Disney’s new movie “Finding Dory” is a lot like the old movie “Finding Nemo,” but this time if follows Dory, a little blue fish with short-term memory loss. “Finding Dory” doesn’t just have just one character with a disability, there are four characters that are all in some way disabled. Ellen DeGeneres is the voice of Dory.
McEvers (NPR interviewer): Nemo had this physical impediment. He had this fin. He wasn’t a good swimmer, and so his father put a lot of restrictions on him. Dory has this short-term memory loss, and her parents go about it in a really totally different way.
DeGeneres: Right.
Mcevers: They try to celebrate her differences…
DeGeneres: Yeah.
Mcevers: …As opposed to Nemo’s dad, who…
DeGeneres: Right. Well, he comes from a fearful place, you know? He comes from fear, and it’s his own – if you don’t understand something and you don’t believe in yourself and you don’t think you can do it, then you’re not going to believe your kid can. And you become overprotective, and you don’t let your kids do anything. And you don’t let them experience anything. That’s his flaw, is lots of fear.
Mcevers: Right, and so Dory’s parents are like the antidote to that.
DeGeneres: Right.
Degeneres: (As Dory) When life gets you down, you know what you’ve got to do?
Albert Brooks: (As Marlin) I don’t want to know what you’ve got to do.
Degeneres: (As Dory) Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim.
For the entire interview: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=482324585
