Ellen DeGeneres

In Finding Nemo (2003), Ellen DeGeneres lets Dory sound as though she is working out what to say while she says it. Her exchanges with Brooks allow a thought to wander before the joke arrives, without sounding laboriously arranged to get a laugh. We warmed to her because that loose conversation makes Dory feel like someone worth spending time with. Her forgetfulness supplies comedy, but DeGeneres gives us enough pleasure in her company that the performance need not keep pointing it out.

Her move from stand-up to the sitcom Ellen (1994–1998) gave that conversational style a regular television setting. The live-action credits include Mr. Wrong (1996) and EDtv (1999), but her voice work has drawn more critical enthusiasm. Acting has remained secondary to stand-up and presenting, with many credits consisting of cameos or appearances as herself. The Dory films give us more sustained character work to consider.

Andrew Stanton wrote Dory with DeGeneres in mind after hearing her rambling, topic-changing speech on television. It is a useful piece of casting because he makes room for her own comic habits rather than asking her to supply a generic animated voice. David Ian Salter’s editing leaves space for her timing with Brooks without slowing the adventure. Thomas Newman’s score is most effective when it does not crowd those voices. We do not need the music to insist that we like Dory; DeGeneres has already done enough.

Finding Nemo can be insistent about its parenting advice, though DeGeneres rarely sounds as if she is delivering a lesson. She returned to the part for Finding Dory (2016), which put Dory at the centre of the story. It was a natural next step, but one character is still a limited basis on which to judge an actor. Start with Finding Nemo, where she has Brooks to talk to and the film knows to let them get on with it.