Character Analysis
This little girl is bad news—for fish at least. Once Nemo arrives in the dentist's fish tank, he finds out that he's going to a new, and more terrible place, real soon:
DENTIST: This here's Darla. She's my niece. She's going to be eight next week. Hey, little fella. Say hello to your new mummy. She'll be here Friday to pick you up. You're her present. Shh, shh, shh! It's our little secret […]
BLOAT: Oh, Darla.
NEMO: What? What's wrong with her?
GURGLE: She wouldn't stop shaking the bag.
BUBBLES: Poor Chuckles.
Yup, that's really awful news. But Darla's not only a bratty eight-year-old who has no clue how to take care of living things—she's also a ticking clock. Nemo only has a few short days before Darla is going to appear and whisk him away to yet another non-oceanic environment. That's seriously going to put a damper on his plans to reunite with his dad.
So, even if Darla doesn't shake little Nemo to death, he's never going to see his father again. Say it ain't so.
We'll just say one final word about Darla—and it's in her defense. She doesn't seem to be purposelessly killing these fish. She's just a really, really clueless little girl who does not get that her fishies don't like being jostled around.
You know who we really blame for Nemo's predicament? The dentist. Seriously, why would you pass a beautiful, rare, and hard to take care of clownfish to a girl who you just know killed the last fish?
Darla's just a kid, but her uncle should definitely know better.