Finding Nemo Case

A small voice inside you is repeating itself over and over you can't seem to get it out of your head, it's growing louder, "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. What do we do we like to swim!" This is from a movie you watched the night before about someone whose wife is killed and his son is kidnapped; he fights to the death to find his son with a delusional friend he met on his way. That little voice inside your head is from one of the most common and loved kid's animated film Finding Nemo.

According to Linda Seger's essay "creating the myth" from the book "Signs of Life in The USA" there is a certain guide that many movies follow. This pattern is called the hero's myth, and consists of ten stages (Maasik, 1997). It begins with a hero being an ordinary person, then something dynamic comes into their life that starts the story rolling. Most of the time they are hesitant about starting this journey, sometimes because they are afraid or maybe they have someone where they are that causes them to be uneasy about leaving. The hero on their journey is usually not alone, and often are accompanied by a mentor that can teach them special skills or simply get them to their destination. This companion can be introduced in the beginning or made known deeper into the storyline. The main character is usually the hero, and they start out in a mundane setting. The hero, in the middle of the story, changes from ordinary to extraordinary. After change occurs, various obstacles come in between them and their goal.

At some point in the story they hit rock bottom, then come to the lowest point of their journey where they either feel like giving up or actually do so. Something or someone pulls them out of their rut and one way or another they end up getting their treasure. The hero has a final obstacle to overcome, most likely on their way home from battle. After the trial is overcome a drastic change happens to them. It is a transformation that occurs to all heroes in the hero's myth, and it can spiral up or down.

In "Finding Nemo" we see this similar pattern. Marline (Albert brooks), a clownfish, is the hero in this story that starts off as being ordinary. His wife and most of his children were killed tragically in the beginning of the movie leaving only him and his son, Nemo (Alexander Gould), to live in an anemone located in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Nemo ends up getting captured by a sea diver. He is sold to a pet store, then bought by a dentist, which is where he resides until his dad comes to rescue him. Marline sets off to find his son right away and ends up meeting Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) along the way, and she becomes his friend. Together they fight sharks, jellyfish, and whales to find Marlines son. Marline ends up with his son in the end and Dory becomes part of the family.

Marline lives a boring life with Nemo, but then Nemo has to start school, which is the dynamic change that starts the story. This is a big event for them because they do not go out much. This is due to the fact that Marline watched his wife and all their eggs get eaten, except Nemo. Marline was constantly reminded of it every time he swam outside of his home.

Nemo's first day of school starts when they go to "the drop off," which is the unsafe area where they live. As soon as Marline finds out where they went, he swims as fast as he can to bring his son back. When he arrives he sees that his son is right by the drop off, he gets upset and tells Nemo, "You think you can do these things Nemo, but you just can't" (Stanton, 2003). Nemo tries to show his dad that he is capable of doing more than he thinks, so he swims to touch a boat floating at the surface of the water, which his friends call "the butt." A sea diver sees him and catches him with a net. This is the point in time where Marline becomes extraordinary. In this particular film there is nothing that holds Marline back because he promised Nemo to never let anything happen to him even though he is mortified of the dangers in the ocean.

Marline's mentor is introduced very quickly after Nemo was captured a blue tang fish