and become larger than life.
366* MinorCharacterMajorSong: With both Bruce and Crush being OneSceneWonder characters, they both get catchy, show stealing numbers in the stage musical despite only appearing for those songs. ([[https://open.spotify.com/track/18BXTfLQtl5VWW1aAKkPJM?si=1accdd6a50924876 Fish Are Friends Not Food]] and [[https://open.spotify.com/track/3ruVpEHpuRyiWIihq9DhlE?si=9f7019db0f5a49b6 Go With The Flow]] respectively)
367* MissedHimByThatMuch: After Nemo escapes the fish tank, he comes out of the pipes not even ten seconds after Marlin has passed.
368* MissingChild: Nemo the baby clownfish gets captured by divers, leading his nervous dad Marlin to look for him.
369* MissingMom: Coral is this to Nemo thanks to the barracuda. We also only see the fathers of Sheldon, Tad, Pearl and Squirt, but no sight or word of their mothers.
370* MistakenForDying: When Marlin and Dory get a look at Nemo playing dead, they are convinced he actually is dead before the dentist shoos Nigel away and that's when Nemo wakes up.
371* MistakenForFlatulence: When the sea mine field where the sharks live explodes, a bubble from the blasts breaks on the surface, right beside a pelican. His companion looks at him with a disgusted expression and flies away.
372* MobileFishbowl: In TheStinger Gill, Deb and the other captives in the dentist's fish tank use the fact that they've been put in clear baggies of water while the tank is being cleaned to make their escape to the sea. This involves bopping the baggies forward through a building and across a busy roadway. [[spoiler:Good news: they succeed. Bad news: they have no idea how to get out of the baggies.]]
373* MonstersAnonymous: The shark's support group is Fish Eaters Anonymous.
374* MoodWhiplash:
375** Before and after the opening titles.
376** "Good feeling's gone."
377** A triple case of it in the jellyfish forest scene. It starts off with an OhCrap from Marlin and Dory, then it turns to excitement and joy when Marlin has his EurekaMoment and they start racing each other to see who can get out of the jellyfish first, [[spoiler:then it turns to fear and desperation when Dory gets trapped and Marlin has to rescue her and save them both.]]
378* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting:
379-->'''Chum:''' Humans! [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Think they own everything.]]\
380'''Anchor:''' [[TakeThat Probably]] [[EagleLand American.]]
381* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
382** Gill, when Nemo is almost killed trying to carry out his escape plan.
383--->'''Nemo''': Gill, I'm sorry I couldn't stop the--\
384'''Gill''': No, kid, ''I'm'' the one who should be sorry. I was so ready to get out, so ready to taste that ocean, I was willing to put you through harm's way to get there. Nothing should be worth that. I'm sorry I couldn't get you back to your father, kid.
385** Marlin, after manipulating Dory into going over the trench rather than through it after she expresses unease at doing so, is clearly left feeling rather guilty after she gets injured by the jellyfish who were lurking above the trench.
386* MyNaymeIs: Three of the main characters have normal human names (Marlon, Dori, Gil) spelled differently to have a nautical theme (Marlin, Dory, Gill).
387* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: Jokes about Marlin being a clownfish.
388* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nemo had absolutely no intention of actually swimming out to the boat, until Marlin intervenes and scolds him for it, finally pushing him over the edge enough to swim out and touch it.
389* NoAntagonist: Dr. Sherman, the dentist, genuinely loves his niece Darla and wants to give Nemo to her as a pet; even his accidental fishnapping was done because he believed Nemo would die in the ocean. Likewise, the fish belonging to Darla, Dr Sherman's niece, didn't die because of any malicious intent, but more due to her hyperactive overexcitedness at having fish as pets.
390* NoCartoonFish: Aversion; all fish in the movie are anthropomorphised to a certain extent (except [[PredatorsAreMean the barracuda and the anglerfish]]).
391* NoisyNature: The carnivorous fish, like the barracuda and the anglerfish, let out monstrous growls and roars while chasing the protagonists to [[RuleOfScary show how scary they are from the smaller fish's point of view]].
392%%* NonSequiturThud
393* NoodleIncident: "Hey, that snail was about to charge."
394* NothingIsScarier: This movie has this trope down to an art. The best example is the scene with the anglerfish.
395%%* ObliviouslyEvil: Darla can be seen as this.
396* ObsessivelyOrganized: When Gurgle learns that Nemo is from the ocean he immediately gets Jacques to clean him. Also is visibly shaking and really nervous when the tank is really dirty for their escape plan, finally snapping and exclaiming
397--> '''Gurgle:''' DO YOU REALISE WE ARE SWIMMING IN OUR OWN-
398--> '''Peach:''' Shhhh!!!!
399* OceanOfAdventure: Marlin is forced to undertake a perilous journey away from the Great Barrier Reef to find and rescue his son, Nemo, who is abducted by human divers. His journey takes him and his friend Dory from the reef to an Alcoholics Anonymous-esque support meeting for sharks, down to the inky darkness of the deep ocean where they run into a nightmarish anglerfish, through a jellyfish forest and the East Australian Current, to talking to a whale.
400* OhCrap:
401** Marlin and Coral upon seeing the barracuda watching them.
402** Bruce's first appearance.
403** Bruce [[UnstoppableRage smells blood.]] The other sharks yell "INTERVENTION!"
404** Later at the end of scene, when the sharks see [[SeaMine just where the torpedo is going...]]
405** Marlin and Dory seeing the submarine falling towards them.
406** When Marlin realizes that the pretty light is attached to a monsterous fish, he says "Good feeling's gone."
407** Marlin and Dory when they suddenly see they're surrounded by jellyfish.
408** Marlin when he realises that while he made it out of the jellyfish forest, [[spoiler:Dory didn't.]]
409** Nemo, then the rest of the Tank Gang, when the filter starts working again with Nemo still inside it.
410** Getting gulped by the whale. [[spoiler: Fortunately, he was just giving them a ride to Sydney Harbor.]]
411** "THE TANK IS CLEAN!"
412** "That's not a duck, it's a... pelican!"
413** Everyone yelling, '''''[[TheDreaded "DARLA!"]]'''''
414** Dory's angry face as she hoists the uncooperative crab to the surface next to the seagulls, after he refuses to tell her Marlin was at the fishing grounds.
415* OhNoNotAgain: PlayedForDrama when Nemo goes ''back'' to jam the filter and [[MassOhCrap everyone else in the tank panics]], remembering his close call last time.
416-->'''Bloat''': Not again!!!
417* OnlySaneMan: Marlin and Gill, compared to their respective companions.
418* OneWordVocabulary: Bubbles the yellow tang in the fish tank. While in the movie he has a few other lines, in the stage play they're reduced to only saying "Bubbles!" with the script providing translations for the actor to add inflection.
419* OrphanedPunchline: Marlin proves that, despite what all the other fish think, not all clown fish are funny.
420** One of the bonus features of the DVD are 10-15 different punch lines that were considered for the closing scene. Good times, good times.
421* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Nemo is Marlin's only surviving child out of hundreds, who were all eaten as eggs by a barracuda, along with [[MissingMom their mother Coral.]] For some time later in the film, Marlin thinks Nemo is also dead, causing him to have a HeroicBSOD.
422* PapaWolf: Marlin. Shark, anglerfish, jellyfish, pelican, human... He will topple the food chain to get his son back. Also Gill towards Nemo.
423* ParentalBonus:
424** The sequence with the vegetarian sharks is an obvious reference to AA meetings.
425** After Nemo jams the filter: "Everybody else, be as gross as possible. Think dirty thoughts. We're gonna make this tank so filthy the dentist will HAVE to clean it."
426** When the Dentist shows up to see how gross the tank is, we get this little gem:
427-->'''Peach:''' Okay, nine o'clock, and... cue dentist!\
428''Doorbell rings, dentist enters''\
429'''Dentist:''' Hello, Barbara. Sorry I'm late.
430* ParentalSubstitute: Gill acts as something of a surrogate father to Nemo while in the tank.
431* ParentalLoveSong: In the stage musical version, Nemo's solo songs progress from wanting his dad ("Where's My Dad?"), being upset that his dad won't find him ("Not My Dad"), to being joyful and hopeful that his dad is coming for him ("That's My Dad").
432* ParentsAreWrong: Nemo wants to be more adventurous but his dad Marlin is overprotective. Nemo ''does'' find himself in risky situations, but nevertheless the aesop of the climax is that Marlin needs to let go and allow Nemo to have more freedom.
433* PetsAsAPresent: Nemo is threatened with being given as a present to Dr. Sherman's niece Darla. This is rather unfortunate as Darla keeps killing her fish upon receiving them after shaking their plastic bag too hard.
434* PlayingPossum: Nemo does it when Darla arrives so he can get back to the ocean. [[spoiler:When Marlin and Dory witness, they think he really ''is'' dead.]]
435* PlayfulPursuit: At the beginning of the film, Marlin and Coral are chasing each other around and teasing each other about the day they met.
436* PleaseDontLeaveMe: Dory to Marlin, [[spoiler:when they see Nemo playing dead and think he ''is'' dead]].
437* PlotTriggeringDeath: In a rather roundabout example, Coral's. Her death happens some years before the actual story, but hadn't it been for that, the plot wouldn't have happened, at least not the way it did.
438* PostWakeUpRealization: The Tank Gang's second attempt at escaping the tank by jamming the filter so they'll have to be taken out while it's cleaned works up until a new filter gets installed overnight. The morning after this happens, Peach wakes up and ''does'' notice that the tank is clean despite their efforts, but she doesn't realise the implications for a few seconds.
439* ProtectionInMouth:
440** Dory and Marlin are at the mercy of the seagulls, when Nigel the pelican realizes he is looking at Nemo's dad. He flies over and tells them to [[ComeWithMeIfYouWantToLive hop inside his mouth if they want to live]]. Nigel scoops up both Dory and Marlin in his beak along with a swig of water and flies away. Keeping Dory and Marlin safe in his pouch, he gets them away from the seagulls and where they need to be.
441** Early in the film, a whale 'eats' Dory and Marlin seemingly for natural reasons. By the end of their trip, it turns out he chose to only hold them in his mouth, and the climactic 'swallow' was rather him sending them out the blowhole to their destination.
442%%* PsychoStrings: Played whenever Darla looks at the camera.
443* PunctuatedPounding: A rare example of the dialog and pounding coming from different characters:
444** '''BANG''' Sorry about '''BANG''' Bruce, mate! '''BANG''' He's really '''BANG''' a nice guy!
445** I have to get out of here! '''BANG''' I have to find my son! '''BANG''' I have to tell him how! '''BANG''' old! '''BANG''' sea! '''BANG''' turtles! '''BANG''' are! '''BANG'''
446* PunnyName: Nemo's name means "no one" in [[BilingualBonus Latin]], which means the movie is called "Finding No One".
447* TheQuest: While it's not a perfect [[Literature/TheSevenBasicPlots Booker's Quest]], it does meet plenty of the specifications: Monsters (angler fish), Temptations (Bruce delays then, when they get back on track, turns deadly), Dangerous Terrain (mines, jellyfish), Deadly Opposites (Marlin even ignores the guides!), the Journey to the Underworld (the whale), then the halfway arrival where the heroes realize the task is even harder than imagined. Not to mention Dory's role as Anima and how ''she'' is the one who first connects with the prize.
448[[/folder]]
449
450[[folder:Tropes R-Z]]
451* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Crush is 150, and still young, dude.
452* RegainedMemoriesSequence: Dory gets separated from Marlin and forgets their adventures together, but then she finally meets Nemo and suddenly remembers everything.
453* ReminderFailure: This is a running theme with Dory in ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', who suffers from short-term memory loss and repeats words or sentences to herself in an attempt to retain information.
454** When told by some friendly mackerel to go "through a trench, not over it", she repeats the phrase to herself a few times but immediately forgets it (mostly) when they encounter the trench. Although she has a nagging feeling that they should go through the trench, she is easily convinced to go over it.
455** Whilst travelling with Marlin she continuously repeats the phrase "P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney" and manages to remember it the entire journey -- even using it as a SurvivalMantra while [[spoiler:stung to near-unconsciousness by jellyfish]]. But after [[spoiler:Marlin tells her to leave after believing Nemo was killed]], Dory becomes so upset she tries to say the address one more time and fails to remember past the number 42.
456** Dory keeps [[AccidentalMisnaming misremembering Nemo's name]]. Over the course of the film, she manages to call him Chico, Fabio, Bingo, Harpo, and Elmo. Marlin keeps correcting her but it never sticks - to the point that when Marlin has stormed off on his own and Dory runs into Nemo, her initial reaction to his introduction is "Nemo?... That's a nice name!"
457* RepeatedCueTardyResponse: When Nemo is about to be inducted into the fish tank's fraternal bond, the ceremony taking place atop Mount Wanna-hock-a-loogie.
458--> '''Bloat:''' ''If'' you are able to swim through...the Ring...of ''Fire''!\
459''(Nemo looks confused as nothing happens)''\
460'''Bloat:''' ''(aside)'' Turn Pon the The Ring of Fire. ''The Ring of Fire!''\
461'''Jacques:''' Oh! Yes... ''(starts spinning the wheel to make bubbles burst out of the mountain)''\
462'''Bloat:'''You said you could do it- The Ring of Fire!
463* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Marlin thinks he lost hope and can't reunite with Nemo anymore when he saw him belly-up in the plastic bag in the dentist's chair; [[LittleDidIKnow little did he know]], Nemo was only ''pretending'' to be dead so he won't be given to Darla.
464* RiddleForTheAges: As seen in TheStinger, the Tank Gang were able to escape after the [=AquaScum=] 3000 stopped working. It's never revealed how Gill and the others were able to break it; it's even possible they had no plan and the [=AquaScum=] happened to break on its own despite its lifetime guarantee.
465* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Nemo and espicially the baby sea turtles.
466* RoadTripPlot: It's underwater so there aren't any roads, but otherwise the trope is played straight.
467* RoundaboutShot: Seen briefly on Nemo when Dory recognizes him and finds him.
468* RousseauWasRight: There are certainly characters in the film who are harmful -- the barracuda at the beginning, the [[LuringInPrey angler fish]] and the seagulls; the {{Threatening Shark}}s at first; the jellyfish; and of course Darla and to a lesser extent Dr. Sherman the dentist. But there are none who are ''malicious'', nobody who [[ThenLetMeBeEvil has explicitly chosen to hurt others]]. In contrast, there are large numbers of characters who are happy to help both Nemo and Marlin -- including the sharks and Nigel the pelican, both of whom are predators and would have at least fleeting thoughts of filling their stomachs (and they nearly do get eaten by another pelican).
469* RuleOfCool:
470** Turtles don't actually travel in groups, but in the words of Stanton himself, "But it was just too cool and it helped the story along. We don't address it in the script, but they're all off to Hawaii to go surf."
471** Also, American lobsters with Bostonian accents near the Australian Coast.
472* SapientEatSapient: Nearly every form of animal life, aquatic or otherwise, is capable of speech with one another. There are more than a few lampshades about the CarnivoreConfusion that arises from being able to converse with one's favored prey.
473* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Marlin and Dory. One is grumpy and grounded while the other is perky and optimistic pushes him forward.
474* SayMyName: Marlin screaming Nemo's name several times while and after Nemo is kidnapped.
475** [[spoiler:Marlin screams Dory's name three times when he races back into the jellyfish forest to find her, and a fourth time when he sees her trapped.]]
476** And then later in the dentist's office [[spoiler:when he sees Nemo playing dead in the bag and thinks he really is dead]].
477* ScarsAreForever: The ones on Gill's face that he apparently got from trying to escape the tank.
478* SeaMine: A whole minefield of them too.
479* SearchingForTheLostRelative: Marlin is looking for his son Nemo after Nemo is taken by divers.
480* SecretMessageWink: Nemo pretends to go belly-up in his plastic bag to avoid being gifted to Darla. The other tank fish freak out at first, but are quickly calmed when Nemo discreetly winks at them.
481* SequelHook: Not intentionally written as one at the time, but this single line had the crew realize the massive storytelling potential for one:
482-->'''Dory:''' I suffer from short-term memory loss. It runs in my family. At least, I think it does... [[WesternAnimation/FindingDory where are they...?]]
483* ShipTease: Dory and Marlin.
484* ShortCutsMakeLongDelays: Marlin swimming over the scary-looking trench rather than through it leads to an encounter with jellyfish.
485* ShoutOut: See [[ShoutOut/FindingNemo here]].
486* ShownTheirWork:
487** The entire Pixar staff had to take a graduate class in fish biology before making the movie.
488** Many psychologists and neurologists say Dory's amnesia is the most accurate portrayal of real-life anterograde amnesia in film.
489* SimultaneousArcs: Most of the movie splits between Marlin in the ocean and Nemo in the tank.
490* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: Not so much the trailers, but the posters, as despite being the title character and the film revolving around him, Nemo himself doesn't appear on most of the film's English posters, not even the [[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71szJGaTf3L._AC_SY679_.jpg main theatrical poster]], which otherwise features most of the cast.
491* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The film has 9:3 male-to-female ratio. The writer explains on the DVD commentary that in fact Dory's role was originally going to be that of a male character until he saw Creator/EllenDeGeneres on television and realised that was the sweet-but-scattered tone he was looking for.
492* SomethingThatBeginsWithBoring: Dory and Marlin play this while swimming through open ocean. Marlin quickly gets fed up as he's literally the ''only'' thing around for Dory to see and her memory problem means she keeps forgetting that she's already used him as her clue.
493* SomewhereAMammalogistIsCrying: A [[GentleGiant friendly blue whale]] gives Marlin and Dory a ride for protection, before sending them on their way by forcing them to the back of its throat to eject them out of its blowhole. Marlin fears they'll be devoured, whereas Dory tells him to trust their giant friend. Marlin, however, was absolutely ''correct''. A Blue whales' esophagus and wind pipe ''are not connected''. By all accounts if forced down its throat they should have been [[SwallowedWhole swallowed alive]].
494* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: At the end, after Gill and the rest of the aquarium fish [[spoiler:have escaped the tank in plastic bags, [[OhCrap then realize they have no way of getting out of the bags]]]], Bloat asks:
495-->'''Bloat:''' Now what?
496* SongOfCourage: From the stage play version, the song "We Swim Together" is about overcoming scary obstacles by working as a team, making it this overlapped with FriendshipSong
497* SpeechImpediment: Darla has trouble speaking with those terrible braces.
498* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Is Gill's name spelled with one or two L's?
499* StagingAnIntervention: The sharks do this when Bruce gets a whiff of blood.
500* StaringKid: The kid in the dentist's waiting room who reacts with horror at the commotion.
501* StealthPun:
502** Nemo attends a school of fish.
503** Crush mentions that "Mr. Turtle" is his father. That would make his name Crush Turtle...or C. Turtle.
504** Deb introduces herself as "your auntie Deb", then introduces her "sister", making them Deb and Flo, or "ebb and flow," the two phases of the tides. Also, "Aunt Flo" is a colloquial term referring to the menstrual cycle.
505* TheStinger:
506** In the last scene before the credits, see all the fish from the dentist office after their successful escape [[spoiler: still stuck in their plastic bags since their plan never got that far]].
507-->'''Bloat:''' [[AndThenWhat ...now what?]]
508** In addition, at the end of the CreativeClosingCredits, we see the timid and small yellow fish who made a brief appearance at the shark scene as one of the "fish friends", coming face to face with the anglerfish in total darkness. At first it looks like the odds are against the little fish's favor...[[spoiler:[[BaitAndSwitch until he proceeds to eat the anglerfish whole.]]]]
509** Then, one additional one for the DVDCommentary...
510--> Alright, so for all of you who made it this far, yes, all two of you, I'll tell you the secret to life. The secret to life is- (cut short)
511* SuddenlyBilingual: Dory, who apparently can read Spanish as well as English (and speak Whale).
512* SureLetsGoWithThat: When Dory hears Marlin's voice and is unable to see him, she asks if he's her conscience. He decides to just play along with her.
513* SurferDude: Crush, and the turtles. Apparently, ''all'' of them.
514** Crush is 150 years old, it's not like he needs to do anything in a rush.
515* SurvivalMantra: Many. The most famous one is 'Just keep swimming', but Marlin deliberately invokes it in one scene while playing it straight for himself. When Dory gets hurt in the Jellyfish fields, he makes Dory repeat where P. Sherman lives, while repeating 'Stay awake!' to himself.
516** "Swim down!" When Nemo is netted in the aquarium and again when the school of fish is caught. Also counts as ChekhovsSkill.
517* SuddenlyFluentInGibberish: Marlin is less then impressed by Dory's claims to be able to to speak whale, especially since it consists entirely of talking really slowly. Somehow, it works. And then Marlin imitates her.
518-->'''Dory:''' Wow. I wish I could speak whale.
519* SwallowedWhole: Marlin and Dory are nearly swallowed whole by a pelican. Fortunately, the pelican chokes.
520-->'''Marlin''': I didn't come this far to be breakfast!
521* SwordfishSabre: At one point, a pair of swordfishes are seen fencing each other while gossiping about Marlin's exploits.
522* SynchronizedSwarming: A swarm of fish does a series of impressions for Dory and becomes an arrow to give her and Marlin directions to Sydney.
523%%* TakeMyHand: Possibly inverted.
524* TemptingFate:
525--> '''Nemo''': Have you ever met a shark?
526--> '''Marlin''': No, and I don't plan to.
527** "If I ever meet a [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld sea turtle]], I'll ask him... [[{{Foreshadowing}} after I'm done talking to the shark, OK?]]"
528** "Yeah, I saw him, Bluey, but I'm not telling you where he went! And there's no way you're gonna make me!" Crab, meet seagulls.
529* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Type 2 - "Dude, Mr. Turtle is my father, the name's Crush."
530* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: The sharks lose all self-control and become violent killers whenever they smell blood.
531* ThisWayToCertainDeath: On the journey to Sidney, Dory and Marlin come across a trench that they can either go through or swim over. Dory is eager to take the direct route because she was told to, but just out of their sight there's a fish carcass lying at the entrance. This is possibly subverted as said fish may have been killed by the jellyfish lurking above (the route they were explicitly told ''not'' to take) and it's carcass simply fell into the trench.
532* ThoseTwoGuys:
533** Anchor and Chum.
534** Downplayed with Gerald (the pelican that tried to swallow Dory and Marlin) and Nigel, who obviously knows him far too well. They were originally supposed to play the trope straight, but most of Gerald's scenes were cut.
535* ThreateningShark: [[SubvertedTrope Luckily,]] the sharks seen here have sworn off fish. Until Bruce [[DoubleSubversion gets a noseful of Dory's blood and goes]] ''[[DoubleSubversion berserk]]''. His friends still tried to stop him, though.
536* ToiletTeleportation: The titular fish plays dead in the hope that he gets flushed back into freedom.
537** One of Gill's many escape plans involves being flushed down the toilet by playing dead. When Nemo tries this it doesn't work (the dentist was going to throw him in the trash), but he does get flushed down the drain of a different appliance in the dentist's office. In this case, it was a carefully developed plan and not PlayedForLaughs.
538* TheToothHurts: When Nigel the pelican flies into the dentist's window, the noise startles the dentist so much that he accidentally forcefully pulls out his patient's bad tooth, putting the man in a lot of pain.
539-->'''Dentist''': Well, uh... that's ''one'' way to pull a tooth. (''chuckles'') Well, good thing I pulled the right one, eh, Prime Minister?
540* TrailersAlwaysLie: A popular scene shown in the commercials was Bruce swimming through some seaweed while saying "We're looking for Nemo!" This was never used in the movie. In fact, the super hyped up sharks in the trailers were just [[OneSceneWonder One Scene Wonders]].
541* TranslationConvention
542* TropaholicsAnonymous: The sharks.
543* TruthInTelevision:
544** Yes, jellyfish really DO travel in big swarms like that.
545** Anglerfish do in fact live deep underneath the ocean and are effective at attracting prey.
546** Humorously enough, not all sharks do in fact eat fish... as the movie would suggest.
547* {{Tuckerization}}: Darla is named for producer Darla K. Anderson, as director Andrew Stanton's revenge for her playing pranks on him.
548* TwoLinesNoWaiting: The two main plots are Marlin and Dory journeying to rescue Nemo and Nemo trying to escape the fish tank with help from his new tank friends.
549* UnderwaterFartGag: When the mines explode, it creates a bubble on the surface, prompting a pelican to think another pelican has farted and fly away unamused.
550* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: ZigZagged with Gill's plan to escape the fish tank, which involves sabotaging the filter so that the dentist will have to clean the tank, during which he'll put all the fish into water-filled bags that they'll use to roll out of the office and to the ocean. The first attempt fails completely, and almost gets Nemo killed. The second time Nemo tries, he succeeds, and the plan seems to be in motion -- until the dentist installs a new filter, wrecking the plan. Nemo still manages to escape down the drain into the sewer system, thanks to a series of events that have nothing to do with the plan. At the end, the new filter breaks, forcing the dentist to clean the tank -- and the rest of the fish finally escape as planned.
551* UnsuccessfulPetAdoption: P. Sherman tries to give Nemo to Darla, but he escapes before she can even take him home. Later, P. Sherman's own aquarium creatures also escape.
552* UnusualAnimalAlliance: Sharks attempt such an alliance with fish, and have support meetings complete with the mantra: "Fish are friends, not food!"
553* VerbingNouny: The title itself, ''Finding Nemo''.
554* VerbalTic: Crush has one, dude.
555* WackyWaysideTribe: The animals Marlin and Dory encounter on their journey.
556* WakingNonSequitur: After the incident with the sharks, Dory wakes up screaming "Look out! Sharks eat fish!" She also has "Zzz... the sea monkeys have my money... Mmm... yes, I'm a natural blue..."
557* WhamLine: Nemo gets fed up with Marlin's overprotective nature at the Drop Off and mutters "I hate you." The pained look on Marlin's face harkens back to film's beginning when he worries about his and Coral's offspring not liking him. Made worse by the fact that these are the last words (other than "Help me!") spoken by Nemo to Marlin before his capture.
558* WasTooHardOnHim: What Marlin feels about Nemo.
559%%* WaterIsAir: Averted.
560* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Remember the Barracuda at the beginning of the film that pretty much [[spoiler: kills Coral and all of her children]], save for Nemo? Never shows up or is mentioned again after that horrific event.
561* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: The good guys are colorful tropical fish. They're threatened by ugly, drably-colored predators with sharp teeth who don't talk. And then there's the sharks, [[CarnivoreConfusion who try to go vegan]], [[OffTheWagon but old habits die hard]]. Interestingly, they ''do'' reference the hypocrisy of humans who think dolphins are cuter than sharks.
562* WhatsAnXLikeYouDoingInAYLikeThis: "What's a couple of bites like you doing in a zone like this?"
563* WhereItAllBegan: It ends in the reef, with the characters doing the same things they did in the first scene, only differently, reflecting how the moral has changed them.
564* WhiteAndGreyMorality: The combination of NoAntagonist and RousseauWasRight results in an optimistic film. Marlin may be a {{Helicopter Parent|s}}, but he [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold means well]] for his son, the titular Nemo. Dory herself is a Ditz, but she comes off as a NiceGirl. Dr. Sherman took Nemo because he mistakenly believed he would not be able to survive on his own with a deformed fin, and Darla is a "fish-killer" because she is a child who doesn't know any better. The sharks are trying to reform, and even then they're [[NiceGuy genuinely friendly]]. The jellyfish and seagulls are too stupid to be evil. The barracuda and the anglerfish, although both vicious killers, are hungry predators by nature, and cannot be faulted for needing food to survive.
565* WhoNamesTheirKidDude
566-->'''Marlin''': So, Mr. Turtle...
567-->'''Crush''': Woah, dude, [[DontCallMeSir "Mr. Turtle" is my father]]. Name's Crush.
568-->'''Marlin''': Crush? Really?
569* TheWindowOrTheStairs: Dory and Marlin come across a chasm. Dory was told that they had to go through it, and she tries to tell Marlin, who ignores her and then tricks her into swimming over it, since it seems much safer. They [[spoiler:end up in a huge swarm of jellyfish, and they both almost die because of the stings]].
570* WolverinePublicity: Bruce (the shark) and Crush (the sea turtle) were both heavily promoted and feature on the movie posters and home video covers. They respectively only appear in no more than [[OneSceneWonder two scenes a piece]].
571* WoundedGazelleGambit: Nemo uses one by faking death to try to get flushed down the toilet. [[spoiler: It fails, for the dentist actually goes to the trashcan, but it works to his advantage as Nigel interrupts and has the bag land on dental tools. Gill then launches Nemo into the spit sink.]]
572* WrongNameOutburst: When Dory and Marlin are trapped in the whale's mouth, Marlin accidentally blurts out Nemo's name and hidden frustrations surface when Dory tries to speak whale:
573-->'''Marlin''': No, no more whale! You can't speak whale!\
574'''Dory''': Yes, I can!\
575'''Marlin''': No, you can't! You think you can do these things, but you can't, ''Nemo''!
576* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: Gill usually calls Nemo "kid" or "Sharkbait." When he uses Nemo's name, it means the kid's in serious danger.
577* YouHadUsWorriedThere: When Nemo jams the filter, [[spoiler:the second time]].
578* YouSayTomato: According to [[TheGhost Sandy Plankton]], a boat is called a "butt", although Nemo's friends could just be misquoting him.
579* YouWontLikeHowITaste: When Marlin and Dory are about to be swallowed by the whale, Marlin grabs one of its taste buds and asks, "How do I taste, huh? Do I taste good?" [[SubvertedTrope However]], this might have not been so effective, as noted in ArtisticLicenseBiology above.
580[[/folder]]
581----
582->''[[Music/RobbieWilliams ♫ Happy we will be beyond the sea\
583 And never again\
584 I'll go sailing\
585 No more sailing\
586 So long, sailing, sailing\

Top