2012 First-Class Forever Stamp,Disney-Pixar Films: "Finding Nemo"

U.S. #4679

2012 45¢ Finding Nemo
Mail a Smile

Issue Date: June 1, 2012
City: Orlando, FL
Quantity: 25,000,000
Printed By: Avery Dennison
Printing Method: Photogravure
Color: multicolored

As a child, director Andrew Stanton enjoyed visits to the dentist because he imagined the fish in the aquarium wanted to go home to the ocean. This served as one of his first inspirations for Finding Nemo. Stanton was also inspired by a 1992 family trip to Six Flags, when he imagined how beautifully the underwater world could be created with computers. He selected clown fish as the film’s stars after seeing a photo and being mesmerized by their bright colors.

The film’s animators were required to take scuba diving lessons and visit aquariums to understand the coral reef. In fact, the animators achieved such a high level of realism, they were instructed to make the water look more artificial in some scenes, so viewers would not think it was actual water. Another challenge was making the fish move realistically, while expressing human emotion. They studied dogs’ facial expressions, particularly their eyes, to give the fish real emotions.

In keeping with Pixar’s tradition of referencing pop culture, they named the main shark Bruce, as that was the nickname given to the sharks by the crew in the movie Jaws. Additionally, the two turtles are named after soda brands and Marlin and Dory (the two main fish) are street names near Pixar studios. Most interestingly, in Latin, nemo means “no one” – so the film actually means “Finding No One,” the cover of the first Fantastic Four comic.