Cairns

The small but perfectly formed city of Cairns is found on the east coast of Australia in the state of Queensland. Man's unquenchable desire for gold led to the city's growth back in the 1870s, as the then town became a base for the gold prospectors who were heading inland. It later became a significant port for exports, especially of sugar and precious metals.

Today its economy is largely based on international tourism, in fact after Sydney it's the second most visited city in Australia. But why do people come here? Well firstly because of its proximity to the rainforests and secondly because from here you can reach the Great Barrier Reef in around an hour and a half by boat. The Great Barrier Reef is the longest coral reef in the world and stretches along the north-east coast of Australia for 2,300 kilometres. It is also where the animated film Finding Nemo is largely set.

Now, not all great movies win Oscars, and not all Oscars are won by great movies. However, this modern masterpiece thoroughly deserved its Oscar success, taking Best Animated Film at the 2004 Academy Awards ceremony. And don't just take my word for it - box office receipts rarely lie. The first weekend of its release saw the cash registers ringing to the tune of $70 million and until Shrek 2 came along it was the highest earning animated film of all time. Even today it still proudly sits in the list of the top ten earning films ever.

So how does the story go? It's the tale of a clown fish called Marlin who is bringing up his son, Nemo, alone following the demise of his wife and 499 other babies in a barracuda attack. Understandably Marlin is a bit over-protective of Nemo because of this tragic event but also because Nemo has an under-developed fin. The time comes when Nemo has to start school but Marlin is not too happy about it. Nevertheless Nemo goes off and meets his new classmates and teacher, Mr Ray. They go off on a day trip to an area called the Drop-Off, which is where the barracuda attack happened a few years before. Marlin is angry and swims out to fetch Nemo back, where follows a scene of a familiar child - parent standoff. Nemo swims up to touch the bottom of a passing boat in an act of defiance and is promptly netted by a diver and taken away. Marlin is frantic and finds help from a fish called Dory. She assures Marlin she saw where the boat was heading but it doesn't take long for him to realise that Dory has the memory span of, well, a goldfish! Here starts the epic quest to find Nemo and rescue him. Along the way they meet sharks who have taken a vow not to eat fish, dangerous jellyfish and a school of turtles who ride the strong current which eventually carries Marlin and Dory to the harbour of Sydney. In the meantime Nemo has ended up in an aquarium in a dentist's surgery and discovers that he is to be the next gift for the dentist's terrible niece (the last one having been shaken to death). It's now a race against time to escape from the tank, with a little help from his new friends. Does he escape? And if so, does he make it back to his father?

The movie is a feelgood family film. I'm a parent and I enjoyed it hugely. In fact, in the cinema where I saw it most of the laughs were coming from the adults. As with most Disney offerings, even if this was produced by the magnificent team at Pixar, there's a moral to the story. This one is about parents not being too protective of their children so giving them space to grow, otherwise they risk driving them away. The children want independence but no matter what there will always be the safety and protection of the family. If both parties can understand this they can live in harmony. There, life in a nutshell.

If you've already seen the film, watch it again. If you haven't, rent, borrow or buy it and pass 100 minutes in the company of some delightful characters.

Incidentally, the film had some quite significant effects around the world. Firstly, tourism along the Barrier Reef coast of Australia increased greatly as people wanted to swim and 'find Nemo'. Sales of clown fish worldwide rocketed, but so too did cases of these fish being flushed down toilets. I'll explain. There's a part in the film where it says 'all drains lead to the ocean', so many children believed that sending their fish down the toilet would liberate them. There was even a publicity campaign to urge kids not to do this as in fact the fish died.