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Philip Sherman (also known as Dentist) is a main character in Finding Nemo. He is Darla's uncle.

Finding Nemo[]

"Not the best of dentists, Philip Sherman uses his career as a way of funding his real love—scuba diving. He only collects fish from the reef if he thinks they are "struggling for life." That is why he collects both Nemo and Gill, with their weak fins. Despite his love for nature's creatures, he does get tired of Nigel the pelican using his surgery as a social center."[1]

Philip is the dentist who takes Nemo and makes him into one of his fishes at the dentist fish tank. He is Darla's uncle and is supposedly going to offer Nemo to her as her new pet fish.

On the day 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 Sherman to drop the net. The dentist then scoops Nemo out with a plastic bag, and to prevent Nemo from escaping, he puts the bag into a plastic storage bin.

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 of Nemo. However, he is interrupted by Darla's scream due to Nigel the pelican invading the office. In the ensuing melee, Sherman, still holding Nemo's bag, tries to grab Nigel, but bumps into the pelican, causing him to drop the bag onto the tray of dentist's tools. Sherman angrily pushes the pelican out of the office and furiously closes the window. 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 explodes, freeing Nemo. Sherman turns to notice the animals going insanely mad, and hits his head into a scope suspending from the ceiling, knocking him to the floor. During the ensuing chaos, Sherman's presumed patients watch in shock and confusion wondering what is going on while waiting for their appointments. While Sherman is knocked down, Gill jumps onto Sherman's mirror to catapult Nemo onto the sink, letting the juvenile clownfish escape the office through the drain, through the sewer system, and back into the ocean. After recovering, Sherman finds Gill on his tray and puts him back into the tank.

At the end of the film, Sherman eventually complains to Barbara that his new AquaScum 2003, which has a lifetime guarantee, is broken, much to his dismay, prompting him to take the fish out, put them into bags, and clean the tank himself, but the fish have all escaped, much to his shock.

Trivia[]

  • According to Bud Luckey on the audio commentary for Boundin', the hand that grabs the lamb is his.
  • "P. Sherman" is a pun on the word "fisherman."
  • His address is 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. It is unclear if the address is his home or his dentist office.
  • He says, "Crikey!" at least twice in the film, which was the late Steve Irwin's catchphrase.
  • His actor Bill Hunter previously portrayed Blue in Kangaroo Jack, which also takes place in Australia.
  • Dr. Sherman's speed-boat is called the Aussie Flosser.
  • According to Peach, he goes to the bathroom for an average of 4.2 minutes with reading the Reader's Digest.
  • Given the view from the window of Dr. Sherman's office, its presumed location is approximately somewhere vaguely north or northeast of downtown Sydney, possibly either in Cremorne Point or Clifton Gardens (where in real life, the Taronga Zoo can be found). Besides the famous Sydney Opera house, other famous landmarks like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Governor Phillip Tower, and the Sydney Tower Eye can be seen.
  • Dr. Philip Sherman's great-great-grandfather first opened the dentist practice back in 1895.[2][3]

Gallery[]

References[]

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