Now That I’ve Seen Someone Compare One Battle After Another To Finding Nemo, I Can’t Unsee It
When I first heard the notion that Finding Nemo and One Battle After Another had very similar plots, I scoffed. How can a great Pixar movie about fish be similar to Paul Thomas Anderson’s film about a revolutionary and his daughter? Well, it actually turns out the two projects have a whole lot in common, and after I heard Tyriq Withers explain all this, I can’t unsee the parallels.
Before we dive into Withers’ explanation, the second he asked if the people in the room knew that “One Battle After Another follows the same storyline as Finding Nemo,” something clicked for me. I fully realized that both these movies are about frazzled overprotective dads who will go to the ends of the Earth (or the ocean) to find their lost child. However, they have more in common than that, as Withers (who is currently starring in Reminders of Him) told EW:
Think about it, a father is left to raise his child, and then he raises the child to become, the, you know. And then they’re like, ‘Oh, I hate you, Dad, I can’t go explore the world.’ Then they get captured and kidnapped and taken to a place, and now it’s this journey of him finding the kid.
He’s so right. In both the movie that has many 2026 Oscar nominations and the animated film that took home an Oscar in 2004, Bob and Marlin, respectively, lose their wives right around the time their babies are born. Then, as single dads, they raise their children with an abundance of caution and paranoia. However, despite all that caution, their kids still disappear.
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So, the dads set out on a journey to find their children. While the settings and action in each movie are very different (and you know, one is about humans and the other is about fish), when you break down these stories in general terms, they’re actually very similar.
Withers continued to make that case as he pointed out another thing the movies have in common, saying:
Then he comes across this whimsical chill guy, Benicio [del Toro] and then the turtle, think about it. Benicio’s character and the turtle – ‘Ah, dude, just go for it, man.’
Dude, he’s so right. Benicio del Toro’s Sensei Sergio St. Carlos is actually so similar to Crush. I mean, del Toro, who got an Oscar nomination for One Battle, even has a scene where he sends Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob off on a wild dash that’s not dissimilar to the Finding Nemo moment where Crush sends Marlin and Dory off the EAC and “straight on through to Sydney.”
Even the movie’s endings are similar, as both dads learn to let loose a little bit and let their kids live their own lives.
Overall, as our One Battle After Another review and Finding Nemo’s legacy illustrates, clearly, this tale is one people love. Or, in the words of Tyriq Withers:
When art is art, it’s gonna art.
He’s so right, and in the case of these two movies, when said art is about a dad who is trying to find their kids, you get a wickedly entertaining yet heartfelt story.
Now, if you want to go and see the similarities for yourself, you can stream One Battle After Another with an HBO Max subscription and Finding Nemo with a Disney+ subscription.
