'Finding Dory' News: Ellen DeGeneres On Reprising Her Role In Long-Awaited Sequel
It has been 13 long years since comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres first lent her voice to Dory, the blue tang with short-term memory loss, in Pixar's critically acclaimed "Finding Nemo" (2003).
This year, DeGeneres returns to the undersea world of Dory, Nemo (originally voiced by Alexander Gould), and Marlin (Albert Brooks), but, this time, she plays the lead in "Finding Dory," the long-awaited sequel to "Finding Nemo."
In "Finding Dory," viewers will find the forgetful but perennially optimistic blue tang taking on a more emotional story arc. In the sequel, Dory embarks on a quest across the Pacific to find her long-lost parents after her deeply-rooted childhood memories are suddenly sparked by a mention of the word "home."
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The cheerful Dory ends up at a marine life institute in California and meets a dour octopus named Hank (Ed O'Neill) who helps her track down her family.
According to "Finding Dory" director Andrew Stanton, who also directed the original film, it was after watching "Finding Nemo" several years after its initial release that he began wondering about Dory. He wanted to know where Dory was and whether or not she would accidentally get separated from Marlin and Nemo.
"That just really bothered me," Stanton told the crowd at this year's CinemaCon. "I couldn't sleep."
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, DeGeneres was asked about whether or not she had also been worried about Dory in the years since "Finding Nemo."
"No. I realized it was just a movie," the TV host said with a laugh.
"I didn't really worry about her," she explained. "I thought about what would happen if we do a sequel, what the journey would be for her."
DeGeneres also spoke about her experience working on "Finding Nemo" and said that it came at a time when her career was just getting back on track and said that Stanton's belief in her was a huge compliment and would always mean something to her.
She also talked about the experience of voicing Dory for the second time, saying, "It's very easy for me to do her."
"I mean, the voice is me, so that's not a struggle at all, and also the character… It really did surprise me how easy it was for me to be her again," she said. "It really did."
"Finding Dory" swims to theaters June 17.
