The Road Movie in an animated film (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies, grade: 2,0, University of Cologne (Englisches Seminar), course: Lost Highways - Road Movies and their Cultural Contexts, language: English, abstract: The Road Movie is a genre that emerged from the reckless travel stories of the Beat Generation in the nineteen sixties. Back then it particularly dealt with freedom and rebellion. The journey described in the road movie was physical as well as psychological and usually done by car, the most sophisticated and individual mode of transportation in those days. Over the years the genre has been extended by numerous motifs to go on the road, modes of transportation and protagonists of all ages. Further, the road movie is a genre hybrid that deposits one or more of its trades in all sorts of movies.

In the B-seminar "Lost Highways - Road Movies and their Cultural Contexts" we talked about the history of road movies, discussed the theoretical background, analysed types of distinctive road movies, and applied different methods to examine those. The fundamental basis of the genre are the modes of transportation, the concept of home, and the internal voyage of the main character. Although these traits are executed most differently in film, they are always unmistakably recognisable.

For my term paper I was interested in whether the typical characteristics are as explicitly identifiable in a non conventional film. I chose Finding Nemo from 2003, where the characters are anthropomorphized fish and the setting is the open sea, to study the criteria of the modes of transportation, the concept of home, and the internal voyage of the main character in an animated movie.

The paper starts with a short outline of the film, then concentrates on the examination of the three main features and finally gives a short conclusion.