Finding | Nemo -2003- __link__

Unlike the perfect fathers of Disney’s past (think The Jungle Book ’s relaxed Bagheera), Marlin is a deeply anxious, sometimes unlikeable protagonist. He is a helicopter parent trapped in a fish’s body. In 2003, parenting literature was beginning to grapple with the rise of "overparenting." Marlin’s fear—stemming from the brutal opening scene where a barracuda kills his wife, Coral—is visceral.

Pixar walks a tightrope between cute talking animals and brutal marine biology. The film does not sanitize the ocean: finding nemo -2003-

After 60 minutes of building their escape plan, they succeed via a deus ex machina (Nigel the pelican) and a gag (the bag falls into the bay). Their final fate (plastic bags floating in the ocean) is played as a joke, but environmentally, it’s grim. The film never addresses that releasing captive fish into the wild (especially saltwater species into Sydney Harbour) would almost certainly kill them. Unlike the perfect fathers of Disney’s past (think