Finding Nemo bites off an awful lot; it's dealing with single parentage, father-son relationships, unconventional friendships and facing the harshness of the real world, as well as providing an incredibly varied look at the life in ocean. And it all works. From vegetarian sharks who serve as a stop-off on the wider adventure to the blue tang that can read English and speak whale, yet is unable to form any short-term memories, who is so integral she's getting their own sequel (please don't suck), they all fit perfectly. The narrative divide, with son Nemo trapped in a fish tank and father Marlin traversing the ocean to get him back, sounds like two ideas pitched to appeal to children and their parents respectively, yet thanks to both struggling to adjust to life outside of his reef and the typically well-observed interactions between them, everyone, young or old, can find something to love in every single scene. The film has proven to have a stronger legacy than anyone really expected. The strides forward in computer generated water (which was originally so realistic the animators chose to scale it back) opened up a whole new world for CGI exploration, while such a mammoth box office taking (it's still the studio's second highest grossing film) has led to many low-range animation outfits diving into the ocean, with predictably shoddier outcomes.
