Pixar's Finding Nemo told of a touching bond between a clown fish father and son. But according to this fascinating excerpt from Stephen R. Palumbi and Anthony R. Palumbi's new hook The Extreme Life of the Sea, Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton bypassed the most intriguing trait of clown fish, which is that they can change their sex. Had Pixar stayed true to clown fish biology, they would have ended up with a quite different story:
The 2003 Disney film Finding Nemo formally canonized the
anemone dweller's adorability. The eponymous clown fish vanishes
from his home anemone, forcing his widowed father to take off after
him. Finding Nemo gets many things right-the anxiety of leaving
home and the obnoxious yelping of seagulls-but it punts away
the most fascinating aspect of clown fish. As sequential
hermaphrodites, they lead unique home lives. All are born male, with
the ability to change sex. Like a wild card, it's only good once: once
males turn into females, they can't turn back into males. The film
supposes a lifelong romance for Nemo's parents, but genuine
clown fish live only as part of larger groups. A handful of fish share
each anemone, all beginning their lives as immature males. The
largest and most dominant male turns into a female; the next-largest
develops functioning testes. She lay eggs, he fertilizes them. The
others bide their time, defending the anemone and the family's
precious eggs. One of the mated pair will eventually die, to be swiftly
replaced by someone down the ladder.
If the matriarch dies, the fertile male who was #2 now takes her place
as #1, metamorphosing into a female himself. A simply hierarchy of
size and strength determines the family's whole structure, conflicting
with the acceptable social norms for children's movies. Finding
Nemo painted a simple picture for more than just the sake of
simplicity: a real clown fish father who lost his mate would not develop
a psychologically complex system of grieving and over protection. He
would simply become Nemo's new mother. Nemo (the only other fish
remaining in the anemone) would rapidly develop mature gonads. He
would become his own father while his father became his mother,
and they would raise little incestuous Nemos together without a drip
of sentimentality. In retrospect, the producers at Disney probably
made the right call.
from his home anemone, forcing his widowed father to take off after
him. Finding Nemo gets many things right-the anxiety of leaving
home and the obnoxious yelping of seagulls-but it punts away
the most fascinating aspect of clown fish. As sequential
hermaphrodites, they lead unique home lives. All are born male, with
the ability to change sex. Like a wild card, it's only good once: once
males turn into females, they can't turn back into males. The film
supposes a lifelong romance for Nemo's parents, but genuine
clown fish live only as part of larger groups. A handful of fish share
each anemone, all beginning their lives as immature males. The
largest and most dominant male turns into a female; the next-largest
develops functioning testes. She lay eggs, he fertilizes them. The
others bide their time, defending the anemone and the family's
precious eggs. One of the mated pair will eventually die, to be swiftly
replaced by someone down the ladder.
If the matriarch dies, the fertile male who was #2 now takes her place
as #1, metamorphosing into a female himself. A simply hierarchy of
size and strength determines the family's whole structure, conflicting
with the acceptable social norms for children's movies. Finding
Nemo painted a simple picture for more than just the sake of
simplicity: a real clown fish father who lost his mate would not develop
a psychologically complex system of grieving and over protection. He
would simply become Nemo's new mother. Nemo (the only other fish
remaining in the anemone) would rapidly develop mature gonads. He
would become his own father while his father became his mother,
and they would raise little incestuous Nemos together without a drip
of sentimentality. In retrospect, the producers at Disney probably
made the right call.
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