!!Movie
* ActingForTwo: Besides playing Crush, Andrew Stanton was one of the voice actors for the seagulls.
* AccidentallyCorrectZoology: Although the blue whale [[spoiler:that swallows Marlin and Dory]] being portrayed as having a uvula (the grape-like ball that hangs in the back of your throat) was initially seen as inaccurate, [[https://news.ubc.ca/2022/01/20/heres-why-whales-dont-drown-when-they-gulp-down-food-underwater/ the discovery of a similar "oral plug" in many baleen whales that closes their airways off when lunging for food, much like a human uvula, was discovered in 2022]], rendering the addition of the organ somewhat accurate after all.
* CastTheRunnerUp: In the Latin Spanish dub, Alejandro Orozco and Abraham Vega both auditioned for the part of Nemo, but they were passed over for Creator/MemoAponte. Despite this, Orozco and Vega were given the parts of Tad and Squirt instead.
* CelebrityVoiceActor: Besides the ones from the English version:
** In the Japanese dub, Marlin is voiced by the comedian Noritake Kinashi, better known for many non-Japanese players as the creator and voice actor of Norimaro in ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesVsStreetFighter''. Meanwhile, Dory was voiced by actress and essayist Shigeru Muroi.
** In Spain, Anabel Alonso was well known at the time for her role in the Spanish sitcom series ''Siete Vidas'' (Seven Lives) and voiced Dory in the film. Curiously enough, Alonso is much more fondly remembered as Dory than in ''Siete Vidas'' to the point it almost angered fans when Alonso said she almost wouldn't appear [[WesternAnimation/FindingDory in the sequel.]] Her co-stars Santi Rodríguez (Chum) and Blanca Portillo (Peach) appear as well. TV host and occasional actor Manel Fuentes voiced Nigel the pelican. Stage actor and singer Javier Gurruchaga has the [[ActingForTwo double task of voicing both Bruce and Mr. Ray.]] José Luis Gil (Marlin), a veteran voice actor, had his live-action StarMakingRole that same year with ''Series/AquiNoHayQuienViva'' and was heavily promoted as a celebrity too. Ramón Langa (Gill) and Mercedes Sampietro (Coral) are also voice actors but they're recognizable faces too.
* CompanyCrossReferences: In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', one of the bathroom stall doors in Mei's school has Nemo in sticker form.
* CreatorBacklash: A minor one. While Creator/AlbertBrooks enjoyed working on the film and by all accounts was pleasant to work with, he was frustrated by the fact that his voice was recorded in isolation, unlike ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', where he could ad lib off of the other actors. (Albert Brooks riffing with Ellen Degeneres is an admittedly awesome thought.)
* CreatorCouple: At some point after the film was released, José Luis Rivera, the Latin American Spanish voice of the swordfish talking about Marlin, would eventually marry Patricia Palestino, Dory's voice actress.
* CreatorKiller: Not to anyone at Creator/{{Pixar}}, but Disney boss Michael Eisner (erroneously) predicted this film would become Pixar's first BoxOfficeBomb, saying it would "take them down a notch." The film did the exact opposite and took the crown from ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' as the highest-grossing animated film AND became the highest selling DVD of all time, leaving an egg on Eisner's face and Pixar's employees in charge of any renewals to their contracts with Disney. Pixar's disdain for Eisner and this film's success, among other factors, sunk Eisner's career at Disney, which allowed Pixar into the Mouse House fully (Pixar's first bomb wouldn't come for another 12 years, when ''WesternAnimation/TheGoodDinosaur'' was released).
* DescendedCreator: Crush is voiced by director Andrew Stanton.
* DeletedScene:
** A deleted scene had Nemo making it through the sewage treatment plant. According to the DVD commentary, the director cut the scene for two reasons: First, it put too much more focus on Nemo- as Marlin is the main character of the film. Second, it didn't add anything that the rest of the movie hadn't already done; making it just a repeat of the filter scenes.
** In a deleted scene, Nemo finds out Gill made up his backstory by looking at an illustrated book that a patient was reading on the dentist's chair.
* DuelingMovies: With Dreamworks' ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'' and Nickelodeon's ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarepantsMovie''.
* DVDCommentary: While the audiovisual commentary track was an interesting concept, by the time you get to the second or third behind the scenes segment interrupting the movie you can see why future films do not use the technique.
** They do it better in the Blu-Ray edition of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', where the video actually stays in the frame in a picture-in-picture.
* EnforcedMethodActing: On her first take of Dory begging Marlin not to leave her, Ellen [=DeGeneres=], already emotional from the scene itself, was so distraught from having thought she flubbed the line that she was crying by the second. The first ended up being used.
* ExecutiveVeto: According to the DVDCommentary, Roy Disney requested the fishing boat not capsize from all the fish in the net swimming down. Instead, the pulley holding the line breaks off.
* InMemoriam: For Glenn [=McQueen=], an animator who died of melanoma a year prior, making this his last movie. [[Franchise/{{Cars}} Lightning McQueen]] was named in his honor[[note]]Not after Creator/{{Steve McQueen|Actor}}, [[CommonKnowledge as is commonly thought]][[/note]].
* InspirationForTheWork: The inspiration for the film sprang from multiple experiences, going back to director Andrew Stanton's childhood, when he loved going to the dentist to see the fish tank, assuming that the fish were from the ocean and wanted to go home. In 1992, shortly after his son was born, he and his family took a trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (which was called Marine World at the time). There, after seeing the shark tube and various exhibits, he felt that the underwater world could be done beautifully in computer animation. Later, in 1997, he took his son for a walk in the park, but realized that he was overprotecting him and lost an opportunity to have a father-son experience that day.
* KidsMealToy: UsefulNotes/McDonalds released a set of eight toys that could speak or light up when you turned them on in their Happy Meals. A few countries, including Spain and Sweden, offered plushies instead.
* MethodActing:
** Andrew Stanton recorded all of the laid-back Crush's lines literally laying back on a sofa in his office.
** Creator/GeoffreyRush held onto his tongue when recording the scenes where Nigel had Marlin and Dory in his mouth, to make it sound like he talked with his mouth open.
* TheOtherMarty:
** Creator/WilliamHMacy did a complete voiceover job as Marlin, but the brain trust felt the character needed someone more in line with Marlin's ever-manic and worrying personality, and recast the role with Albert Brooks. According to director Andrew Stanton, it "saved the movie."
** Creator/JessHarnell mentioned in a video where he talks about voices he provided for the Ride/DisneyThemeParks that he read for Crush before Andrew Stanton decided to do the character's voice.
* PetFadStarter: After the release of this movie, kids wanted clownfish and others seen in the movie. Ironic, considering half the movie involves Nemo wanting to ''escape'' life in a tank.
* RealLifeRelative:
** Jordy Ranft, the voice of Tad the butterflyfish, is the son of the late Pixar storyman Joe Ranft, who voiced Jacques the cleaner shrimp
** In the Canadian French dub, Nigel and Tad are voiced by Creator/ManuelTadros and Creator/XavierDolan respectively, who are father and son in real life.
* RealSongThemeTune: Music/RobbieWilliams's rendition of Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea" is featured in the film's ending credits.
* ThrowItIn:
** Creator/EllenDeGeneres adlibbed a lot of her lines as Dory.
** Creator/AlbertBrooks fell in love with the Deconstructionist aspect of Marlin - a clownfish who isn't funny - and ran with it. Director Andrew Stanton states "we have about an hour of audio from Albert telling a series of jokes really, really badly. They didn't make any sense, but that was the part that was funny.
* TouristBump: Australia tourism got a boost when this film released, thanks to Sydney being prominently featured in it.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Gill was going to '''lie''' to Nemo about his life in the sea in order to look more impressive. Nemo would then [[BrokenPedestal find out that Gill was lying]] when one of the patients starts reading a storybook about pirates that shared the exact same details. This subplot was cut because it made Gill too unlikeable.
** The death of Nemo's mother and siblings was [[https://www.slashfilm.com/544872/interview-finding-dory-director/ supposed to be slowly revealed]] in flashbacks, and was part of the initial structure of the movie, but was scrapped as the director felt that the audience would catch on what would happen fairly quick and thus, they would be stringing it out longer than necessary; starting the movie with their deaths would immediately justify Marlin's overprotective parenting. Reportedly, this plot structure was one of the reasons Michael Eisner felt ''Nemo'' would bring Pixar back to Earth. The idea of revealing the back story through flashbacks was used in the sequel ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory''.
** In the concept art, Jacques was going to be a snail.
** Crush was originally gonna sound more like an aging hippie.
** Dory was originally intended to be a male character, but Andrew Stanton eventually changed the character to a female while watching an episode of ''Ellen''.
** Creator/WilliamHMacy was originally cast as Marlin, but his recordings apparently were TOO dramatic and not funny enough, so they made the choice to replace him with Brooks.
** In the Latin Spanish dub, Creator/SebastianLlapur revealed during a podcast interview with Creator/Mario Filio that José Lavat and Germán Robles both auditioned for the part of Bruce before he was cast.
** In another interview with Regina Carrillo for her [=YouTube=] channel, Creator/AlejandroOrozco revealed that he, Andonni Sánchez and Abraham Vega had all auditioned for the role of Nemo before Creator/MemoAponte was cast instead.
** Due to Pixar not renewing its seven-film distribution deal with Disney in 2004 that would also give the latter full rights to its properties and sequel production, a sequel called ''Finding Nemo 2'' was intended to be produced by a newly established studio called Circle 7 Animation, along with a very different ''Script/{{Toy Story 3|Circle 7}}'' and a sequel to ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1''. [[https://lostmediawiki.com/Disney_Circle_Seven_Animation_(partially_lost_production_material_of_cancelled_Pixar_sequel_films;_2004-2006) The plot]] would have involved Nemo and Marlin reuniting with another of Marlin's sons who survived the barracuda attack called Remy, only for Nemo to [[SiblingRivalry become jealous]] of Remy's newfound attention. Marlin would have gotten captured and sent to a marine-life institute (befriending a polar bear called Blanca in the process), forcing the two brothers to team up with Dory and a returning Gill to break into the institute and save their father. With the deal falling through in January 2006, and then-CEO Michael Eisner, who Pixar seriously disdained, getting ousted and being succeeded by Bob Iger, Disney would purchase Pixar and give creative control back to them, resulting in the sequel being scrapped. However, ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'', produced in 2016, notably shares some plotlines (such as a character getting captured and taken to a marine-life institute and Dory having lived there during her childhood) with the scrapped sequel. Circle 7 would be shut down two months later, with most of the animators going to either the feature animation department or [=DisneyToon=] Studios.

!!Game
* DummiedOut: Though he [[AdaptedOut makes no appearance in the game itself]], Nigel has an unused model and animations that imply he was meant to be playable at some point in development.
* EarlyDraftTieIn: The game features an entire level about Nemo trying to escape the filtration plant, which is only [[AdaptationExpansion briefly alluded to in the movie itself]]. Nemo's escape was originally intended to be shown in the movie itself, but the scene was cut to put more focus on Marlin and because it was seen as a rehash of the filter scenes.
* TheOtherDarrin: In the tie-in game, Creator/JessHarnell replaces Creator/AlbertBrooks as Marlin and Creator/BarryHumphries as Bruce, and Creator/JenniferHale replaces Creator/EllenDeGeneres as Dory. Bizarrely, Bruce's lines in the movie cutscenes were completely redubbed while Marlin and Dory's lines remain untouched.
* RoleReprise: Most of the movie cast reprised their roles for the game.
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!!Misc.
* Nemo made an EarlyBirdCameo in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'' as a toy. [[spoiler: Boo offers it to Sulley (among other toys) when she finally returns to her room.]]