The East Australian Current (or EAC for short) is a boundary current from the South Equatorial Current which crosses the Coral Sea and reaches the eastern coast of Australia. It is notably featured in the 2003 Disney/Pixar animated film, Finding Nemo, and the subsequent sequel Finding Dory.
Background[]
In Finding Nemo, the East Australian Current is an ocean current which Marlin and Dory arrive at in which the current itself contains several sea turtles traveling inside the current. It is one of the areas which Marlin and Dory should take if they are to arrive at Sydney Harbour to find Nemo and reunite him with his father. In the EAC, Marlin and Dory find themselves inside the current where many sea turtles travel together inside the EAC. The East Australian Current also features strong parts inside of it which fish who arrive on there must ready themselves for strong currents to avoid getting flung out of the current. As the sea turtles playfully interact with Dory and Marlin throughout their moments at the EAC, Marlin later recaps his story about what happened to his son in which Marlin's adventures to help him find his son were later spread to other sea creatures who are talking about Marlin's adventures to find Nemo. Later as Crush tells Marlin and Dory that they are at the right spot to get to Sydney, Squirt tells the two to ready themselves when they get to Sydney to which Squirt pushes them off the EAC in which Marlin and Dory later continue their adventures to find Nemo.
Development[]
Originally prior to Crush being in the East Australian Current, the film originally depicted him with the personality of that of a Dennis Hopper-type character. In the deleted scene "Crush the Hippie", Marlin introduces Dory to an earlier version of Crush who knows about the Whale who would help the two on their journey to look for Nemo and reunite with him to which Crush explains to the two about the whale which might appear at any time. This scene was rewritten with him being in the East Australian Current in the final version of the film.
While developing the sea turtle hatchlings, their patterns were designed to be colorful and flowered to resemble the style of Hawaiian shirts in addition to giving the hatchlings cute voices where the pattern designs were unique to distinguish the types used for the male and female turtles.
Joseph Ekers, one of the story artists of Finding Nemo, did a research to know if the East Australian Current exists and the world map proves that the EAC does exist like the one in the film as Ekers did a bunch of stuff which he researched about the different ocean currents on the world map and there truly was an underwater map which could be taken from the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney Harbour. [1]
Appearances[]
Finding Nemo[]
While seen as an impression by the Moonfish, the EAC itself does not appear until Marlin and Dory swim over a dangerous trench as the two see the East Australian Current from a distance only to find themselves in a jellyfish forest briefly after encountering a baby jellyfish. Marlin and Dory manage to escape the jellyfish forest in time to which they pass out from being severely stung. When they regain consciousness, they suddenly encounter a sea turtle named "Crush" on their way to find Nemo and reunite him with his father. Marlin suddenly finds himself lying on Crush's shell as Crush tells him to stay focused as Marlin regains his conscience just as Crush explains that he same him doing several skills in the jellyfish forest. As Marlin tries to hold on Crush's shell, he tells Marlin that he just got his shell waxed recently just as Crush introduces himself to Marlin as he explains to him that Mr. Turtle is his father. Marlin tells Crush explaining to him that he needs to get to the East Australian Current, to which Crush explains that Marlin is at the East Australian Current. Within the EAC is a large group of turtles swimming together in the current as Crush tells him to hold on tight while on the rough current.
After riding through the current, Crush tells Marlin to know what brought him there to which Marlin explains to Crush that he is on his way to find Nemo. As Marlin tries to find Dory to know if she is feeling conscious, Crush points to Dory who is lying down unconsciously to which Dory suddenly wakes up to regain her conscience and plays with various sea turtle hatchlings which are happily playing around in the EAC, Marlin suddenly sees Squirt who is flung off by one of the sea turtles throughout the sequence. Fearing that Squirt would be lost after being flung out of the current, Crush tells Marlin to see what Squirt does in solo to return to the EAC. Squirt independently returns to the EAC without any other sea turtle assisting him as Squirt tells his father to know if he saw him return to the current all by himself to which Crush is impressed with Squirt for trying to get into the current all by himself. Crush explains to Marlin that the sea turtle hatchlings that Marlin is saying hatch from eggs, explaining that sea turtles leave their eggs on a beach for their offspring to hatch and the hatchlings independently find their way back to the ocean all by themselves. As Marlin sees Dory playing with the sea turtle hatchlings, they playfully do a turtle pile on Marlin.
Suddenly when Squirt asks Marlin to know where he is going, he explains to the hatchlings that his son Nemo was taken away from him to which he recaps about his tragic moment of his son being taken away from divers. As Marlin continues narrating, a montage of scenes out of the EAC about various creatures telling a story about Marlin's adventures was featured. The montage features a sea turtle hatchling telling a trio of tuna that Marlin was unable to stop the divers from taking his son and later encountered a trio of sharks; a sardine tells a big fish that when Marlin encountered three ferocious sharks, he scared them away using explosions from the minefield, followed by lobsters talking about Marlin's story about his adventure at the Abyssopelagic Zone and a pair of swordfish fencing with each other while talking about the territorial anglerfish which he encountered just before the scene loops into a dolphin talking to his mate as he tells the story of Marlin and Dory who are looking for Nemo for days on the East Australian Current while albatrosses believe that Marlin might be on his way to Sydney Harbour where Nemo is at, followed by another bird telling a group of pelicans that Marlin might arrive there on time.
The next day when Marlin and Dory are at the East Australian Current, Crush tells Marlin and Dory that they are about to arrive at their destination just as the two fish are preparing to leave the current while Squirt tells Marlin and Dory to "rip it, roll it, and punch it", which indicates that Marlin and Dory should ready themselves to leave the EAC to which he pushes them in order to get to their destination. As the two fish are out of the EAC, Crush tells the two fish to continue their journey to Sydney Harbour as Marlin tells Crush to know as the turtles bid a farewell to Marlin and Dory as Marlin tells Crush to know how old he is to which Crush explains to him that he is 150-years old which Marlin keeps this info in his head about what Crush told him whenever he sees Nemo again. Marlin and Dory continue their journey to find Nemo.
Later at the end of the film after Marlin finally finds Nemo, he tells his son that the sea turtle he met was 150-years old after his adventure at the EAC with Dory. The next day at school, Nemo introduces Squirt as an exchange student on Mr. Ray's class.
Finding Dory[]
While not directly featured in the sequel, the California Current uses the same (or similar) effect used for the East Australian Current in the first film in which Nemo, Marlin, and Dory arrive at the current to get to California to find Dory's missing parents, Charlie and Jenny to which the three fish suddenly end up at the Midnight Zone in California.
Trivia[]
- Although many turtles are featured traveling together in the East Australian Current in Finding Nemo, sea turtles in real life are very solitary migrators, meaning that they do not migrate with many other turtles unlike the ones seen in the film.
References[]
- ↑ Visual Commentary Bonus Feature (Finding Nemo Widescreen DVD, 2003).
External links[]
