In my previous post about movies, I talked about Drake’s first experience in a theater as well as his excitement for Finding Dory to come out. Last Sunday we managed to watch it. My original plan was to only take Drake since he has been anticipating the movie for so long. Movies are a big deal emotionally to me since many of my own childhood memories are tied to them, and I made such a big deal about taking Drake to his first movie, I felt the same amount of attention ought to have been put in for Juliet and Fiona’s first experiences too. Still last minute I decided to let Juliet come along too for her first movie experience because she is familiar with Nemo and Dory, since Drake loves the movie and characters so much.
Juliet, being newly 3, is much younger than Drake was when I first took him in November, and much younger than I would have taken a child in truth. But I guess that’s how parenting changes when you have more than one child. I was worried about Juliet’s attention span, but I was hoping that the screen would awe her, and let’s not forget the power of snacks and apple juice!
We arrived at the theater way too early, but it gave me time to properly distribute the snacks. I asked for a box for the popcorn so that we wouldn’t have major spillage or fights over the bag. I bought 3 apple juice bottles and got soda cups with lids and straws so we wouldn’t have accidents. Once the previews kicked in, my kids were semi engaged and I thought we would have smooth sailing from then.
Finding Dory takes place about a year or so after Finding Nemo. Dory lives in the coral reef with Marlin and Nemo, though she sleeps in a coral shell next door instead of the stinging anemone. Slowly memories creep back to Dory about her childhood and her parents, and she eventually insists on going back to California where she is originally from to find them. There there are some mad capers, interesting new characters (Hank the octopus is a stand out for me), adorable flashbacks of baby Dory, and of course a happy ending a la Disney/Pixar.
Before I viewed the movie I had read several articles that talked about Dory’s emotional moments. Dory clearly suffers from issues, short term memory loss to be exact, and I read a few articles that mention the parallels of Dory’s issues with parents of children with special needs. There is one scene where Dory’s mother cries about Dory and her issues, wondering if she can survive out in the big world without them that would probably resonate with special needs parents. Dory’s parents try their best to help Dory with her troubles, reminding her to let others know she has memory issues, as well as teaching her to follow shells home if she gets lost. While Dory’s memory loss can equate to special needs in many ways, I felt that even beyond that it highlighted the way that parents try to arm their children with knowledge and tools to help them navigate the world beyond the safety of their parents’ reaches.
I had also read articles talking about how Dory’s story might be emotional for children in foster care or adoption who see that at the end how Dory is both reunited with her birth parents as well as her adopted family (Marlin and Nemo) and they all live together happily. I admit since I am not a birth, foster, or adopting parent these thoughts never ran through my own my mind, but I could see it resonating with parents and children from those walks of life too.
Overall Dory was a lot of fun and touching in the way Disney always is. Juliet did very well all things considered, though toward the end she was clearly losing some attention span and needed to be plied with more apple juice to remain in her seat. While I think Dory worked for us because of how familiar she was with the characters, I dont think I will be taking her to see a movie again until she is a little older.
guest
I took my 3 yo son on his birthday. He loved it. Next time we’ll get there later and skip previews. Toward the end he wanted to sit in my lap and we literally ran to the bathroom but all in all he did great. I was also surprised that he’s still quoting the movie several weeks later. Popcorn really helped, and we got lunch as well.
apricot / 317 posts
I am a foster and adoptive parent, and like you mentioned, I’d heard a lot from other foster/adopt parents that they had concerns that Dory’s story had potential to upset the kids, etc. I agree with you, though, and I don’t see what the fuss is about. My husband and I took our entire group, and no one in our group seemed to think it related to foster care or adoption at all. Dory wasn’t adopted, abused, neglected or abandoned; she wasn’t in foster care. She’s a strong, resourceful fish with very good, loving friends and parents, who got lost by mistake. We had huge family discussions for weeks after watching Kung Fu Panda 3…but the kids didn’t draw many (if any) parallels in Finding Dory.
coconut / 8472 posts
@tlynne: I think the big issue with the foster/adoptive thing is that at the end Dory goes home with both her families and they all live together – Her parents as well as her “adopted” family of Marlin and Nemo. Some people, particularly foster parents, are concerned that their kids could think that this is the end goal for them, too. Without understanding that Dory wasn’t abused or neglected or abandoned by her parents.
I’m sure plenty of kids just take the movie at face value and don’t draw the parallels. But some kids might, especially ones put in the situation of being asked who they want to live with (as a good friend of mine’s foster kids are currently going through).