Daily Dialogue — April 20, 2016

Dory: Hey, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do?
Marlin: I don’t want to know what you gotta do.
Dory: (sings) “Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.”

— Finding Nemo (2003), screenplay by Andrew Stanton & Bob Peterson & David Reynolds, story by Andrew Stanton

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Pixar.

Trivia: Dory does get Nemo’s name right a total of seven times, four of them without being corrected first. Of course, some of these times are in quick succession. She also calls him Chico, Fabio, Bingo, Harpo, and Elmo, in that order.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Marlin’s Disunity is tethered to the tragedy of his past. That manifests itself in anxiety over what could go wrong in the future. As a result, he is unable to live fully in the moment. This is what Nemo rebels against and leads to him getting taken away to the dentist’s aquarium.

Dory is the perfect character for Marlin to encounter. Why? Because she has a medical condition which necessitates that she live in the present. “Just keep swimming” is a perfect encapsulation of her present-orientation… and one of many lessons for Marlin which he finally gets by story’s end.