Hi all!

Welcome to Day 29 of the 30 Day Disney Blogging Challenge! It all ends tomorrow! 

For the last two days of the challenge, I wanted to discuss my actual favourite Disney films of all time. As this was too difficult to choose, I split them between Disney Pixar and Disney Classic. I don’t think there is a single Disney Pixar film I don’t like. I even love the short films beforehand. The animations are fantastic, the jokes hilarious and the outtakes at the end, are always a nice touch. It makes our characters seem that much more real. I remember when this film was released in 2003 (14 years ago!) I loved it so much. It speaks to me more than the other ones, touches my heart and makes me laugh. I am talking about:

FINDING NEMO!

Finding Nemo starts off incredibly sad. Clownfish couple, Marlin and Coral are about to become parents to hundreds of unborn children, when a vicious barracuda attacks their home. Marlin survives but the barracuda eats Coral and all of the fish eggs, except one. Marlin names his only child Nemo, promising that nothing will ever happen to him. Losing one child is horrible enough but hundreds, plus your wife? I was crying the first five minutes of the film!

We flash-forward to Nemo’s first day of school, where widower Marlin is extremely apprehensive. Nemo has a deformed fin, that is smaller than the other one, due to the barracuda attack. Marlin is concerned that he will be made fun of or worse, come to harm. I really like the scene where Marlin tries to tell a joke to the other parents (assuming he is funny because he’s a clownfish) but completely fails. Nemo and the other students leave for school on Mr. Ray but Marlin follows to check on his boy. Nemo, who is trying to impress his friends, swims out into the open ocean, where a boat is bobbing nearby. Marlin catches him and the two begin to argue. Nemo yells out that he hates his father. In defiance, Nemo touches the boat and at that moment, is captured by a diver and taken away. Marlin swims through the ocean, shouting to anybody that will listen if they saw which way the boat went.

Then he meets Dory…

Dory is the most lovable character, in my opinion. She suffers from short-term memory loss, which makes most of her dialogue hilarious. Together, Dory and Marlin face off against sharks (“Fish Are Friends, Not Food”), jellyfish, whales and more, to locate Nemo, who has been taken to the address: P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. This has become one of the most famous fictional addresses in film history. Dory repeats it so many times, in order to remember it. To get to Sydney, they need to travel on the East Australian Current – the EAC – which involves riding on the groovy turtle, Crush.

I think another reason why I love this movie so much is it features so many Australian voice-actors and references. It feels like home when I watch it.

In the meantime, Nemo has been placed inside a fish tank, in a dental office. Little does he know, he has been promised as a gift to P. Sherman’s niece, Darla, who treats her pets appallingly. There he meets Gil, Jacques, Bloat, Bubbles, Peach, Gurgle & Deb. Knowing Nemo’s fate, Gil and the team propose an escape plan that involves Nemo jamming the filters in the tanks. It fails the first time.

One of my favourite scenes, that always has me in fits of laughter, is when Dory attempts to speak ‘whale’, believing she is fluent. Her exaggerated words and strange noises are so funny. She actually can speak whale but her efforts don’t amount to much. Both of them are swallowed up by the whale, along with lots of krill.

Inside the whale, Marlin feels like a failure. He didn’t keep his promise of never letting anything bad happen to Nemo. Dory explains that Nemo isn’t living if nothing ever happens to him. The whale spits them out and news travels across the ocean about the brave little clownfish looking for his son. It eventually gets back to Nigel, the pelican, who hangs around the pier. Nemo hears from Nigel about his father’s adventures. Inspired by the news, he tries jamming the tank again. It works! This causes the tank to become very dirty. The fish need to be placed in plastic bags whilst it is cleaned, giving Nemo a chance to escape out the window and back into the ocean. However, Darla arrives eager for her new ‘fishy’ before they can escape.

By this time, Marlin and Dory have arrived at their destination. They meet Nigel, who carries them in his mouth to the window sill of the dental office. Nemo pretends to be dead so he can get flushed down the toilet but at that exact same moment, Marlin sees him. Overcome with grief, he goes back into the ocean. P. Sherman goes to place Nemo in the bin but Gil intervenes, giving Nemo the chance to escape down the drain. He is finally free and back in the sea! Meanwhile, Dory has parted ways with Marlin but is finding that without his company, she is remembering things less and less. She meets Nemo but can’t place that he’s Marlin’s son. All of a sudden, she reads the word Sydney on a pipe and it all comes back to her. Her and Nemo race through the ocean to find Marlin again.

Nemo and Marlin’s heart-warming reunion is short-lived, when Dory gets caught in a fishing net. Nemo has a plan to rescue her but Marlin hesitates, scared he will lose his son again. He takes a leap of faith, allowing Nemo to do what he needs to. The plan is successful and Dory is released from the net. From that moment forward, Marlin is much more relaxed around his son. Dory enjoys accompanying Nemo to school and hearing all of Mr. Ray’s fun facts about the sea. Before Nemo leaves for school, he swims back to Marlin and says ‘I love you Dad.’ As you can probably guess, that line always renders me a sobbing mess!

This lovable Pixar film definitely highlights environmental concerns around marine life. It has now been predicted that we will have fishless seas by 2048, if things continue the way they have been. This is very scary. Please respect our beautiful oceans by not polluting them. 

Honourable Mention

Toy Story

What is your favourite Disney Pixar film? Why? Tomorrow is the last day of the 30 Day Disney Blogging Challenge!

Peace & Love xoxo