Turning points

“FINDING Dory”

Events this quarter are turning out to be turning points in some stellar careers. They’re paced by the box-office triumph of “Finding Dory,” the sequel to “Finding Nemo,” that took all of 13 years to effect.

The new film is now hailed as the biggest hit for animated features ever, with $131.2 million for its opening weekend gross.

Credit to the film’s unprecedented success goes to its makers—with special mention for voice lead Ellen DeGeneres.

In “Finding Nemo,” the character she voiced was just the film lead’s “sidekick.” But, when “Nemo” became a sleeper hit, she expressed the wish, before anybody else, that it should have a sequel—and that the follow-up production should be about her character, Dory!

To her everlasting credit, Ellen kept “nagging” producers about making “Finding Dory,” with such “comical” insistence that it became a “running gag” that kept reminding people about it.

Her “nagging” went a long way in keeping the long-delayed project “hot,” until it finally happened last month.

Film industry observers agree that “Dory” wouldn’t have become such a big hit without DeGeneres’ “serial” reminders.

Truth to tell, despite her aw-shucks “hinting” style, there was nothing whimsical or comical about DeGeneres’ consistent effort to make “Dory” a reality, despite the passage of “too many” years.

Its exceptional success has taken her stellar career to an even higher level, even if she only “voice-acted” in the animated feature.

There is method to Ellen’s “madness,” that’s for sure—and her new hit’s profits have given her even more “mad money” to spend—and enjoy!

On the local scene, a turning point is similarly looming with the current showing of “The Achy Breaky Hearts,” the new rom-com starring Jodi Sta. Maria, Ian Veneracion and Richard Yap.

Not too long ago, a “relatively mature” romance, starring the likes of Dawn Zulueta and Piolo Pascual, didn’t do “as well as expected.”

Now comes the similarly “more mature” cast of Jodi, Ian and Richard in their film, so the big, P64,000 question is being asked if it will do significantly better, and thus contradict the general view that relatively “mature” movies are hard to sell to today’s viewers.

There are exceptions to that rule, like Vilma Santos’ “Everything About Her,” but that hit movie wasn’t really a “mature” project per se, because Vilma’s costar was Angel Locsin.

In “The Achy Breaky Hearts,” however, all three leads are in their late 30s and 40s, so it’s more clearly a case of mature casting, like the Dawn-Piolo project.

So, if it clicks more definitively at the box office, as we hope it will, it would go a long way in “proving” that our viewers are ready for less giddy and more mature themes and conflicts. What do you think?