Shortly after the Ocellaris clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) and his wife Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), move in to a new home, Coral is killed by a barracuda along with all of their eggs, except for one. Marlin finds that egg and promises it he will never leave it, naming it Nemo as suggested by Coral. The egg has been damaged in the attack.
Some time later, Nemo (Alexander Gould) begins his first day at school, but is frustrated and embarrassed by his overprotective father. Marlin has constantly warned Nemo about the dangers of the ocean because he himself fears them, and also because one of Nemo's fins is much smaller than the other due to the damage to his egg. Disobeying his father in order to show him that these fears are unfounded, Nemo deliberately swims out to open water; in the process, he is captured by a scuba diver. Marlin races after the diver's boat but quickly loses it. As he desperately searches for help, he bumps into Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a regal tang who suffers from short-term memory loss, but is nonetheless relentlessly optimistic in contrast to Marlin. The pair soon encounter three dieting sharks, Bruce, Anchor and Chum (Barry Humphries, Eric Bana and Bruce Spence respectively), who are members of "Fish Eaters Anonymous," an organization modeled after AA.
Marlin and Dory inadvertently spark Bruce into a feeding frenzy and are forced to flee into a deep trench, only to be nearly eaten by an angler fish. Here they find a scuba mask dropped by the diver and discover that Nemo has been taken to Sydney, Australia, and Dory surprises herself by being able to remember the address written on it. A passing school of fish (one of whom is voiced by John Ratzenberger) gives them directions to get there via the East Australian Current, and also advises them to go through the trench that leads to it. However, Marlin disregards this warning and leads Dory over the trench, where she is stung nearly to death by a mass of jellyfish.
Meanwhile, Nemo is placed in a fishtank in a dentist's office. The dentist, who captured him earlier, plans to give Nemo to his niece Darla (Lulu Ebeling) as a birthday present; the other fish in the tank fear her greatly, knowing her tendency to handle fish so roughly that they die. Their leader, Gill (Willem Dafoe), a Moorish Idol, has been plotting a mass escape and calls on Nemo to jam the tank's water filter. The first attempt fails, nearly costing Nemo his life, and Gill apologizes for endangering him for personal gain.
Marlin and Dory are found by a group of sea turtles who are riding the East Australian Current, and Dory makes a full recovery. As he befriends the turtle Crush and his son Squirt, Marlin tells some of the sea turtles about his reason for venturing so far from home. His story travels among the sea creatures, eventually reaching Nemo via a friendly Brown Pelican named Nigel (Geoffrey Rush). Nemo is inspired by this account and makes a second attempt on his own to jam the filter, this time meeting with success. The tank begins to get dirty, and the fish hope that the dentist will take them out so he can clean it; once they are in individual plastic bags, they can roll out the window and into the harbor. However, while they are sleeping, he installs a high-tech filter to keep the tank clean automatically, foiling their plan.
Marlin and Dory are swallowed by a blue whale, which delivers them safely to Sydney. Confronted by a pelican and a flock of hungry seagulls in the harbor, they are rescued by Nigel, who takes them to the office as the dentist removes Nemo from the tank and puts him in a bag. When Darla arrives, Nemo pretends to be dead, hoping that he will be flushed down the toilet and thus be able to reach the ocean. Marlin and Dory are shocked to see Nemo belly-up and believe he is truly dead. After they and Nigel are thrown out the window, Gill helps Nemo escape down the drain of the dentist's sink to the ocean.
Deeply depressed in the belief that his rescue attempt amounted to nothing, Marlin thanks Dory and tells her he is going home on his own. Dory, however, is reluctant to be left by herself again, claiming that she can remember things better when he is around. Marlin still swims away to go home, leaving Dory hopelessly lost and confused. A chance encounter with Nemo jogs her memory and she is able to reunite him with Marlin. Moments later, Dory is caught in a fishing net along with a school of grouper. Nemo has an idea to save her by telling the fish caught in the net to swim down, a trick the other fish in the tank had tried to use to save him from being scooped up in the dentist's net. Though Marlin is afraid to let him go out of fear of losing him again, he realizes that he has to let Nemo take this chance. The maneuver works, freeing Dory and the grouper, and Marlin reconciles with Nemo and apologizes for being overprotective.
Once they have returned home, Marlin is able to let Nemo "go have an adventure" at school, and he impresses and wins the respect of his neighbors for going across the ocean to find his son. In the epilogue, the automatic cleaner/filter in the dentist's fish tank breaks down, forcing him to put all the fish in plastic bags while he cleans it out; they soon reach the ocean, but are, hilariously, still stuck in their bags. |
