The Whale is a supporting character from Disney•Pixar's 2003 animated film, Finding Nemo. He is a blue whale that Marlin and Dory encounter during their journey to find Nemo.
Background[]
The whale is a large blue whale, hence his name. His dialogue only consists of whale songs. Just like blue whales in real life, the whale has baleen plates and only eats krill despite being the largest animal on Earth.
Like in real life, the whale is a mammal, because he uses his blowhole whenever he needs to breathe. Despite him being believed to be an ominous and dangerous creature toward Marlin and Dory, he is actually harmless to the two and eventually used his blowhole for the two fish to end up in Sydney Harbour.
Personality[]
At first, the whale may be huge and frightening, but he is actually a very gentle mammal. Despite his imitating appearance, the whale only eats krill instead of fish who are scared of the whale. He also likes to sing and communicate with other whales, but also including Dory using whale talk. He even helped Dory and Marlin get to Sydney Harbour to find Nemo.
Appearances[]
Finding Nemo[]
The whale is first seen from a distance before he reveals how large he is. Dory starts speaking whale to try and ask the whale if he can help them get to Sydney to find Nemo, but the whale ends up swimming away. But then slowly (and rather ominously), he swims up behind Marlin and Dory (also scaring some krill, who tell the two fish to swim away), and swallows Marlin and Dory whole. While Marlin struggles to get out, Dory tries to speak to the whale again. Marlin reluctantly trusts Dory and allows himself to be ejected from the whale's blowhole at the risk of being eaten. Fortunately, they are carried to Sydney Harbour in the process. The whale then swim back into the ocean, which Marlin begins to speak whale to thank him for helping the duo. The whale is not seen throughout the rest of the film.
Finding Dory[]
While the whale didn't appear in the sequel, he was mentioned a few times, specifically when Dory was stated to speak whale and when he swallowed her and Marlin.
Disney Parks[]
World of Color[]
The whale appears in World of Color during the show's version of the sequence of Dory speaking whale and is the lead-in to the Pines of Rome sequence.
Turtle Talk with Crush[]
The whale was added to the 2016 revamp of the attraction Turtle Talk with Crush. When Destiny and Crush tell the guests how to speak in the emphasis of a whale, the whale appears while Destiny and Crush warn Dory that the whale is approaching. After Dory is stuck between the whale, Crush tells Destiny to know how to ask the whale to leave, in which Destiny and Crush tell the guests to do the same whale call again so the whale can move away and give Dory some space. Upon doing so, the whale moves away, giving Dory more space.
Trivia[]
- One of Finding Nemo's crew members, head shader Robin Cooper, took photos inside a dead, beached gray whale in order to portray the inside of the whale accurately. In addition, while whales' mouths and blowholes aren't connected, director Andrew Stanton had to "defy reality" in order to move the plot, as the other ways that Marlin and Dory could escape from the whale weren't appetizing.[1]
- Blue whales have black baleen plates and tend to be larger.
- Notably, while the whale having a uvula hanging above his soft palate was initially seen as inaccurate and a form of stage dressing so that audiences would see that Marlin and Dory were inside the whale's mouth and not his stomach, it was later discovered in 2022 that whales do in fact have some form of a uvula.[2][3]
- He is seen prominently on the Japanese poster for Finding Nemo.[4]
Gallery[]
.JPG "Whale Finding Nemo (Full Body View).JPG (40 KB)")
References[]
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