Finding Nemo1 is about the traumatic2 separation of a child from his parent. The refreshing difference here is that Nemo dramatizes the anxiety and adventures a parent undergoes searching for his wayward, precious kid. Long before Nemo comes along, Marlin is a fussy3 little anxiety machine . When he learns he’s to be a father — of 400 baby clown fish — he fidgets:“What if they don’t like me?”but he’s right to be concerned for his brood in the fish-eat-fish world of Austria’s Great Barrier Reef. A shark devours Marlin’s wife and 399 of her eggs. That leaves little Nemo — the one survivor, handicapped with an underdeveloped fin — and Marlin, burdened with an overdeveloped sense of dread. When Nemo is old enough for fish school, Dad’s pessimism is again validated: the lad defiantly swims into open water, where he is scooped up by an angler — a dentist, with an aquarium in his office and a nasty, piscicidal little niece he can’t wait to give this cute clown fish to. Marlin, who must now conquer his own fear of the great wet world, has a companion in his search: Dory, a blue tang with a sunny disposition and a short-term memory problem. In their hunt for Nemo , they are aided and threatened by all manner of sea creatures: a menacing anglerfish, some not entirely trustworthy members of Sharks Anonymous, a school of shocking jellyfish and a family of surfer-dude sea turtles. In captivity, Nemo finds his own friends: the starfish, and the tank commander Gill, a tough who mutters4 ,“Fish ain’t meant to be in a box. ”

　　Nemo’s short fin — a deformity that does not slow him down one bit — became , says Stanton,“ a metaphor for anything you worry is insufficient or hasn’t formed yet in your child. Parents think their child’s handicap is a reflection of the parent. 5 They become obsessive and anxious over that, whether it is the child’s ability to read or the way they walk. This movie says there is no perfect kid ; there is no perfect father. ”And no guarantee that parents will ever have the answers. When Marlin asks the sea turtle Crush how a father knows when his kids are ready to swim out on their own, the wise old dude replies, “ Well , you never really know . But when they know , you know — y’know ? ”Finding Nemo is about feeling one ’s way6 to knowing. It’s about letting go and getting back.

　　閱讀自測

　　Ⅰ. Write sentences with the following combinations o f words :

　　1. anxiety searching wayward 2. hunt aid threaten 3. feel one’s way

　　Ⅱ. Question :

　　Is Finding Nemo just a movie about the separation of a child from his father? If not, then what can you learn from it?

　　參考答案

　　Ⅰ. 1. The movie dramatized the anxiety a parent undergoes in searching his wayward kid.

　　2. In their hunt of Nemo, they are aided and threatened by all manner of sea creatures.

　　3. The movie is about feeling one ’s way to knowing. Ⅱ. ( 略)

　　參考譯文

　　海底總動員

　　《海底總動員》講述了一個讓人心痛難忘的父子分離的故事。與以往不同, 電影《海底 總動員》戲劇化了一位父親在尋找自己那倔強而任性的愛子時的焦慮心情和冒險經歷。早 在尼莫出生前, 馬林就是一條動輒大驚小怪、焦慮不安的小丑魚。當得知自己就要做父 親——— 400 條小丑魚的父親時, 他擔憂“ 如果他們不喜歡我怎么辦? ” 在澳大利亞大堡礁這 個魚吃魚的海底世界, 他擔心自己孩子的安全也是合情合理的。一條大鯊魚吞掉了馬林的 妻子和399 個魚卵, 只留下小尼莫這個唯一的幸存者和懷有過度恐懼心理的馬林。尼莫因 一條魚鰭受傷而發育不全。當他到了上學的年齡時, 父親的悲觀思想再次顯示出來。小家伙 賭氣游進了無障礙水域, 在那里它被牙醫捕獲放到了辦公室的魚缸里。牙醫迫不及待想 把這條可愛的小丑魚送給他那邋遢并弒魚成性的小侄女。

　　此刻, 馬林必須戰勝自己對這片遼闊海底世界的恐懼感。在尋找尼莫的過程中, 他結 識了個伙伴兒——— 多莉。多莉是一條性格開朗但有短暫健忘癥的藍色帝王魚。此間, 他們 同甘共苦, 既經受了險惡的琵琶魚, 莫名其妙的鯊魚和一片有毒的海蜇的威脅, 也得到了沖 浪家似的海龜一家的幫助。在魚缸里, 尼莫找到了自己的朋友: 海星和魚缸里的頭兒吉哥。 吉哥是個又硬又臭的角色, 老是嘟囔著“ 魚是不應該呆在魚缸里的。”

　　尼莫的短鰭這一缺陷絲毫沒有減慢它游水的速度。斯坦頓說, 這個短鰭“ 象征了父母 所擔心的孩子身上不夠完善或是尚未充分發展的任何事情。父母把孩子的缺陷歸咎于自 身, 因此他們對于孩子的學習能力甚至走路方式都變得過度擔憂。這部電影告訴我們沒有 完美的孩子, 也不存在無瑕的父親。”沒人會保證父母知道一切。當馬林問海龜“ 龜龜”一 個父親怎么知道他的孩子什么時候能夠獨立的時候, 這位睿智的老“ 沖浪手”回答:“ 你壓 根兒就不知道, 但是當他們知道自己能行的時候, 你也就知道了——— 明白嗎? ”《海底總動 員》體現了一個摸索進步的過程, 是一部有關放手與回歸的電影。