ay you're a clownfish living in the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia. Say you've been captured and have ended up in a dentist's aquarium. Could you count on your dad to rescue you?
So which parts of the movie are fact, and which parts just don't float?
National Geographic Kids went down under to find out.
MMM...SCRAMBLED EGGS!
Like a real clownfish, Nemo's dad, Marlin, tries to defend his nest when a vicious barracuda plows in for a feeding frenzy. Do barracuda really have a taste for eggs? Nope, says ichthyologist Adam Summers, a fish scientist who consulted on the movie. But once the eggs hatch and the fish get bigger—look out! A barracuda would definitely sample the menu.
LOOK MA—NO CAVITIES!
Yikes! Marlin is trapped in a whale's stinky, slimy mouth! But somehow he survives without getting chomped. How? "Baleen whales have strainer-like plates in their mouths instead of teeth," says Andrew Stanton, the film's writer and director. So it's totally possible Marlin could avoid becoming, uh, ground fish meal.
THANKS A LOT, DAD!
Marlin may seem like a candidate for Worst Father of the Year when he tells Nemo to swim through stinging anemones. Actually, he's protecting his son. By rubbing against the anemones, clownfish develop a special slime on their scales that keeps them from getting stung.
