Movie Review: Finding Nemo

The good thing about learning English from films and movies is that you get to learn real English, not textbook English. You get to hear how people speak in person and you learn words in actual context.

It’s good to start off with something simple but also entertaining to keep your interest going. If you watch something that bores you, chances are you will give up midway. What’s your favourite English film on repeat?

Finding Nemo is a good choice for starters. This 2003 computer-animated adventure film by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures follows the journey of a clown fish named Marlin, who swims far and wide in search of his missing son. It is a feel-good movie loved by children and one that adults will find entertaining.

Marlin lives in an anemone in the Great Barrier Reef. His wife, Coral and most of their eggs are killed in a barracuda attack. Only one damaged egg remains, which Marlin names Nemo.

Over the years, Marlin becomes over protective of Nemo, forbidding him to swim anywhere far.

On the first day of school, the two fight after Marlin embarrasses Nemo. Nemo then defiantly approaches a nearby speedboat and is captured by a pair of scuba divers. Marlin pursues the boat in vain. He meets Dory, a blue tang, who suffers from acute short-term memory loss, who offers her help.

Together, the pair run into all sorts of trouble including an encounter with sharks and a forest of jellyfish, and being swallowed by a blue whale while Nemo ends up in a dentist’s fish tank in Sydney.

The story goes back and forth between Marlin and Dory’s journey and numerous close shaves with death, and Nemo’s futile attempts to escape the dentist’s office. But it is all’s well that ends well when Nemo eventually finds his way back to Marlin, and they find a newfound friend in Dory.

Words and phrases to learn:

far and wide – over a large area

feel-good – causing a feeling of happiness and well-being

defiantly – bold disobedience

in vain – without success

encounter – unexpectedly be faced with or experience something hostile or difficult

back and forth – to and fro

numerous – many

close shave – a narrow escape from serious danger or trouble

futile – pointless

all’s well that ends well – if the outcome of a situation is happy, this compensates for any previous difficulty or unpleasantness

newfound friend – newly found or discovered friend

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