Coral is a minor character in Disney/Pixar's 2003 animated film Finding Nemo.
Appearances
Finding Nemo
In Finding Nemo, Coral was Marlin's wife and Nemo's mother. She was shown at the beginning of the movie, and she and Marlin swam down below their sea anemone to a small cave where there were hundreds of baby clownfish eggs. Marlin then decided to name half the kids Marlin Junior and the other half Coral Junior. However, Coral says that she likes the name "Nemo" so Marlin says that he'll only name one egg "Nemo" because he wants most of them to be Marlin Junior. When Coral wondered why Marlin was looking at her the way he did at one point, Marlin asked Coral if she remembered how they first met and made Coral laugh so hard that she tried to get away from Marlin by swimming out of the anemone.
When Marlin swam out after her, he saw Coral staring at a barracuda, then told her to get back into the house. Despite Marlin's attempts to get her to go inside their home, she rushed down to protect the children, and the barracuda went after her. Marlin fended the barracuda off from eating him but it then slapped him with its tail knocking him out in his anemone. With Marlin unconscious, the barracuda ate Coral and her eggs and presumably while it was eating them one egg fell out of its mouth.
When Marlin later regained consciousness that night, he discovered that Coral and all but one of their eggs were gone, as they had been eaten by the barracuda. As Marlin cried over his wife and children's deaths, he found the one lonely egg and named it "Nemo", to honor his wife's wish to name one of their children "Nemo".
Trivia
- In the original storyboard of the movie, there was supposed to be a brief scene where the audience could see Coral and the eggs inside the Barracuda's mouth, but the scene was later deleted, possibly because it would have scared little kids watching the movie.
- Coral is the first female Pixar character to die.
- Coral is referenced in the sequel when Dory talks to Marlin and Nemo about missing her parents.
- Coral is named after the real-life marine invertebrate of the same name which looks like a plant, but is actually an animal that builds large structures called "coral reefs" that help with the ocean's ecosystems.
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