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Sam and I were curled up on the couch together, watching Finding Nemo. In the opening scene of the movie, Nemo's mom, Coral, is gobbled up by a big, sharply fanged fish.

Why is it that the moms are always the ones killed off in these cartoon movies? Bambi, Finding Nemo, Brother Bear. And then there's the princess genre, i.e., Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast. Apparently, you can't be a princess if the queen is still around.

Anyway, the murder of Coral happens off screen. You just see the big fish lunge at her, and then everything goes dark as Nemo's dad, Marlin, is knocked unconscious. When Marlin wakes up, Coral -- and all but one of their fish eggs -- is gone.

Watching this scene unfold, Sam gasps and pulls his blanket up over his head. And then he looks at me from under the draped blanket, his guileless blue eyes round, and asks, "Mama . . . what happened to Coral?"

Thank you, Pixar, this is just the conversation I want to be having with my three-year-old.

"Um . . . I think she's . . . well, sort of, kind of . . . . hiding," I finish lamely.

"Hiding?" Sam asks, puzzled.

"Yup! Coral's really, really good at hiding!"

I can tell that Sam doesn't totally buy this explanation. But it's all the information I'm planning on giving him at the moment.

"Hey, look! There's Nemo!" I say, pointing at the television screen to distract him.

"Oooo! Hi, Nemo!" Sam chirps happily.

Relieved, I sigh. It worked. But next time? I'm fast-forwarding through that scene.

Posted 21 February 2007 at 09:00 AM