Finding the Hero in Finding Dory

Finding Dory is a just like a little cupcake. (And those who've seen the film will get the reference.) It's pretty, it's sweet, and it's a decent sequel to something great. However, like a little cupcake, it's lacking a lot of the wholesome goodness that the main course had. If you're just looking for a fun visual spectacle that's great for all ages, go and see Finding Dory, and you can stop reading now.

However, if you'd like to dive a little deeper, "just keep swimming" with me.

(PUNS!! :D Also, vague spoilers, but nothing you shouldn't have been able to guess already.)

With that out of the way, time to overanalyze!

Finding Dory, although visually brilliant and emotionally touching, struggles mainly with its themes and characters. Let's start with a seemingly simple question: who is the hero of this movie? Who reunites Dory with her parents and thus resolves the conflict of this movie?

Most people would be tempted to say Dory - after all, her name is the title of the film. However, Dory doesn't do much to find her parents (except never give up hope that she can find them). It's also hard to have a hero who's frequently forgetting important details, and Pixar knows this. Therefore, she's constantly, and sometimes literally, carried by a large cast of supporting characters rather than her own power. Even though supporting characters are a necessary part of every hero's journey, in Finding Dory, they steal the show. It's not Dory, but the supporting cast who really deserve the credit, especially Hank the Octopus who sacrifices his hopes and dreams to reunite a fish he's just met with her family. The supporting cast is fantastic and makes the movie worth watching, except for Marlin and Nemo who haven't really developed since the first movie and are tossed to the side to make room for Dory and friends. (I guess we'll never see teenage Nemo.)

By the end of the film, I actually cared about Dory's parents more than Dory herself. While Dory forgetfully floats through life, it's Dory's parents who display vast amounts of love nurturing her despite her disabilities. Like Dory, they never give up hope that they will see their daughter again, but unlike Dory they take action and make sacrifices in order to make that dream a reality. However, they themselves repeat to Dory that she is the hero, not they.

I guess the problem I have with Dory is that she doesn't really do much on her own. She may have a hero's journey, but she's more of a passive spectator, not an active participant. This is great for her role as the viewpoint character, but not the hero.

Think back to Finding Nemo, and its clear hero, Marlin. Marlin loves his son Nemo, but unlike Dory, he does a whole lot to find him. He has supporting characters too, but it's a give-and-take relationship. Dory encourages Marlin, but Marlin also risks death to save her life. Nemo escapes the dentist, but Marlin was there first, and only left because he thought his son was dead. Maybe I'm being too nostalgic here, but Marlin was a much better hero, and therefore his journey was a much better story. Finding Dory may have borrowed the art and characters of Finding Nemo, but in the process, left an enthralling story behind.

Or maybe the real heroes are the writers, wielding the forces of luck and destiny in their hands. The lesson of the film is "go with your gut and trust your luck," which works predictably well in this scripted environment, but disastrously in real life. In Finding Dory, the writers can literally make Dory the luckiest fish in the sea. The writers, with deus ex machina devices like a "underwater interstate" from Australia to California, also carry their hero Dory to her parents. But the fact that this unrealistic lesson - "trust your luck"- is repeated again and again took away some of my enjoyment of the film. There's great stuff in here about sacrificial love between friends and family, but none of it is vocally reinforced to the viewer. You could argue that the hidden moral of the film is "strong friendships will carry you through thick and thin," but unlike the main message, it's only implied. Dory's greatest strength is not her scatterbrained luck, but actually her ability to make solid friendships quickly. Why are these superior messages suppressed in favor of the aformentioned self-saving nonsense?

As we look forward to other Pixar sequels like The Incredibles 2, let's hope they keep the storytelling of the first, and not just the art style. Both are needed to shore up a whale-y good sequel.

- Daniel

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