The co-director of Finding Dory on making the film.

And I do think children come up with great questions.

Its a really great question.

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I know.

I stole it from a child.

So clearly, from the get go, that was the goal.

For me, to the scope that I pictured, its definitely what I hoped for.

The challenges werent the first challenges Id pictured up front.

Youre going into a movie knowing that the one before Finding Nemo was so loved.

I could see why you could be so overwhelmed very quickly by the anticipation of the film.

That was the only way I could make it to be successful.

Make the movie for yourself, but make the movie universal.

In doing that, that was the only way to keep the steady path to telling Dorys story.

Im so pleased to see the reaction.

It is a bit overwhelming, enjoying the success that its had.

Here, youre dealing with short term memory loss as an issue, and its a very serious one.

How do you go about addressing it, and dealing with it here?

Whilst expanding the character of Dory, within parameters of what short term memory loss actually is?

Everything stemmed from telling her story.

She remembered what she was learning, and how she felt about that.

Its difficult to do with a character with short term memory loss.

Theres a number of things we do through the movie.

We have a series of flashbacks where she remembers stuff.

She states that she remembers something, and acts on that memory.

Those things help define it.

Shell remind the audience that shes aware of her goal.

Without that, there were earlier versions of the film where its always trial and error.

But Dory, sometimes the short term memory loss was originally played for laughs.

Ultimately though, we felt like we frustrated the audience, because they were ahead of Dory.

Is this going to communicate to the audience what shes thinking, what shes feeling?

A lot of it was ordering of information.

She learns that here, she uses that there.

The thing we discovered too was that she did not have long term memory loss.

She had short term memory loss.

And theres emotional memory too?

Exactly, she has that.

And that can be a bit ethereal until we tried to pin it down.

Theres always a balance.

Originally, there was a version of the film too where her parents also had short term memory loss.

It was really frustrating for the audience though, because nobody could remember anything!

It was comedic, but noone was remembering they were missing each other.

There was no urgency to their goal.

How many versions of the film did it take to get the storytelling right and the detail right here?

Eight or nine is about the going rate now.

Like the first film, this was required constant care and attention narratively.

It was such a mix of things that made it work.

The music, as it always does, is a bit of the narrative glue.

I feel like the editing team led by Axel Geddes did a lot of reduction.

How much do we need to tell the audience?

How can we communicate this emotion as simply as possible?

Its very much trial and error.

What about you, then?

Your journey over the past eight or nine years has been no less dramatic.

And now youre at a full feature.

How do you think youve evolved as a filmmaker in that time?

What did making those shorter films teach you that you didnt know before?

I have been an animator for so many years, that Ive seen it from that perspective.

A lot of things are figured out, a lot of things arent.

Chiefly among them was Andrew Stanton, who was a real champion for most of my career at Pixar.

He kept pushing me and affording me these opportunities.

With each short film that I did, I was learning more.

Then doing the short films of increasing length allowed me to expand more into emotion and character.

TheToy Storyuniverse was one I was comfortable with.

Its a different set of challenges, as the scope is so much greater.

And its based on a creative partnership that Ive had with Andrew for over a decade there.

For someone who doesnt quite get the parlance, you have a co-director credit, and Andrews is director.

The director is the key creative driver for the film.

A co-director is a creative partner.

Every co-director is different, in the sense that each has a different specialty.

I come from animation and story.

I was brought on very early in the process.

He knew the value of co-director as he had basically been one forToy Story.

Andrew couldnt be in two places at once.

On top of that, the co-director is one of the key creative partners for the film.

Theres the writer, the producer, head of story, myself, Andrew.

Theres a group of us.

Be a deputy to his sheriff, a Robin to his Batman.

Andrews sensibilities, hes very much interested in strong emotion in his films, hes very great at that.

Nearly a decade beforeSpotlight.

Who, then, are the filmmakers who are impressing you now?

If its possible to see it in a cinema Id highly recommend it.

I saw it twice, and Im so excited about his work.

I really liked Jose Padilha, who didElite SquadandElite Squad 2.

Im hoping for him to do more stuff in the States.

Do you have any smaller films to recommend?

Your film recommendations are terrific.

[Laughs] This is probably not appropriate for Dory!

I really enjoyedThe 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared.

Thats not made it to the UK.

Nobody has the UK rights.

I even wrote to The Weinstein Company at one stage to see if theyd sell them to me!

That ones pretty cool.

The Wave, too.

If it’s possible for you to see that on a big screen.

Its so character-based in such a familiar genre.

I really like Bent Hamer, who did1001 GramsandKitchen Stories.

And then I sawBreathe, directed by Melanie Laurent.

That ones so dark, but its wonderfully directed, and pretty exciting.

But these movies are not for kids.

Green Roomfor me was film of the year though!

Where doesFinding Doryleave you as a filmmaker now?

With every subsequent project youve taken, youve advanced more.

Are there now stories you want to tell, that you want to develop into full features?

I have a bunch of stories Im interested in telling.

A lot of it is figuring out timing.

Im going to have a lengthy break after this press tour and see where things go!

Ive been very fortunate to be given the opportunity to make movies that people enjoy.

And to get to learn while Im doing it?

Its really a dream come true.

Angus MacLane, thank you very much.