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This Day in Pop Culture

This Day in Pop Culture for May 30

Nemo, Dory and Bugs Bunny

May 30, 2020

2–3 minutes

2003: Nemo is Found

After years of success from films such as Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, it’s no surprise that Finding Nemo received a 99 percent “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes when it opened in theaters on this day. Directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, the computer-animated film was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.

When a young clown fish with a weak fin becomes lost at sea, his father will do anything to keep him safe. The film featured the voices of Albert Brooks as the over-protective father Marlin, Ellen DeGeneres as the short-term memory-stricken Dory, Alexander Gould as Nemo and Stanton himself playing Crush the sea turtle.

As with other films that features animals like 101 Dalmatians, Nemo prompted a huge interest in clown fish and home aquarium purchases tripled. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won for Best Animated Feature, the first for Pixar.

As of 2024, Finding Nemo has become the best-selling DVD of all time with over 38.8 million copies sold in the U.S. The sequel, Finding Dory, was released on June 17, 2016, with similar success.

1908: The Voice of Bugs Bunny is Born

Many of our beloved animated friends would not be so enduring to us if it wasn’t for Mel Blanc, “the man with a thousand voices.” Born on this day in 1908, Blanc spent the bulk of his years giving voice to Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepe Le Pew, Speedy Conzales, the Tasmanian Devil, Barney Rubble, Mr. Spacely, Woody Woodpecker and many others. Those characters have lived on since Blanc passed away in 1989, but they have never sounded quite the same since. In 2012, Warner Bros. took the audio recording of a 1950’s children’s album that was voiced by Blanc to help voice the Daffy Duck short, Daffy’s Rhapsody. It was as if he never left.