Directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich, Finding Nemo is a family comedy starring a fish. More specifically, that fish's name is Marlin.
After losing Coral, his "mate"/"wife" and all but one of their eggs to a vicious barracuda, Marlin names the surviving egg "Nemo", one of Coral's favorite names. Years later, he takes Nemo to his first day at school and embarrasses him in front of his classmates. Defying his father, Nemo swims out away from the reef into the open ocean and is instantly swept up by a boat and sent off to Sydney, Australia.
Marlin then embarks on a quest to find his son, slowly working his way toward his objective with his companion, Dory, a blue tang with short-term memory loss. The two fish encounter many obstacles along the way, including sharks, whales, and, of course, a lack of direction. They meet friends along the way though, most important of which being a group of hippie turtles who accompany them in the final stretch to Sydney.
Meanwhile, Nemo and his fellow fish in a dentist's office plot their escape before they are destroyed by the dentist's demonic daughter. Fortunately, one of their numerous plans succeeds, and they escape into the open ocean. What a surprise! A happy ending!
Finding nemo easily achieved the feat of highest grossing opening weekend for an animated feature, raking in $70,000,000. Totaling over $850 million, it, as of March '04, is one of the top ten highest-grossing films ever.
Finding Nemo also sports a colorful cast. Playing the part of Marlin is Albert Brooks. Born into a Jewish family in Beverly Hills, California, in 1947, he had relatively famous parents and siblings, setting him up for a celebrity lifestyle. Brooks originally went to Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, but dropped out to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. He later directed six short skits for Saturday Night Live and directed many fairly unsuccessful films. He then began voice acting for various films, Finding Nemo being by far his most successful. Brooks also played the main antagonist in The Simpsons Movie in '07.
Playing the part of Dory is Ellen DeGeneres, another stand up comedian. Born in Metairie, Louisiana, DeGeneres graduated from Atlanta High School, and majored in communications at the University of New Orleans. She, after stints as a waitress, clothes seller, house painter, hostess, bartender, dancer, and oyster shucker, finally became a stand up comedian. Working her way up to well-known comedies such as "The Tonight Show", DeGeneres later hosted the popular sitcom "Ellen". During the sitcom, she "came out of the closet" and made it public that she was a lesbian, while her character in Ellen did the same. After the coming out episode, the show began to falter and was canceled after four seasons. She then returned to stand-up comedy and later became a talk show host. Later, she hosted the failed "The Ellen Show", and turned to voice acting and played the part of Dory in Finding Nemo.
Overall, Finding Nemo is a fascinating movie with a very colorful cast behind it despite first appearances.
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