Fans of Finding Nemo were over the moon when they saw Dory, a forgetful fish who borrowed the voice of Ellen DeGeneres for the Pixar classic’s second installment in 2003. Dory became so popular that she got her own sequel – Finding Dory, which hit the screens in 2016.
How Ellen DeGeneres became Dory?
Given the popularity of this character, it comes as a surprise that the makers originally planned on making Dory a boy.
In a virtual conversation with Los Angeles Times, the series’ director and writer, Andrew Stanton, mentioned that initially, he imagined the blue fish as a boy. He added that it was dumb of him to think that the guide for the father should be a male fish.
Seemingly, it didn’t work for the makers who hit a production block, which lasted between six months to a year.
This changed when Stanton saw DeGeneres performing a hilarious act on TV.
Ellen gave her voice for the forgetful fish
He heard DeGeneres change the sentence — more specifically, the topic of conversation — at least five times before the comedian could get to the point and complete her part. Soon after, a light bulb flashed in his head – he wanted to depict his lead in a convincing and progressive manner to depict short-term memory.
Ironically, Stanton wanted Dory to get etched to the audience’s minds, even though it was to be portrayed as a character with short-term memory.
While things seemed to be going fine, there was another hiccup that the creator came across. He just couldn’t get DeGeneres’ voice out of his head, and all of a sudden, his writer’s block waned. It got him thinking – why can’t the blue fish be a female?
We have to say that Stanton’s brainwaves also played a pivotal role in giving the character shape and making it one of the most affable animated movies.
Finding Nemo is followed by the story of Dory, a blue oceanic creature who has a short-term memory loss condition and helps a clownfish named Marlin (played by Albert Brooks). They take a trip within the ocean to find Marlin’s son, Nemo (played by Alexander Gould).
Ellen came back as Dory for the sequel, Finding Dory
The sequel reunited the three main characters from the earlier installment and introduced new ones in a story where Dory is determined to find her parents.
In 2016, during the promotion of Finding Dory, DeGeneres stated in an interview that fans love Dory as she’s a kind-hearted fish. She goes on to state that there is no judgment or meanness from Dory’s end. According to her, these reasons are enough for people to like the character and cherish it forever.