A book review on "Marlin"

Reviewed by: Andrea Paula Malawi

Author: Andrew Stanton
Publisher: Random House Inc.
Publication Date: 2003

Marlin is a book based on the American computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film – Finding Nemo produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures on May 30, 2003. The popular film has won countless of awards and was entitled as the second highest-grossing film of 2003.  The film was directed and written by Andrew Stanton, a 51 year old director, producer, screenwriter and voice actor who also wrote Wall-E and Toy Story 3 under Disney. This book is published in United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House Inc.

“When life gets you down, do you wanna know what you’ve gotta do? Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.” This is one of my favorite lines from the book. The quote simply touches my heart and made me liked both the movie and the book. It tells the story of the overprotective clownfish named Marlin accompanied by Dory, a regal blue tang fish. The two fishes swam the ocean and risked their lives to find Marlin’s abducted son, Nemo. The book and the movie itself shake up the emotions of the readers making it very enthralling to the audiences.

Marlin and Coral together with their clutch of eggs were two clownfish dwelling in the Great Barrier Reef when a barracuda attacked and knocked Marlin down. He woke up to find that Coral and all but one of the eggs was eaten by the barracuda. He named the last egg as Nemo. As Nemo grew, Marlin was always worried and his overprotection embarrassed his son. As a result, Nemo disobeyed his father and sneaked away from the reef and was unfortunately captured by a scuba diver. As the boat departs, the diver accidentally fell over his diving mask into the ocean. While attempting to save Nemo, Marlin met Dory which has short-term memory loss but still helped him in finding Nemo. The two met three sharks and hunted them. The pair luckily escaped from the sharks and discovered the diver’s mask. Dory noticed the address written on it and read the address located at Sydney.  The pair swam on and were helped by a sea turtle who took them to the East Australian Current. Marlin shared his story in finding his son and it was spread all across the ocean. Upon arriving on the East Australian Current, Marlin and Dory were carried by a blue whale to the port. There, they met a pelican who knew Marlin and his story in finding his son. On the other hand, Nemo was trapped in an aquarium of a dentist and was said to be given to a delinquent girl named Darla. Nemo met the Tank Gang and assisted him to escape from the fish tank. The gang failed in their attempt and Darla arrived. The dentist was handing Nemo to her and Nemo started to act dead. At that time, Marlin arrived at the Sherman’s office with the help of the pelican. Upon seeing Nemo, he mistakenly believed that he was dead before the pelican was thrown out. In despair, Marlin left Dory and swam home. The leader of the tank gang pushed Nemo into a drain that led him to the ocean. Dory accidentally met Nemo in the ocean. Then, she reunited him and his father. Nemo and Marlin finally met again and returned happily in their home.

The author has a very broad and creative imagination as what was obviously shown in the book. The story clearly portrayed a father’s love to his child who is willing to sacrifice and risk his own life just to seek and save his son. The theme really affected my feelings as I relate myself and my relationship with my father.  Moreover, the plot kept me interested because the characters encountered a variety of problems and challenges. As a result, it made me curious how the story will end which is a good sign of a well-written story. Another thing that I liked from the book is the visual illustration; you can easily visualize the characters and the whole story. It is the best for children aging one to four years old but teenagers and even late adolescents can still enjoy and have fun in reading this book. That’s why I really liked this book even though it seems childish at some point. I encouraged you to read this book to have fun and be a child again.