Dory views her short-term memory loss as a flaw.
She mutters “don’t be such a Dory, Dory.” after she forgets.
This reveals how she views herself as different and less than others.
Nemo grew up with his disability being called lucky.
He doesn’t suffer from his disability in the way that Dory suffers from her short-term memory loss.
“This characterizes her disability as an affliction, which implies that Dory’s disability does not simply make her different—her difference plagues her.
Because the film implies that this difference is her whole identity, this dialogue suggests that,
on a fundamental level, Dory suffers from being herself.” (Klinowski 51)
These three featured disabled characters embody different ways of viewing disability as well as providing inclusive representation.
Mental differences are highly stigmatized. Dory is taught she suffers from her disability.
A frequent problem related to my visible physical disability is people treating me like a child even though I am an adult.
Finding Dory plays into this trope through frequent flashbacks.
“Finding Dory is a children’s film, and “child viewers can relate to Dory if they see her as a child,
and this perceived commonality is a point of suture that unifies the two sides of this representational relationship,
even as it problematizes Dory’s identity.”
“These scenes encourage the audience to think of Dory as disabled and Dory as a child,
which leaves the audience to conclude that having a disability makes someone essentially childlike.” (Klinowski 51)
This stereotype is more often associated with cognitive differences. Child role models are a double-edged sword in this case.
The creators want Dory to appeal to children but perpetuating that disabled people are childlike is a problematic connection.
Another connection between childlike behavior and disability is evident when Dory must first find her parents before herself. This suggests that Dory is dependent on her parents.
In contrast to the last film, Nemo is not as dependent on Marlin. Instead, it is we see Marlin’s journey to allow his son, who has a disability, to become independent.
And, in Finding Dory, we see the lesson has been learned, unlike accepting Dory’s differences. The presence of diversity and inclusion in films was much more expected in 2016 than in 2003.
The attempt to make a progressive sequel focused on a disabled protagonist was more obvious.
And the film succeeds in depicting different the disability community in a more nuanced way.
Source
Klinowski, Stacie, “Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, Finding Ourselves: How and Why We Teach Our Children to Think About Disability” (2018). English. 25. https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/honorscollege_eng/25