P. Sherman Forty Two Wallaby Way Sydney

by Caroline
(San Francisco, CA )

Finding Nemo is one of my favorite Pixar movies and it has a lot to do with a blue tang named Dory who suffers from short-term memory loss.

The movie introduces us to Marlin, a widower clown fish who lives with his son Nemo in the Great Barrier Reef. He and his son get separated when they swim out to the sea and Marlin sets off to find his son. While navigating through various ocean dangers, he meets Dory who accompanies him on many ocean adventures including joining a club with sharks and riding the currents with sea turtles who talk like Keanu Reeves.

The character of Dory is voiced by Ellen Degeneres and from what I understand, the writers of the movie only had her in mind when they wrote the dialogue for Dory. In my opinion, she was the perfect choice to voice Dory.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Marlin is really sad and feeling hopeless and Dory sings "Just keep swimming":

Dory: Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down do you wanna know what you've gotta do?

Marlin: No I don't wanna know.

Dory: (singing) Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim.

Marlin: Dory, no singing.

Dory: (continuing) Ha, ha, ha, ha, ho. I love to swim. When you want to swim you want to swim.

Marlin: Now I'm stuck with that song... Now it's in my head.

Dory: Sorry.

I really identify with this phrase and even to this day when things get rough I tell myself to just keep on swimming and it makes me smile.