Pixar confirms it made last minute Finding Nemo tweak that changed entire film

Finding Nemo creators made a last minute change to the animated classic that change the whole outlook of the film.

Released in 2003, Finding Nemo quickly became one of Pixar's most successful movies and raked in $871 million worldwide - making it the second highest-grossing movie of that year.

But the film might not have ended up so successful if a last minute change wasn't made.

Speaking to LADBible, veteran Pixar animator Jason Deamer said: "Originally you found out [about Nemo's mum's death] through flashbacks.

"We all went to the last screening before it was going to be finished, and we all walked out the theatre and no one was saying anything... [We thought] 'Did we just just make our first bad movie?'."

Deamer went on to say that they were all 'a little concerned' until Lee Unkrick, a former Pixar animator who left the company in 2019, suggested an idea.

"[Unkrick said] 'Let me try something', and he took those flashbacks and he recut them all in the beginning."

Deamer says the small edit 'made the the whole [film] work'.

Explaining why, he went on: "When you didn't know [about Nemo's mum's death] in the beginning, you thought Marlin was an overprotective, annoying character.

"It was the same footage. We didn't animate anything new. [Unkrick] just told the audience that sooner. I know it's heart-wrenching, but otherwise you just didn't empathise with [Marlin's] over protective behaviour."

Watch the opening scene that ended up in the film here:

I think we can all agree that the moment Nemo's mum dies is one of Pixar's saddest scenes (apart from Ellie's death in Up, maybe).

As to why almost all of Pixar's movies have tearjerking scenes, Deamer says it's more than the animator just trying to make you cry.

"It's like a philosophical thing that comes from creative leadership," he began.

Deamer went on to compare many Pixar movies to being like 'the crescendo and pause in classical music'.

"I think just stylistically the creative leads of the studio kind of believe in that approach to storytelling," he continued.

Deamer event admitted that one movie made him 'sob like a baby'.

He revealed: "I've learned that it's way harder to get the underpinning emotion make you care enough to elicit like actual tears. Like that first scene Up - which I didn't work on - but man, I think of that walk up the hill [and I] sob like a baby."

You and me both.

Featured Image Credit: Pixar

Topics: Pixar, TV and Film, Film, News, Entertainment, Disney

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

@NiamhShackleton