The animators at Pixar are nothing if not in-tune with reality, and there’s no better scene than the dentist office climax near the end of “Finding Nemo”.

Clown fish Nemo is trying to escape the dentist’s tropical fish tank and return to his home in the sea. His wise tank-mate Gil, an angel fish voiced by Willem Defoe, knows that “all drains lead to the ocean,” and they conspire to somehow get Nemo down a pipe.

Everyone knows what happens to pet fish when they go belly-up: Flusheroo! So the scene really gets heated when the youngster plays dead in order to make it to the commode. But as complications ensue, there’s a change of plans. Eventually Nemo makes it down the “spit drain” near the dentist chair and heads through the Sydney Water Treatment plant.

I understand from the special features DVD that the animators thoroughly investigated the possibility of a fish making it through a water treatment plant alive. It was determined that it was, and an elaborate scene was penned to show how Nemo passes through the plant and out to open waters. This scene was ultimately cut from the final movie, but Pixar did prove that all drains lead to the ocean.