His chances
‘[My girls] basically spent the whole movie blaming me for everything that Bailey did wrong, they’d just constantly turn to me during the screening like, ‘Come on, dad! Just, please, tell her where the wall is already!’ ’ more without having to really use your voice at all.
‘‘But because it’s all your voice, it’s super specific, and sometimes your body goes in weird places trying to get that note.’’
It took Burrell about 10 fourhour sessions to record Bailey – nothing, he says, compared to the years of work the writers and animators put into the films.
‘‘They’re working incredibly hard for a long time. As usual, we [actors] get patted on the back and take credit for other people’s work.’’
Burrell’s daughters know it’s their dad doing the voice, but they don’t fully understand that he did not make the movie.
‘‘So they basically spent the whole movie blaming me for everything that Bailey did wrong, they’d just constantly turn to me during the screening like, ‘Come on, dad! Just, please, tell her where the wall is already!’ ’’
Finding Dory has a message that some of the best things in life happen by chance.
Dory says to her cantankerous octopus companion Hank in the film, ‘‘What is so great about plans? I’ve never had a plan.’’
For Burrell, the best unplanned things to ever happen were meeting his wife, and adopting his two daughters, which he understands might sound strange, since they were adopted.
‘‘In a in a weird way, it wasn’t planned, it’s a weird thing how adoptions can sometimes be as irrational as regular birth.
‘‘My wife Holly and I were on a flight from LA to New York and when we got on the flight we had intended to never have kids.
‘‘When we got off in New York, we were crying that we were going to have a kid, so it was unplanned. And then, when we did it again, it was similarly irrational.’’
What resonated with Burrell about the story in Finding Dory, is how friendship can make you feel whole.
‘‘You can kind of dwell on your imperfections and feel limited about what you can achieve based on what you know to be your weaknesses.
‘‘Which is true, I certainly feel that way, and think a lot of people do.
‘‘But I loved the idea that your friends can make you feel whole, can actually compensate for your weaknesses, and you can do that for them too.’’
There’s a saying that has caught on in Burrell’s household.
It might not make the same splash as ‘‘Just Keep Swimming’’, but it’s a message his girls are reminded of before they leave the house – ‘‘Do your best, be kind, and have fun.’’