YMMV / The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

• Alternate Character Interpretation: There are those who believe Klaus sabotaged the helicopter to get Ned out of the picture and take his place as Steve's surrogate son. Futhermore, due to Ned's posthumous appearance in the ending credits roll call, some believe that his death was faked by Steve for ratings.
• Awesome Music: "Search and Destroy".
  • Seu Jorge's Brazilian Portuguese covers of David Bowie.
  • Sigur Rós. Full stop.
• Genius Bonus: Why is the boat called the Belafonte? Well, about every aspect of Steve Zissou was taken from Jacques Cousteau, whose boat was called Calypso. Harry Belafonte was a musician who sang calypso!
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Some critics accused the film's basic story and characterization of being too similar to that of Wes Anderson's previous film, The Royal Tenenbaums, and didn't feel that the stylistic differences were enough to justify the similarity.
• Memetic Mutation: This promotional image of Willem Dafoe became a meme in late 2020, in combination with his character from The Lighthouse.
• Nightmare Fuel: The description of Esteban's death after the unseen jaguar shark attack.
  Steve: Eaten! Esteban was eaten!
  Klaus: He was swallowed whole?
  Steve: No! Chewed!
• Tear Jerker: Ned's very sudden death.
  • The scene where they find the Jaguar Shark and Steve decides not to kill it; "I wonder if it remembers me?"
  • It goes into Funny Moments territory when he reveals they were out of dynamite.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: All of the sea creatures are animated in stop-motion, and they are absolutely breathtaking.

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