Editing Finding Nemo (section)

===Development===
[[File:Andrew Stanton cropped 2009.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Andrew Stanton]] wrote and directed the film.]]
The inspiration for ''Finding Nemo'' sprang from multiple experiences, going back to director [[Andrew Stanton]]'s childhood, when he loved going to the dentist to see the fish tank, assuming that the fish were from the ocean and wanted to go home.<ref name="commentary">{{cite AV media |people=Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, and Bob Peterson |title=Finding Nemo — Audio Commentary |medium=DVD |year=2004 |publisher=Walt Disney Home Entertainment}}</ref> In 1992, shortly after his son was born, he and his family took a trip to [[Six Flags Discovery Kingdom]] (which was called Marine World at the time). There, after seeing the shark tube and various exhibits, he felt that the underwater world could be done beautifully in computer animation.<ref>{{cite AV media |title=[[The Pixar Story]] |people=[[Leslie Iwerks|Iwerks, Leslie]] (director) |year=2007 |type=Documentary film |publisher=[[Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures|Buena Vista Pictures Distribution]]}}</ref> Later, in 1997, he took his son for a walk in the park but realized that he was overprotecting him and lost an opportunity to have a father-son experience that day.<ref name="commentary"/>

In an interview with ''[[National Geographic]]'' magazine, Stanton said that the idea for the characters of Marlin and Nemo came from a photograph of two clownfish peeking out of an [[Sea anemone|anemone]]:

{{blockquote|It was so arresting. I had no idea what kind of fish they were, but I couldn't take my eyes off them. And as an entertainer, the fact that they were called clownfish—it was perfect. There's almost nothing more appealing than these little fish that want to play peekaboo with you.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Prosek |first=James |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2010/01/clownfish-anemone-symbiotic-relationship/ |title=Beautiful Friendship |magazine=[[National Geographic]] |date=January 2010 |url-access=subscription |access-date=April 27, 2019 |archive-date=April 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427052617/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2010/01/clownfish-anemone-symbiotic-relationship/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
}}

In addition, clownfish are colorful, but do not tend to come out of an anemone often. For a character who has to go on a dangerous journey, Stanton felt a clownfish was the perfect type of fish for the character.<ref name="commentary"/> Pre-production of the film began in early 1997. Stanton began writing the screenplay during the post-production of ''[[A Bug's Life]]''. As a result, ''Finding Nemo'' began production with a complete screenplay, something that co-director [[Lee Unkrich]] called "very unusual for an animated film".<ref name="commentary"/> The artists took [[scuba diving]] lessons to study the coral reef.<ref name="commentary"/>

Stanton originally planned to use flashbacks to reveal how Coral died but realized that by the end of the film there would be nothing to reveal, deciding to show how she died at the beginning of the movie.<ref name="commentary"/> The character of Gill also was different from the character seen in the final film. In a scene that was eventually deleted, Gill tells Nemo that he's from a place called Bad Luck Bay and that he has brothers and sisters in order to impress the young clownfish, only for the latter to find out that he was lying by listening to a patient reading a children's storybook that shares exactly the same details.<ref name="commentary"/>