The Original Finding Dory

 

Since yesterday was the 8^th anniversary of this great Pixar sequel, Finding Dory, let’s talk about a certain movie from Disney that is quite similar to it, but before this, let’s go into a little personal history.

On Christmas 2003, a little girl who became a big sister, was going to be five in a couple of months and had already started elementary school, was unwrapping her Christmas gifts, she had gotten a toy dolphin, Nemo sticker sets, and so much more. She got her big Christmas wish which was Finding Nemo on DVD, but then another gift she unwrapped was a DVD called The Tigger Movie, and she got to watch both of them, but had to come downstairs by the “How To Be A Tigger” scene. The little girl had no clue that the first DVD she got would get a sequel years later and it would have a plot that is quite similar to The Tigger Movie’s story, it’s like Santa Claus had predicted the future. I remember being excited to see Finding Dory and it was great, sure Finding Nemo is better, but it still is really well done and I can see the passion Andrew Stanton put into it and I still think it’s great! After a year, I started to revisit some of the Winnie The Pooh movies, especially Piglet’s Big Movie and The Tigger Movie, since I’ve had them on DVD since I was 4 and watched them a lot, but when I revisited the latter, I started to realize how similar The Tigger Movie is to Finding Dory because they have similar plots and messages about what family is, it was so amazing to think about. Similar to my Bolt and Toy Story article, this is about what is so similar about the Tigger Movie and Finding Dory and the things that make them great!

 

The stories both have protagonists that are usually bubbly and cheerful. Tigger is known to be very bouncy and maybe a little too excited, sometimes it can make him be reckless, while he may cause some trouble he means well. Dory is a caring blue tang, who’s bubbly, has a positive outlook on life, remembers to just keep swimming no matter how hard life can get and can be very wise, however, she’s shown to have a bit of a problem, she suffers from short term memory loss and it can cause her to be horribly forgetful and it has lead others away but she still was able to make a few friends.

The movies also take one line that they had that helped start out the plot of these movies. Tigger’s song, “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers” ends off with a line where he believes that the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is him being the only one, but this movie makes him realize that it’s not so wonderful, as we’ll explain soon. The scene where we first meet Dory in Finding Nemo has her crashing into Marlin, when she hears from him that he has to find the boat that took his son, Dory tells him that she did see a boat and shows him where it went and tells him to follow her, but no sooner does that happen, does she start swimming in different directions much to Marlin’s confusion, she starts yelling at him to stop following her, and when Marlin reminds her what she was doing she repeats the thing she said to him about seeing a boat, which angers and confuses Marlin and she sadly confesses to him that she has short term memory loss and says that it runs in her family or she thinks so and wonders where they are, sure then she forgets and asks Marlin if she can help him, that seemingly throwaway line is what eventually lead to Finding Dory, something I can imagine Andrew thought about especially when he remembered that Dory was lost the whole time.

The stories also have the protagonist looking for their families as well. When Tigger does a powerful bounce to remove a rock he accidentally dropped on Eeyore’s house has some messy results, Rabbit yells at him for it and his other friends explain that they can’t bounce like him because they’re not Tiggers, which saddens Tigger, and he laments how there’s nobody like him. When Roo suggests he find another Tigger to bounce with since he has a mama and he might have a family somewhere, and this makes Tigger think that maybe he does have a Tigger family and goes searching for them. As for Dory, when she joins in with Nemo’s class for a field trip to the stingray migration, when Mr. Ray advises the class to be careful of the undertow, and when Dory hears that word, it has her lost in her memories and she remembers a rhyme about undertows and then she ends up in the undertow knocking her out, but once she hears Nemo shouting her name, she has a flashback of her parents. When she comes to she shouts out that she remembered something and once Nemo mentions The Jewel Of Morrow Bay California, (which he heard her mutter in her sleep) it instantly triggers her memory of her family and home and instantly goes to look for them. After Marlin tries to stop her, Dory tells him that she misses them and asks him if he knows what that feels like, and Marlin having lost his wife and all but one of the eggs and having been separated from Nemo before agrees that he does and he and Nemo agree to help her find her parents and the adventure begins.

The protagonists search and search throughout the movie. Tigger gets an idea from Owl to find his family tree, which he and Roo search for with little to no luck, he searches his house to look for something that could give him a clue to his family’s whereabouts and he and Roo end up finding a locket, which he thinks could have a picture of his family but the locket has nothing inside, he even tries writing a letter to them but he never gets a letter back. When Roo sees how sad Tigger is, he tells Kanga that he wishes Tigger was his big brother so he would be one of their family, but Kanga tells him that Tigger is one of their family and he will always be as long as they love and care about him. He thinks about that and he gets the friends together to write him a letter from his family, they say lovely things to him and mail it.

As for Dory, once she, Marlin and Nemo get to California, Dory starts calling for her parents loudly and some crabs shush her and it reminds her of when they shushed her when she was little and when remembering it, she remembered the names of her parents, Jenny and Charlie, and her shouting causes a squid to chase them and it  nearly eats Nemo, after Marlin berates her for this and tells her to just wait and forget. Dory feels hurt and tries to go for help and when she hears Sigourney Weaver (yes the real Sigourney Weaver) making announcements about the Marine Life Institute, a fish hospital, she ends up getting taken by people and put inside the institute. In there, she meets an octopus (though actually he’s a septopus because he lost a tentacle) named Hank who is so desperate to get into an aquarium in Cleveland, he agrees to help Dory find her parents in exchange for this tag she got so he can go on the truck. This leads to Dory remembering times she had with her parents, from her parents laying out shells for her, her mother telling her that purple shells are her favourites, her father telling her that there always is another way to solve a problem and that her parents taught her to just keep swimming. Those memories, along with help from her childhood friend Destiny, the beluga whale Bailey get Dory to go places that can get her to the Open Ocean exhibit, after she gives Hank her tag and the two say goodbye to each other, (also showing how Dory’s grown on Hank), Dory searches throughout the open ocean, and more memories are triggered and she finds her childhood home only to see her parents aren’t there, and when she finds a purple shell, she remembers how she got separated than her parents, she heard her mother crying, worrying about how she would do in the world with her short term memory loss, and to try to cheer her up she went to get her a purple shell, but it was too close to the undertow and she ended up swept away, and that’s how she ended up in the ocean and spent most of her life looking for her parents, and forgetting about them, before she ran into Marlin and, well, you know the rest.

The characters also hit rock bottom when it seems like they’ll never find their families. In the Tigger Movie, Tigger is so happy to get his letter, he tells his friends about it, sings a musical number about his family, (which leads to a lot of pop culture references, clever ones, it has to be seen to be believed) and then he tells them his family is coming to see him tomorrow, which worries them. They try to tell Tigger about the letter but they just don’t have the heart to do so, then they get the idea to dress up as Tiggers so Tigger won’t be sad, things go well at the party but then when Roo tries to do a very powerful bounce, he crashes into a closet and his mask ripped a bit. Tigger removes all of the other’s masks (except for Pooh, he took it off himself), and he feels hurt and betrayed thinking they were treating it like a joke. In anger, he declares to go looking for his family and family tree, disowns them and uses a different goodbye, usually he says, “TTFN, Ta-Ta for now!” but here he says “TTFE Ta-Ta Forever!” Wow, coming from Tigger, ouch! As he walks away, his friends look sad as they watch through the windows, Roo especially, as later he goes to Pooh’s house crying to him to help him find Tigger, feeling ashamed for causing him to leave. Pooh comforts Roo and assures him they will find him, and they convince Rabbit to lead the search party, at first he refuses, but when they remind him of Tigger’s good qualities and he sees how sad Roo is, he agrees and they go searching in a big snowstorm. While that’s happening, Tigger keeps searching, slipping on ice (remember, Tiggers don’t like ice skating!), and after getting stuck in the snow, he finds a tree that appears to have stripes on it, and he believes it’s his family tree. He bounces up, calling for his family but no one answers, leaving him heartbroken.

When Dory remembers how she got separated from her parents, some crabs tell her that the blue tangs are being shipped off to Cleveland, and they tell her how to get to quarantine through the pipes, though she tries to remember the directions, she remembers Bailey’s echolocation skills, she calls Destiny for help in whale talk, the whale shark advises Bailey to use his echolocation and once it works, he tells Destiny the directions, which she passes onto Dory, but then he sees a strange looking fish and they think it’s fierce and it’s going to eat her, but it’s actually Marlin and Nemo. When they go to the quarantine, Dory feels doubtful that her parents will want to see her but Marlin, having been in their position, reassures her they will be so happy to see her and tells her about the great things she’s done, showing him how to do daring things, (if people point out he did say that to her in the first movie, Andrew in the commentary pointed out that when he did say it, he was depressed because he thought Nemo had died and wanted to forget about it, but in the sequel he is more content to say it) and tells her that her greatness will help her find her parents. When they find the blue tangs, they tell Dory that her parents went to look for her in quarantine, but they never did and when fish don’t return from quarantine, that means they’re gone. Dory feels distraught and has a panic attack, and through a little mishap, she ends up lost back in the ocean and due to her short term memory loss, she can’t get help and she ends up breaking down, feeling alone and thinking she doesn’t have a family and that she can’t do anything right.

Before we get to the next point, I have to point out that seeing these two characters lose hope and feel sad is quite heartbreaking, because they’re usually very bubbly, optimistic and full of life, yes, we’ve sometimes seen them sad before whether it was Tigger being told he couldn’t bounce again, or Dory’s monologue when Marlin tries to leave her, but to see them hit rock bottom like this is quite heartbreaking.

 

Luckily both characters do receive a happy ending when they learn what family is.

When Tigger’s friends find him on the tree and try to get him to come home with them, he refuses and orders them to go home so they’ll be safe but he has to wait for his real family, but his yelling causes an avalanche. He puts everyone up on the tree, even Rabbit, who holds onto him before Tigger throws him up in the branch, but Tigger wasn’t so lucky, he got caught in the snow, and was soon to fall off a cliff. Roo bravely did the super bounce to catch up to Tigger, as he landed on the boulder his friend is on, the boulder fell off the cliff, but he and Tigger did that super bounce and made it back to the tree safe and sound. When the others praise Roo for his bravery and for saving him, Tigger is about to embrace him but then when he remembers his family, he feels sad again. Then Owl, Kanga and Christopher Robin come to them, and when Tigger tells the latter he was looking for his family and he got a letter for them, he can’t find it, and then the friends recite it, and this makes Tigger realize that his friends have always been his family all along and that makes him happy. To celebrate he gifts everyone a present, he gives Eeyore a nice home, Piglet a lot of firewood, Pooh enough honey to last the winter and Roo his cherished locket, and when he realizes there isn’t a photo in it, Christopher Robin takes a picture of everyone together, a lovely family portrait. Cue Kenny Loggins’ song Your Heart Will Lead You Home and many tears during the credits.

When Dory feels hopeless, she remembers Marlin and Nemo’s words, “What would Dory do?” she thinks about what she would do, as she looks around she looks at the sand, which she used to call squishy, and then she sees a shell, in fact, she sees a whole trail of shells and they all lead up to a tire, sort of like the place she lived in at the open ocean. As she looks around, she sees two blue tangs with more shells and they look quite familiar, it turns out to be Jenny and Charlie. When Dory is about to say her name, they instantly swim over to her and hug her. Dory then, breaks down apologizing for everything that happened, but her parents comfort her and help her see what she did, she found them in her own way, and that makes Dory see how great she is, then she remembers she has another family, and they’re in the truck. After telling her parents the whole story, she explains to them why they’re important and they need to save them. After calling Destiny and Bailey, they work together to come up with a plan to get Marlin and Nemo out of the truck, through Bailey’s echolocation, otters cuddling, and a bit of help from Hank, Dory reunites with Marlin and Nemo and she tells them that they are family too. When the truck drivers shoo the otters away, Marlin calls Becky the crazy loon, to come and help them, she gets Marlin and Nemo out but not Dory. After Dory convinces Hank to come to the ocean with her, she reminds all the fish what the third R of the Marine Life Institute is, Release! After going through the roof, Hank scares the truck drivers out and takes over driving while Dory is put in a cup to navigate, hey if toys can hijack a truck, why can’t fish? When they follow flying seagulls, they find out the police are blocking them and it seems like there’s no way out, until Dory comes up with a crazy idea. This leads to Hank driving the truck off the road and into the ocean, while Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World plays (this is probably the only time this song played in a movie that wasn’t used for irony), and the truck doors open and all the fish come flying out and into the ocean, and Dory and Hank reunite with everyone. The next scene shows Dory back in the Great Barrier Reef, playing hide and seek with Marlin, Nemo, her parents, Destiny Bailey and all of Nemo’s classmates and it’s revealed Hank is their substitute teacher until Mr. Ray comes back from his migration. The movie ends with Dory, swimming off to the Drop Off, Marlin worried about her safety (since that was where Coral and the eggs died and where Nemo got taken away), follows her and feels relieved to see her just staring at the view and joins her, they both enjoy the view. Book versions of the movie included Dory looking back and seeing everyone there, she can see her whole family, admittedly I wish that was in the movie because it would’ve made it a bit more powerful, but it’s a good moment that I’m willing to let it slide, a truly unforgettable movie.

Another thing that shows these messages of family is whenever we see members of said family going out of their ways to look for them or help them.

In the Tigger Movie there are a few scenes where Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore, look for Tigger’s family tree, coming across striped frogs, who they believe to be Tiggers and Pooh trying to get some honey in a beehive, some would call it filler, but it shows how much Pooh and his friends care about Tigger and are willing to do everything they can to help him. Heck, before they hear about what Tigger is doing, Pooh tries to tell Tigger they would love to bounce with him, showing that they show no ill will towards him, even after the Rock Remover incident, they knew he meant no harm, he was just trying to help. Them going out of their ways to help him, is a great way to show why they are family to him.

In Finding Dory, after Dory is taken into the Marine Life Institute, Nemo calls Marlin out for the words he used towards Dory, and Marlin admits it was his fault and worries it’s a restaurant (remember Marlin can’t read), and the sea lions tell him that there’s nothing to worry about. They tell them they need to find a way in there to find Dory, and through a series of craziness, from being carried in a bucket of water by Becky the loon, and when Becky gets distracted, Marlin tries to get closer but this causes the bucket to fling up the branch and they fall into a fish tank, but then Becky takes the bucket to quarantine, Marlin’s anxiety cost them their chance to get there fast. After Nemo calls his father out, they talk about Dory, and think about what she would do to get out of a situation, and they think like her when they go through a splash pad and the fountains help them get back into the ocean, and they find the pipes and that’s how they reunited with Dory. This scene shows how much Marlin and Nemo care about Dory and are willing to do crazy things to get back with her, they even can be inspired by the way she does things in order to get out of a tough jam, this is another way to help Dory see her good qualities and not see her disability as a problem that holds her back, and that is just amazing!

 

Both movies may be quite similar with their stories about an optimistic character searching for their family and learning about what family is, but they both are told very well, and they still stand out darn well.

The Tigger Movie shows how much finding other Tiggers means to the bouncy guy, and it also delves well into Roo’s relationship with Tigger, he really looks up to him and cares about his friend and wants to help him, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when Tigger disowns him for supposedly toying with him and Roo breaks down to Pooh. Speaking of emotional, seeing Tigger mostly feeling down or angry is quite a sight since he’s very bouncy and optimistic, and anytime he feels these emotions, especially when he doesn’t see his family in the tree, gosh makes you want to give him a hug. The movie also shows how much the characters care about each other, especially with Rabbit, we see that even though he gets annoyed with Tigger’s bouncing, he deep down does care about him, when he finds him he was so relieved and was horrified to see him in the avalanche and told Roo he was so brave to save him, he even joined the others when they called Tigger his family, just aww! Plus, this movie took risks, they already dealt with mature themes in Pooh’s Grand Adventure, but this was quite dark, I mean the avalanche scene, wow! This is how to add darkness to the Poohniverse without going too far, unlike that stupid Blood and Honey movie, seriously, what is it with beloved characters becoming bloody and horror themes? It’s just disgusting, this world is way too cynical with people who ruin nice things and care more about money than passion, no wonder people lose faith in humanity! Anyways, the Tigger Movie is such an emotional movie that can hit you even more than you did when you were little.

Finding Dory was a movie I was excited to see, since I loved Finding Nemo ever since I was little, so I had hopes for it and I’d say it went greatly. It was nice to see Dory in the spotlight since she was probably everyone’s favourite character in Nemo, it does a great way showing how she deals with her short term memory loss, her learning to accept it and learning that she has great qualities and is capable of overcoming challenges, it can be great for anyone who has a physical or mental disability. Plus, it gave Andrew Stanton a chance to use flashbacks that he wanted to use in Finding Nemo, but this time it would be for Dory and it worked better with her memories, shows how some deleted ideas can work. Plus, I think we can all agree that little Dory is so cute, gosh her little body and her big eyes, just aww! Plus, seeing how she has great friends that are different, have different disabilities but they learn to accept it, and are willing to work together and help each other and that just makes it so great. I will admit that a few deleted scenes could’ve made it a bit more better, but I really enjoyed it a lot, that I’m willing to overlook it. I can see Andrew Stanton’s passion into bringing back the characters he and the crew worked hard on to life and he truly deserves a shout out for succeeding so well, this is why I can be very optimistic when it comes to Pixar sequels, and their recent movie Inside Out 2 has proven they have what it takes to make a great sequel. I wish for the best in Pixar’s future and hope things work out for them.

I highly recommend that you watch both of these movies, on Disney Plus, or on home media, remember to have tissues and remember two things, your friends and family are always there for you and no matter how rough things will get, Just Keep Swimming!