The Cuteness in “Finding Nemo”

Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studio’s “Finding Nemo” went on to lead all films in 2003 with a still accumulating gross that is currently at $339,424, 646. It is also poised to take over the number seven position on the all-time list of domestic grosses. “Finding Nemo” got to this prestigious position for several reasons, one of them being that they followed the time-tested formula of creating cuteness.

As Harris points out, cuteness is not attached to perfection; rather “it is closely linked to the grotesque, the malformed.”

Our main character, the young Nemo was born with a birth defect. He has a deformed fin, which prevents him from swimming faster or with more power.
It is worth noting that the cause of his defect was the beating he took as an egg while a predator killed his mother and dozens of his unborn brothers and sisters. Harris points out that “cuteness…is also the aesthetic of sleep.” Particularly, Harris points to the “defenseless immobility” of a sleeping character. Even more defenseless and immobile than sleep is being unborn.

Again, in Harris’s words regarding why exactly Nemo, an innocent and deformed youngster is cute, “the grotesque is cute because the grotesque is pitiable, and pity is the primary emotion of this seductive and manipulative aesthetic that arouses our sympathies by creating anatomical pariahs.”
Nemo’s father, ironically named Marlin, is also cute but for a different reason regarding being defenseless. Ever since the scarring incident that took his love and all but one of his children, his has lived in fear of the vast ocean he calls home.

The wide-eyed Nemo who hasn’t yet learned limitations has the fear of his father pounded into him over and over again by hearing such messages as, “You think you can do these things, but you just can't, Nemo.”

However, Marlin has to overcome this fear when his son is taken by scuba divers collecting fish for a pet store. As if Nemo wasn’t defenseless enough with a bad fin and a sheltered childhood, now he’s in a completely different environment that is completely foreign to him.

When Marlin begins his quest he immediately comes across Dory, who will be his cohort throughout the rest of his search. Dory’s debilitating handicap is her very poor short-term memory. Her helplessness is played up almost immediately as she describes her condition, stating, “I forget things almost instantly. It runs in my family. Well, I mean, at least I think it does. Hmmm. Where are they?”Not only is her condition a handicap, but it also led to her getting lost and never again finding her family.

If these lines aren’t enough, there is the pleading speech she makes after Marlin grows frustrated and decides he wants to continue his search alone:

"No. No, you can't. ...Stop! Please don't go away. Please? No one's ever stuck with me for so long before. And if you leave...if you leave... I just, I remember things better with you! … I remember it, I do. It's there, I know it is, because when I look at you, I can feel it. And-and I look at you, and I...and I'm home! Please...I don't want that to go away. I don't want to forget."

Being a Disney film, it was very important that all of the characters be cute and Pixar did this by giving the main characters (and some unmentioned side characters) flaws. Not only flaws, but handicaps that can be defined as grotesque, covering physical, emotional and mental imperfections that prohibits them from having power or even becoming empowered.

Along with Harris’s theory, these handicaps cause the audience to feel sympathy, and therefore, leads the audience to find the characters cute.