Is Nemo or his dad, Marlin, a bigger hero in the movie FINDING NEMO?  I think it’s a toss up.  They both undergo a huge change in their understanding of themselves and of each other.  And they both perform heroically in various scenes.  Today, I’ve chosen Marlin as my hero profile.  He’s a little bit charmer and a little bit professor and he’s all fish.STATS:Marlin is a clown fish who can’t manage to tell a funny joke.  He stops to explain his joke, thereby ruining the flow and punchline.  He lost his wife and million little babies to a baracuda attack at their anemone home and the tragedy left him full of fear for his one remaining fishy son, Nemo.THE LOOK:Orange, white and black.  He’s a looker.LEADING LADY:Dori, the memory-challenged blue fish that helps Marlin find Nemo and becomes his companion.  She challenges Marlin without trying by forcing him to face his insecurities and by bringing him into situations that require him to dig deep within himself in order to survive or overcome.  For example, when Dori joins three sharks and their Fish Are Not Food Recovery Meeting, Marlin must control his own fear in order to ensure that Dori is safe. Likewise, Marlin helps Dori reach inside herself and pull out memories that end up helping them find Nemo.  The two fish compliment each other and bring out the best of each other, and what more could a clown fish want from a platonic partner?THE BOTTOM LINE:Finding Nemo is a fanstastic movie full of character arcs, wrought with conflict, and deep with emotion.  Marlin is portrayed as a caring, if over-protective, dad who must learn to let his son make his own mistakes.  It’s a hard lesson for both Marlin and Nemo, especially when Nemo, in true teenage form, rebels and gets himself trapped in a dentist’s fish tank.  But it’s the heroic nature of Marlin, Nemo, Dori, and the fish in the tank that parallel the heroism that is in all of us.  Friendship, in fact, is the element that fosters the heroism in these characters. FINDING NEMO contains lessons for all of us, and the characters, particularly Marlin and Nemo [for us parents] exemplify the heriosm that we may not always see in ourselves and in our children.Question of the Day:Is Nemo or Marlin more of a hero in FINDING NEMO?