Program updates

VELASQUEZ. Why does she have to do all the heavy lifting?

REGINE VELASQUEZ’S new sitcom, “Poor Señorita,” is clicking with viewers, but it’s taken an improbable turn of late: After being shut out of her business empire and kicked out of her mansion, Regine’s high-flying character, Rita, is no longer a señorita but a “poorita” who’s had to live with five street kids in their humble hovel.

But, what do you know, she’s easily-breezily adjusted to her new and really low status in life—no problem at all!

Now, we know that she’s supposed to be unflappable and unsinkable, but this is really too big and radical a shift to be pulled off that swiftly and totally.

Determined to reclaim her empire, which has been coopted by the usual lousy and avaricious relatives, Rita is now making money by—selling plastic bags at a public market at only a few pesos per pop! —But, don’t look now, after only a short time, she’s already earned more than P10,000! How do you do that?

Yes, “Poor Señorita” is just a lighthearted show, but Rita should have a more realistically harder time reclaiming her queendom—to make her eventful triumph sweeter.

In addition, the show should work harder to elicit better and stronger portrayals from Regine’s coactors, like Mikael Daez and the five child and teen actors who play her new sidekicks. Why does Regine have to do all the heavy lifting?

Part of the problem appears to be the fact that the young actors are being made to do just the usual show biz cute and porma shtick, not realizing that it’s already passé, and that the current preference is for streetwise and ordinary-looking child actors—as witness the huge success of Simon Pineda on “Ang Probinsyano” and the child actor on “We Will Survive.”

‘Finding Dory’

Our recent notes on “Finding Dory,” the much-anticipated sequel to the 2003 animated hit, “Finding Nemo,” has prompted requests for more details about the new movie’s plot.

Production writeups inform us that the follow-up movie’s plot is set in motion by the “chronically forgetful” and even amnesiac Dory suddenly remembering bits and pieces about her childhood in the waters off Monterey, California.

Naturally, she feels the need to look for and find her family, and Nemo and his dad, Marlin, accompany her on her long journey home.

Expectedly, the way back home isn’t easy, but Dory eventually arrives at the Monterey Marine Life Institute, where she meets and interacts with a beluga whale named Bailey (voice-acted by Ty Burrell), a whale shark named Destiny (Kaitin Olson), and an octopus named Hank (Ed O’Neill).

Other characters are voice-acted by Diane Keaton (as Jenny, Dory’s mother), Eugene Levy (Charlie, Dory’s father), Willem Dafoe, Vicki Lewis, Idris Elba, Dominic West, Bob Anderson, Hayden Rolence, Albert Brooks, Bill Hader and Torbin Bullock.

We’re further informed that the new film’s ending was revised after film executives viewed a documentary about the dangers of keeping orca whales in captivity.

As for Ellen Degeneres’ thoughts on the new film, she is unequivocally quoted as sharing, “I have waited for this day for a very long time. But the long wait has been worth it—the script is fantastic, and it has everything I loved about the first film. —It’s got a lot of heart, it’s really funny—and the best part is, it’s got a lot more Dory!”