Finding Nemo’s Most Heartbreaking Scene Was Almost Worse (& I’m Glad It Was Changed)

Pixar is no stranger to heartbreaking scenes, and Finding Nemo went directly into that in its opening scene, which was almost different and worse, but luckily, it was changed on time. Pixar is known not just because of the high quality of its animated works but because of how almost every movie has, at least, one moment designed to make the audience cry. Movies like Up are best remembered for their most tragic moment(s), but these moments actually serve a purpose in the story, as is the case for the opening scene in Finding Nemo.

Finding Nemo follows clownfish Marlon (voiced by Albert Brooks) and his son Nemo (Alexander Gould). The latter is excited about life and desires to explore the ocean, but Marlin is an overprotective parent. This leads Nemo to have a moment of rebellion that ends up with him being taken by humans, sending Marlin on a desperate search for his son, during which he meets Dory (Ellen Degeneres), a regal blue tang with short-term memory loss. Finding Nemo opens with Marlin’s family tragedy, but this moment was almost different and would have affected Marlin.

Coral’s Death In Finding Nemo Was Originally Revealed Much Later In A Flashback

Finding Nemo Opens With Coral’s Tragic Death

Finding Nemo wasted no time in giving its audience a truly heartbreaking scene. The movie opens with Marlin and his wife, Coral, who live happily on an anemone in the Great Barrier Reef. Marlin and Coral are even happier as they are about to become parents, and the movie shows many, many eggs to hatch. Unfortunately, a barracuda approaches and Coral rushes to protect the eggs, and though Marlin tries to catch up with her, he’s knocked unconscious by the predatory fish. When Marlin awakens, he finds that Coral and the eggs were eaten by the barracuda, and only one, cracked egg remains.

It’s due to this traumatic experience that Marlin becomes fiercely overprotective of Nemo, as he’s the only family he has left. However, Coral’s sacrifice was originally going to be revealed much later in Finding Nemo. Speaking to UNILAD, Pixar animator Jason Deamer, who worked on Finding Nemo, shared that Coral’s death was originally shown through flashbacks and it wasn’t shown at the beginning. After watching the last screening before Finding Nemo was finished, no one said a word and Deamer thought they had made their “first bad movie”.

Luckily, co-director Lee Unkrich stepped in and recut those flashbacks and put them at the beginning of the movie. The scene is the same as it originally was, only that it was placed at the beginning, and with that, the team behind Finding Nemo avoided some major narrative problems that could have affected how the movie was received.

Why The Original Plan For Coral’s Death Would Have Affected Finding Nemo

Coral’s Death Was A Key Moment In Finding Nemo

Coral’s death being placed at the beginning of Finding Nemo not only worked in terms of emotional impact but also when it comes to Marlin and his relationship with Nemo. Without Coral’s sacrifice in the opening scene of Finding Nemo, the audience wouldn’t have known why Marlin was so overprotective and could have even been perceived as annoying, making it hard to root for him on his journey to find his son. Coral’s death helps viewers understand Marlin and his relationship with Nemo, which wouldn’t have been the same had it been revealed later in the movie.

Source: UNILAD.