the inspiration for nemo was made up of multiple experiences. the idea goes back to when director andrew stanton was a child, when he loved going to the dentist to see the fish tank, assuming that the fish were from the ocean and wanted to go home. in 1992 shortly after his son was born, he and his family took a trip to six flags discovery kingdom (which was called marine world at the time). there he saw the shark tube and various exhibits he felt that the underwater world had bene done beautifully in computer animation. later, in 1997 he took his son for a walk in the park, but found that he was over protecting him constantly and lost an opportunity to have any "father-son experiences" on that day. in an interview with "national geographic" magazine, he stated that the idea for the characters of marlin and nemo came from a photograph of two clownfish peeking out of an anemone:"it was so arresting. i had no idea what kind of fish they were, but i wasn't taking my eyes off them. and as an entertainer, the fact that they were called clownfish—it was perfect. there's almost nothing more appealing than these little fish that want to play peekaboo with you." also, clownfish are very colourful, but don't seem to tend to come out of an anemone very often, and for a character who has to go on a dangerous journey, stanton felt a clownfish was the perfect kind of fish for the character.