Dr. Philip Sherman

Antagonist Overview

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Dr. Philip Sherman (also known as P. Sherman and The Dentist) is a dentist and Darla's uncle who caught Nemo and the main antagonist of Pixar’s 5th full-length animated feature film Finding Nemo. He's unaware of his niece's rough treatment of all the fish she's owned, despite having a picture of her with a dead fish in the background, Phillip appears to routinely catch fish for her while swimming in the open ocean. After seeing a small Clown fish with mismatched fins, he captured it and returned to his dental office to put the fish in a tank so it could acclimate to the new conditions before giving it to Darla as a birthday present.

He was voiced by the late Bill Hunter.

Background[]

Personality[]

Like his niece, Philip Sherman is not truly villainous since he genuinely loves his niece and just wants to give Nemo to her as a present. He only kidnaps Nemo because he believes he would die in the ocean. Since pelicans eat fish, Philip dislikes Nigel because he thinks the bird wants to eat his fish. Also, he sometimes treats his patients rather careless when attending them, as shown when he accidentally yanks his patient's tooth out rather hard when he gets surprised after Nigel hits the window hard. He cares for his fish since he puts Gill back in the tank when he spots him out of the water and is saddened when he thinks Nemo died when he is playing dead.

Physical appearance[]

Philip Sherman is a tall, slender man, with long nose, both gray eyebrows and hair, and blue eyes. He wears a teal dentist uniform and white gloves.

Appearances[]

Finding Nemo[]

Philip is the dentist who takes Nemo, adding him to the collection in his fish tank at his office. He is Darla's uncle, as well as a scuba diver. He is also supposedly going to offer Nemo to her as her new pet fish. Though technically not a villain, he only caught Nemo, whom he thought would die in the ocean, and when he sees Nigel by his office fish tank, he probably thinks the pelican wants to eat the fish, so he shoos him away. Throughout the film, aside from watching over his fish, he takes care and checks on bad teeth from patients, who yell in pain whenever their teeth are checked.

On the day Dr. Sherman enters the office to take care of patient Davey Reynolds, he finds his tank dirty. He asks Barbara to leave the time before his earliest appointment open so that he can clean the tank prior to Darla's arrival. Rather than putting his fish into bags and clean the tank himself like what he used to do, he installs an AquaScum 2003 into his tank to let the device do the job, thus sabotaging any chance of his fish escaping the office. Coincidentally, it is also the day when Darla is coming to the office, so he prepares his gift for his niece by scooping Nemo out of the tank with a net, but Nemo, with help from the Tank Gang, swims down, causing the dentist to drop the net. The dentist then scoops Nemo out with a plastic bag, and to prevent Nemo from falling, he puts the bag into a plastic storage tray. After Darla arrives at the office, Nemo plays dead to try to have the dentist flush him down the toilet. When the dentist finds Nemo in that state, he assumes that Nemo has died, but instead of flushing him down the toilet, the dentist instead heads for the trash to dispose Nemo. However, he is interrupted by Darla's scream because of Nigel the pelican invading the office.

In the ensuing melee, Dr. Sherman, still holding Nemo's bag, tries to grab Nigel, but bumps into the pelican, causing him to fall and to drop the bag onto the tray of dentist's tools. Dr. Sherman throws the pelican out of the office and slams the window shut. Darla picks up Nemo's bag and starts shaking it, prompting Gill to have his gang fire him out of the tank and land onto Darla's head, causing Darla to drop the bag onto the same tray, and the bag pops, freeing Nemo. Dr. Sherman turns to notice the animals going mad and hits his head into a scope suspending from the ceiling, which knocks him to the floor. In the ensuing chaos, Dr. Sherman's presumed patients which include a boy and his mother as well as a bearded man and a teenage girl watch in shock and confusion witnessing what is going on in the dental room. While the dentist is knocked down, Gill jumps onto the dentist's mirror to catapult Nemo into the sink, letting the juvenile clownfish escape the office down the drain, through the sewers, and back into the ocean. After recovering, Dr. Sherman finds Gill on his tray and puts him back into the tank before Darla breaks his sink Nemo escaped through, causing it to harshly squirt water in her face.

At the end of the film, he complains to Barbara that his new AquaScum 2003 (which has a lifetime guarantee and is maintenance free) is broken, much to his dismay as the tank has gotten very filthy again. This prompts him to take the fish out, put them into bags, and clean the tank himself. But he later realizes that the fish have all escaped, much to his shock.

Finding Dory[]

Though he never makes a physical appearance in the film, a photo in his consulting office at the Marine Life Institute makes a cameo appearance when Dory meets Hank in the quarantine office. This may imply that his niece has relatives who work at the institute.

Trivia[]

The hand that grabs the lamb in Boundin' is his own.
- This is confirmed by Bud Luckey, the director of the short in the audio commentary for the short.
"P. Sherman" is a pun on the word "fisherman".
Dr. Sherman's address is 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is unclear if the address is his home or his dentist office.
Although considered an antagonist, he is not evil (nor showing antagonism towards his fish); he only caught Nemo because he thought the young clownfish would die in the ocean and believed that Nigel wanted to eat the fish since pelicans are predators of fish. Furthermore, when Nemo is playing dead, Dr. Sherman is saddened, believing that Nemo is really dead. To the point, Nemo was a victim of Dr. Sherman's good intentions, whereas Nigel was falsely accused as Dr. Sherman believed that the pelican was gonna eat his fish, even though he just visited his office to talk to them.
Throughout the film, aside Darla, Dr. Sherman has three patients that visit his office for check-ups. Their names are: Mr. Tucker, who goes to have his anterior crown checked for an infection, and mostly screams in pain in the process (probably because he did have an infection); the Prime Minister of Australia, whose tooth is accidentally yanked off by Sherman after hearing a slam (not knowing it was Nigel); and Davey Reynolds, a pre-teen boy.
Dr. Sherman's receptionist (and possible wife) is named Barbara.
Dr. Sherman says, "Crikey!" at least twice in the film, which is Steve Irwin's catchphrase.
In the Finding Nemo musical, his name is said to be Pablo Sherman.
Dr. Sherman's speed boat is called the Aussie Flosser.
Bill Hunter, his voice actor, also portrayed Blue in Kangaroo Jack, which was another film released in 2003 that also took place in Australia.
He did not appear (physically or verbally) in Finding Dory because his voice actor, Bill Hunter, died of liver cancer in 2011, while the sequel was in pre-production, five years before it was released.
- Despite not appearing, a photo of his niece Darla makes a non-physical cameo when Dory meets Hank in the quarantine area. Also, the line "Those aren't your fish" (the same line that he uses when telling Nigel to stay out of his office) was also reused for Carl, one of the truck drivers during the part where the otters open the truck leading to Cleveland and later get shooed away thinking the otters are preparing to eat the fish. Conversely, some of the visitors in the Marine Life Institute are reused models of some of Philip's patients from the first film.

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Animals
Jellyfishes (Squishy) | The Crabs | Anglerfish | Seagulls | Giant Squid

Humans
Philip Sherman | Darla Sherman | The Fishermen | Cleveland Truck Drivers