Ellen Gerstell as pages In the real world, they and Bon-Bon are driving the wagon with the organ in a circus that stops in Nemo's town. Tress MacNeille as an elevator creature Michael McConnohie as an etiquette master Michael Gough as a teacher Michael Sheehan as a fencing master June Foray as the librarian Gregg Berger as the equestrian master Production Nemo was the brainchild of producer Yutaka Fujioka, then president of Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS). He had long realized the limitations of the animation business in Japan and wanted to enter the U.S. market, so he started a new animation studio and planned to distribute U.S.-Japan co-produced animation films worldwide. He founded Telecom Animation Film in 1975, and embarked on a film adaptation of the legendary comic strip Little Nemo, which was so well known in the U.S. that two film adaptations were proposed during Walt Disney's lifetime. As the first step towards realizing this project, in 1977 he personally flew to Monterey, California to convince the McKay descendants to allow him to obtain the film rights, and he finally won it in the summer of 1978. Fujioka had another dream: to make a "full animation" (not Japanese limited animation) film that could compete with Disney. For this purpose, Fujioka hired newcomers with no experience in Japanese TV animation and had them trained by Sadao Tsukioka, followed by Yasuo Ōtsuka. Incidentally, the 1980 pilot film was created by Tsukioka. However, a lack of funding and inexperienced animators made it difficult to go into Nemo production, so he hired veteran staff away from other studios to work on Lupin the Third Part II, Hayao Miyazaki's film Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, and Isao Takahata's film Jarinko Chie. And he frequently held screenings of those two films of Miyazaki and Takahata for film professionals in the U.S. to showcase his company's capabilities. In the spring of 1981, Fujioka launched the project after securing a 4 billion yen investment from consumer finance company Lake. Fujioka initially approached George Lucas, who was then at the height of his career with Star Wars and Indiana Jones, about co-producing the film as a foothold to penetrate the American market. Lucas, however, declined the offer, citing difficulties with the initial draft plot. Fujioka also approached Chuck Jones, but Jones also declined. So he asked Gary Kurtz, who had been recommended by Lucas to replace him,