FINDING DORY Star and Director on the Beloved Sidekick’s Journey

By Carlos Aguilar.

Last year’s box-office and critical smash hit, “Inside Out,” set the bar even higher for Pixar’s beloved animated fantasies. Following that incredible success, which earned the film an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, seemed like a near impossible feat; however, the studio tapped into one of their classics, “Finding Nemo,” and in particular the charismatic sidekick, Dory, voiced by Ellen DeGeneres. In the new underwater adventure, “Finding Dory,” which comes over a decade after the original film’s release, DeGeneres reprises her role as the forgetful blue tang but this time around as the protagonist. In a recent event in Los Angeles director Andrew Stanton, Ellen DeGeneres and the rest of the voice cast spoke about the intricacies of this new story, the controversy surrounding a particular scene, and why Dory is such an admirable character.

“ I always knew the film was going to be about her accepting herself,” said Stanton regarding the idea for the plot. “There was a specificity about that – it took a long time to really nail down what are we saying about that. It was really about how you’re not at peace until you’ve accepted who you are. She was always going to be unsettled until she experienced what it was like to succeed on her own,” added the Oscar-winning director. His perception of Dory and her challenges drove him to contemplate how she could go from being a secondary character to becoming the captain of the ship. “She had learned to kind of survive in the wild by being the best co-pilot ever. She was always relying on somebody else who’s successful, so one of the ways she could rebuild was if she, like a little kid, did it all by herself.”

Humorously, as is expected from her, comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres explained what her role was in giving Dory her own movie, and why she felt responsible for its success, “I am responsible for every penny that this film makes! I was just a small part of it [Finding Nemo], so I wasn’t campaigning to make a sequel about Dory. I was just campaigning to make a sequel to a great movie. And then when it didn’t happen after first 5 or 6 years, I decided to just have a go at it. Then it became a priority, and then it became about Dory’s journey. So again, I’m responsible for everything that happens now.”

One of the defining characteristics that makes Dory such a quirky fish is the fact that she suffers from short-term memory loss, and though this might encourage people to think of her as a disabled character that’s trying to tackle an specific issue, Stanton noted that what he wanted was a universal connection, “I was trying to be universal with her unique specificity, in a weird way. Nobody wants to watch a character be a generalization of something, so you got to be specific, but hopefully we’re saying something universal with it. I was not trying to just talk about anybody with a disability, I was trying to talk about everybody, because nobody, well, maybe there are people who think they’re perfect, but nobody is, and everyone has a flaw that may actually be mislabeled as such.” He also cited the way he confronts his own imperfections and how he has learned to embrace them, “With age you can reflect, and you start to recognize that I’m not going to change, I am who I am, I’ve got to own that and I’ve got to start enjoying that, with the good and the bad. I think I wanted to not be exclusive, but I think it’s wonderful that it speaks to anyone with a true disability. I think that’s great.”

Similarly, Ellen spoke about Dory as a fish with lots of great qualities rather than defects, some of which she would like to have herself, “I would love to have every trait that Dory has. I try to have as many faces as she has, as far as optimism, and perseverance, and non-judgment, and not having any resentment or holding onto anger. She doesn’t feel like the victim. I think that’s why she’s such a lovable character that Andrew created, because she just thinks that everything is possible, and never that anything is wrong with anybody else or herself. She just keeps swimming, and I think that’s great.” DeGeneres expressed her belief that Dory’s story is not tragic and that obstacles she faces are in fact what make her so relatable, “What appears to be a disability is her strength, and it turns into, ‘What would Dory do?’ So maybe what appears to be a disability is actually something that everybody else can look at in another way, and say, ‘Actually, that’s a different way of thinking and that’s a good way of thinking,’ I love that message, that something that seems to be a handicap is useful as a strength.”

In relation to the so-called “lesbian couple scene” that has been mentioned online, Ellen responded in the most Ellen way possible, “I don’t know that there is, and I didn’t know anything about it until I heard the rumor, and then, when I watched it at the premiere I was looking for that particular scene. And it appears that there are two women, and one of them has a very bad short haircut.” She clarified that what she finds most offensive is that some people might assume that the woman is a lesbian for having a bad short haircut rather than simply judging how bad the haircut is. Lastly, Stanton was questioned about the importance in the order of the films in the now franchise and if whether “Finding Dory” can stand on its own for those who haven’t seen the original film, “There’s a huge possibility that a lot of kids will see this one first, once they’re both just movies that you can find online or wherever, who’s to say which one you watch, and we wanted to make sure you could watch them no matter the order,” he concluded.

“Finding Dory” is now playing nationwide.

“Finding Dory” reunites the friendly-but-forgetful blue tang fish with her loved ones, and everyone learns a few things about the true meaning of family along the way. Featuring the voices of Ellen DeGeneres, as Dory, Albert Brooks as Marlin, Diane Keaton as Dory’s mom Jenny, Eugene Levy as Dory’s dad Charlie and Ty Burrell as Bailey.