If you grew up in the 90s then it’s almost certain that at some point you watched the ever-popular animated Pixar film Finding Nemo.
Released on May 30, 2003, it was an instant classic both winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and becoming the highest-grossing animated film at the time of its release.
Of all the characters to gain our affection from the film, Nemo, the film’s namesake, stood out the most. What do you remember about Nemo though?
Let’s test our memory by looking into some fun facts about Nemo!
Nemo’s name has an interesting background.
There’s some debate as to the origin of Nemo’s name.
While some claim that it is because his name means “nobody” in Latin, this doesn’t make much sense!
Another theory is that he is named after Captain Nemo, a character from the book 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
Yet another theory is the name comes from his home, the anemone, aka a-nemo-ne.
What do you think?
Nemo is an only child.
Nemo is the son of Marlin and Carol, two clownfish who lived in the Great Barrier Reef.
Shortly after their 400 eggs were spawned disaster struck – a vicious barracuda attacked their home!
During the attack Nemo’s father Marlin is knocked out, and when he awakes he finds the worst possible scenario.
Carol is nowhere to be found, and all but one of their precious eggs were eaten by the barracuda.
Nemo hatches from the last surviving egg as an only child and is raised by Marlin, now a single dad.
Nemo had a very sheltered childhood.
Nemo’s dad Marlin never really got over the loss of Carol and Nemo’s siblings, and this affected how he brought up Nemo.
He became an incredibly overprotective father, forever worried about Nemo’s safety.
Marlin is especially protective of Nemo as during the barracuda attack his right flipper was damaged, causing it to grow much smaller than his left flipper.
Marlin’s style of child-raising causes conflict between him and Nemo, leading Nemo to flare up at him and say that he hates him.
Nemo is stronger than his father could ever have imagined.
Marlin was always worried that Nemo would never be able to swim properly as a result of his damaged flipper.
As a result, Nemo comes to believe that he will never be able to swim like the rest of his friends, nor his father.
When Nemo is captured and transported to the fish tank in the dentist’s office, he gets stuck in the tank’s filter.
With words of encouragement from one of the other fish, Gill, he manages to swim free of the filter.
From this point Nemo begins to realize that it’s possible for him to swim like the other fish, if only he puts his mind to it!
Nemo becomes a successful escape artist.
After Nemo makes friends with the other fish in the dentist’s tank and they learn of his tale, they come up with a bold plan to escape.
Helped by his small stature, Nemo plays a critical role in the plan by clogging up the water filter with a pebble, with the hopes of escaping while the tank is being cleaned.
This plan ends up failing miserably, as a newer and much more sophisticated filter is placed in the tank.
In a dramatic twist, Nemo ends up being placed in a plastic bag to be given to the dentist’s niece.
In a last-ditch effort, he plays dead, and despite nearly being thrown in the trash he manages to escape through a drain which leads out into the sea.
Nemo showed such incredible growth throughout the film, going from an insecure yet rebellious child to a brave and compassionate friend.
Many children were so fond of the character that they begged and pleaded their parents to buy them their very own Nemo for their fish tanks!
