Daily Dialogue — April 13, 2015

MARLIN (Chasing Dory): Hey! Wait!
DORY: Will you quit it?
MARLIN: What?
DORY: I’m trying to swim here. What, the ocean isn’t big enough for you or something like that?
MARLIN: Huh?
DORY: You got a problem, buddy? Huh? Huh? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya? You want a piece of me? Yeah, yeah. Ooh, I’m scared now. What?
MARLIN: Wait a minute…
DORY: Stop following me, okay?
MARLIN: What are you talking about? You’re showing me which way the boat went.
DORY: A boat? Hey, I’ve seen a boat. It passed by not too long ago. It went, um, this way. It went this way! Follow me!
MARLIN: Wait a minute. Wait a minute! What’s going on? You already told me which way the boat was going.
DORY: I did? Oh, no.
MARLIN: If this is some kind of a practical joke, it’s not funny. And I know funny. I’m a clown fish.
DORY: No, it’s not. I know it’s not funny. I’m so sorry. See, I suffer from short-term memory loss.
MARLIN: Short-term memory loss? I don’t believe this.
DORY: No, it’s true. I forget things almost instantly. It runs in my family. Well, I mean, at least I think it does. Uh, hmm. Where are they?

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

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Amnesia. Suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: Andrew Stanton pitched his idea and story to Pixar head John Lasseter in an hour-long session, using elaborate visual aids and character voices. At the end of it, the exhausted Stanton asked Lasseter what he thought, to which Lasseter replied, “You had me at ‘fish’.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “This is the scene that introduces Dory, one of the most lovable amnesiacs in film, brilliantly voiced by Ellen DeGeneres. We are often told to give our characters a tic, something that makes them memorable. Dory’s memory problem was her defining characteristic. It gave her a weakness to overcome and provided the story with a source of complications, but her overriding optimism counterbalanced Marlin’s eternal gloom.”

If you have have a suggestion for this week’s theme, please post in comments.