BAWNTAMEENA -- Nearly one-quarter of my first year students wouldn't find the time to see Finding Nemo. Some openly dismiss animation as a proper film genre so I am glad I set the assignment.
The film is grounded in themes that reflect the real world.
David Maher saw it as a "story of one father's search for his son and the evolution of his role as a single parent." It had a personal link for Maher.
My father and I were much alike and although we got on. We never bonded. I resented my father with his rules and his opinion. My opinion was ignored. I was just a kid, but I saw myself as a young adult and expression of views was my right. My father had his own view of me I was the child and his role was to protect me from bad influences in the neighborhood. Finding Nemo follows their bond as a family and how it matures into friendship. The forbidden open waters and the dangers out there in every community--drugs, gangs, violence and the fear of losing a loved one.
Shane Keogh thinks of Nemo as a dog "because you don't find clown fish here; you haven't got a Great Barrier Reef and the amazing clear sea of the Australian ocean. Our sea and land does not have the overwhelming colour of the South Seas. The themes though are the same all over the world, the fear of loss, of insecurity, horror, pain; friendship, love, family. Then there are the themes of mankind the dentist the love of the sea, father-son relationship, the role of women in society."
Peter Cahill recalled his first day at school as the story of Nemo unfolded.
The first day at school is also a day everyone will always remember, and the school bullies that call you a names and beat you up for your lunch money, and being a lost child, the times you would be separated from your father and having to do things on your own.
Caterina Foley saw the connection between Dory's absent-mindedness and dementia. "Some Irish people do experience a progressive decline in their memory and other brain functions and eventually develop Dementia. It is important to remember that many conditions can cause an upset of the memory and that not all individuals who have memory destruction have Dementia."
Daniel Carroll saw a message about addiction in the film. "Just like the sharks in the film, led by Bruce, there are a lot of people with addictions in Ireland ranging from drugs to exercise and I think that the film portrays this well as we can see in relation to our lives just how easy it would be to slip down the slippery slope by just one taste of that which we are trying to abstain."
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