Ananya Kulkarni (Week 16) - Finding Dory
In an article by filminquiry.com, the author analyses Dory's character and behavior to see how accurately Pixar is depicting anterograde amnesia and effects in the movie Finding Dory. In the previous movie, Finding Nemo, Dory is suddenly able to remember the location of the Sydney address when looking for Nemo. The author asks the question of whether or not this was a slip-up made by Pixar as Dory was able to remember a detail from her past. However, Marlin, Nemo's dad, somehow acted as a retrieval clue for Dory which allowed her to remember the address. This depiction of Dory being able to remember this detail was accurate as many memories form from associations with objects and emotions. Additionally, when Dory had flashbacks, they were usually preceded by a word or phrase that acted as an association such as the word "undertow" causing Dory to have a flashback of her parents. Using association is a common treatment used by clinicians when treating patients with amnesia.
Even though Dory is not able to do simple things like remember people's (fish?) names, she is able to remember things like directions. This is because her procedural memory is not affected by her disorder, which is similar to other people who have anterograde amnesia.
Overall, the author concludes that Finding Dory did an accurate job of portraying Dory's anterograde amnesia as well as portraying it in a positive light as Dory helps everyone around her and always finds a way to just keep swimming.
Hi Ananya,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog, I am a bit confused as to how these situations portray anterograde amnesia. This is the inability to create new memories. If Dory has this disorder, then she should be able to remember her old friend's names and other information relevant to the time period before the development of her amnesia. In the movie, they do not talk about this disorder either, only what they describe as short-term memory loss. That is the loss of information that was just collected. Those are two different disorders. I wonder if they both affect each other.
I agree that Pixar does a pretty good job of representing Dory’s anterograde amnesia. Much like real amnesia, hers is not absolute and does not apply to all aspects of her life such as her ability to recall directions, like you mentioned. I wonder when her amnesia developed?
ReplyDeleteHi Ananya, it is interesting to learn that Pixar writers "did their research" when it came to creating an accurate representation of a character with amnesia. Personally, I did not know that anterograde amnesia has no effect on procedural memory, but it is clear that Pixar paid attention to this detail when creating the movie. I think that it is definitely important for writers to create accurate depictions of conditions like amnesia (even in an fictional, animated movie like Finding Dory), in order to reduce the misconceptions and stereotypes that already exist in society.
ReplyDeleteHi Ananya, I really enjoyed reading your blog about Finding Dory, which is one of my favorite movies. I always thought that Dory just had a really bad memory, but I never thought about the alternative: she has trouble making new memories. I find this to be extremely heartbreaking, as all the memories Dory makes with others become memories that only one side remembers. Nevertheless, I still find Dory to be absolutely adorable and charming.
ReplyDeleteHi Ananya, I loved the movie when I was younger, but as I grew older, I was able to make a better understanding of Dory's short-term memory loss and the role it played in the movie. Right now, it makes me think of all the special memories that she has forgotten as a result of short-term memory loss, and it helps me to remind myself not to take my memory for granted.
ReplyDeleteHi Ananya, Thank you for this insightful analysis of a beloved movie. I can't imagine living in a world without the ability to remember things. I always felt bad for Dory for her condition. However like Dory always says, just keep swimming, or in other words, don't let what you don't have stop you from living your life.
ReplyDeleteHey Ananya, I feel like this is a thing that not many people knew about and i feel like this explains a lot about what both Nemo and Marlin mean to Dory. It also shows just how complex memory and the brain is in general.
ReplyDeleteHi Ananya, I ignored it when I watched the movie. But after reading your blog, I can appreciate the amount of detail that Pixar paid attention to. There are many movies that we think are not accurate just because they are movies, but the amount of accuracy that some movies have is astonishing. We should all appreciate how much time movie producers take to make sure their movies are as accurate as possible.
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