Limelight:
A tale of two fishies
By
Lubna Abdel Aziz
"There are 3.7 trillion fish in the ocean, and they are all looking for one fish"; their mission Finding Nemo. Many a man, woman and child, it would seem, have joined the search, purchasing theatre tickets to the tune of $241 million in the US alone, making Finding Nemo the biggest animated feature film to date. With their enormous output of quality features of moral worth it is no surprise that this latest crowd-pleaser was released by Disney Studios. Trusted and true for the better part of the century, the hunt for the perfect idea is a sacred duty at Disney. They have cornered the market with their animated perception, fine sensibility, unequalled imagination and developed experience. That is why the Disney trademark has been a worldwide favourite for generations. Disney has been dazzling audiences and amassing the lion's share of annual box office revenues for decades.
Finding Nemo is an eventful journey of two fish in Australia's spectacular Great Barrier Reef. Diving into a whole new richly detailed underwater adventure, the film tells the story of the clown fish Marlin and his only son Nemo. This funny and poignant fish tale begins with the death of a main character, Nemo's mother, following a brutal shark attack. Marlin vows to protect his only surviving "egg" with his life, and is reluctant to send him off to fish school because he is too independent, curious and daring. Frisky Nemo ventures out on a dare in unsafe waters, and gets captured by scuba divers, ending up in a fish tank in a dentist's office in Sydney. Buoyed by the companionship of a friendly but forgetful blue tang fish named Dory, the overly cautious father embarks on a dangerous trek and finds himself the unlikely hero of an epic journey to rescue his son, who hatches a few daring plans of his own. In the dentist's fish tank Nemo, together with his other fish tank mates plots to escape from his watery jail and return to the safety of his home in the coral reef.
Writer/director Andrew Stanton (Toy Story, A Bug's Life) came up with the ingenious idea while totally consumed with his work at Pixar and feeling guilty for not spending enough time with his own son. Fond childhood memories of his dentist's aquarium served as background inspiration for this fishy tale. How often as a young boy did he stare at the multicoloured tiny tropical fish, dotted, striped, red, yellow, orange, gold, all seeming swimmingly happy in their tank. How often did he imagine their longing to break out of their prison and return to their families in the sea.
The idea of filming water however, was perilous. "Water does not retain its shape in every frame. It keeps changing and that's what makes it so expensive and hard to control." Stanton, now considered one of the most successful screenwriters alive, has found unparalleled success at the animation factory of Pixar. He co-wrote Toy Story I and II, A Bug's Life and Monsters Inc, films with a monstrous theatrical gross of $853 million. Located in the San Francisco Bay area in Northern California, Stanton lives, writes, directs and even acts in his creations for Pixar. This however, is his first sole screenplay credit as he co-directs with Lee Unkrich. Stanton describes his "fish story" as a metaphor for the human condition. Parents are overly obsessed with feelings of protectiveness and anxiety over their children, particularly if they are handicapped. Nemo, the little clown fish has a short fin--a minor handicap amongst fish. Fish parents as well as human parents translate a child's deformity as a reflection of their own shortcomings. "This story says there is no perfect kid, there is no perfect father", explains Stanton.
Pixar animation company's hard work for more than a decade has paid off handsomely, even though catching Fish was no sporting matter. The crew worked overtime to get it just right. Their most useful resource was a series of lectures by Adam Summers, professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of California, Irvine. They learned everything about the different species down under in the deep blue sea -- their names, shapes, colours, characteristics, and even facial expressions. They learned about flappers, rowers, clown fish and blue tangs, their heroes as a well as a supporting cast of sharks, whales, jelly fish, star fish, hog fish, flame fish, butterfly fish, parrot fish, not to mention the humuhumunukunukuapuaa. There is even a penguin thrown in for balance. Scientists have described and named about 21,000 kinds of fish so far, but are still working hard on the rest of them. The Nemo crew, even flew to Hawaii to become certified deep sea divers and installed a huge aquarium that is now the main attraction at Pixar headquarters. Pixar's creative guru John Lasseter boasts: "Never has a subject matter lent itself to computer animation quite like the underwater world of Finding Nemo." Knowing this, a crowded gallery of stars came out to join the search including Albert Brooks, Ellen Degeneres, Willem Dafoe, Elizabeth Perkins and Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush as the petulant pelican. Costing $90 million and two years to make, it has more than doubled its investment in 4 weeks.
You may be wondering why Pixar? What about Disney? Their association is a marriage made in heaven. The Disney company has been entertaining children and their parents since the birth of Mickey Mouse in 1928. Creator Walt Disney who was practically born with the film industry in 1901, studied art in Chicago and joined an advertising company in 1920 where he made cartoon ads for movie theatres. After years of struggle he finally achieved success with a short cartoon about a little mouse which he named Mickey. Disney himself provided the voice for the beloved rodent. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, his first full-length feature, was released in 1937, and remains one of the most popular movies in history. After his death in 1966 his company continued to lead the field in producing quality family entertainment in cartoon or regular features, with real or human animals. It was not long before computers started to become part of the equation. There was precious little time for a million drawings by dozens of artist, for years and years to produce one animated film. Meanwhile in Northern California movie mogul George Lucas of Star Wars fame had established a Computer Graphics Division of LucasFilm Limited headed by one John Lasseter, whom he wooed and won from Disney in 1984. Two years later Apple Computer bought Lucas Animated Division, establishing it as 'Pixar'. Disney signed up with Pixar in 1993 to develop, produce and distribute five completely computer animated feature films. Their first release was Toy Story, 1995's highest grossing film, earning $192 million and a Special Academy Achievement Award for director John Lasseter.
They followed their triumph with four others, A Bug's Life, Toy Story II, which was even more successful than Toy Story I, and Monsters Inc, and now Finding Nemo, which completes the phenomenal association with Disney. Studios, such as DreamWorks, Lucas Films, etc are standing in line to engage Pixar, but chances are Pixar will renew its vows with Disney, and Disney himself will be smiling approvingly from the heavens, blessing the union, which assures him that the majesty of his legacy will remain intact.
Why is it that Disney's latest endeavour Finding Nemo is such a pleasurable experience? Perhaps because man is inexorably drawn to water as by a mysterious electromagnetic force. But then why shouldn't he? Seventy per cent of our planet is covered with water, our bodies consist of 65 per cent water, and the fluid in our blood is almost identical to the composition of sea water, leading scientists to believe that life as we know it, started in the water. So, if we feel like "fish-out-of-water" some of the time, it is conceivable that that is just what we are!
