Ahsoka Vs Dory From Finding Nemo: Who Did The Whales Scene Better?
Contains spoilers for "Ahsoka" Season 1, Episode 5 – "Part Five: Shadow Warrior"
In the "Ahsoka" episode "Part Five: Shadow Warrior," Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) goes through a rollercoaster ride that's pretty wild even by her considerable standards. After losing her duel with Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), she finds herself in the World Between Worlds, where the Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) guides her through her unresolved issues and past regrets. This being Anakin, the training method is naturally lightsaber combat with a hefty side order of traumatic flashbacks.
When Ahsoka makes peace with her past and chooses to live, things somehow get even more interesting. Having finally figured out a way to follow Morgan Elsbeth's (Diana Lee Inosanto) faction and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) to a galaxy that's far away from the galaxy far, far away, she communicates with hyperspace-hopping Purrgil space whales in hopes of securing a ride to where they took Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) at the end of "Star Wars Rebels."
For "Star Wars" fans who know their Pixar films, the scene that shows Ahsoka "talking" with the massive space whale in front of her and hitching a ride in its mouth might seem immediately familiar. In "Finding Nemo," the running joke of Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) supposedly knowing how to speak whale pays off in a magnificent way when she's able to communicate with a blue whale, who swallows her and Marlin (Albert Brooks) and transports them to their destination. Both scenes are extremely impressive ... and, let's face it, weirdly similar. But which one did it better?
Finding Nemo was the first and set the scene up better
"Finding Nemo" was always going to get a head start in this, if only because the Pixar film was the first to do it. Well, not the whole "swallowed by a whale" thing, of course — that's an old story that appears in works ranging from "Pinocchio" to the Bible. Still, when it comes to the exact beats the "Ahsoka" and "Finding Nemo" versions cover, Dory has Ahsoka Tano beat ... by two decades, no less.
Apart from the time advantage, the "Finding Nemo" version of the scene also has another significant pro in its corner: the loving, patient way it sets up the whale moment. Dory starts the movie as a cloud cuckoo lander who seems to be far more annoying than she is useful. Over the course of the movie, her positive character traits slowly unfold as she turns out to be a great friend with a whole host of hidden depths. The whale scene captures this journey perfectly. After the movie has painstakingly set up Dory's supposed ability to speak whale as fake at best and fraudulent at worst, the audience and Marlin suddenly discover that she was telling the truth all along. From this point on, Dory is presented in an exclusively positive light and plays an instrumental part in Nemo's (Alexander Gould) rescue.
There are plenty of poignant scenes in "Finding Nemo," but the whale one defines Dory as a character ... and may very well have played a part in the fact that the movie's sequel is called "Finding Dory."
Ahsoka has bigger stakes and more drama ... but perhaps less heart
In the "Ahsoka" corner, the Purrgill scene doesn't come out of the blue. The creatures have already debuted in live-action in "The Mandalorian" Season 3, and have played a role in "Ahsoka," as well. It's a known fact that they can travel in hyperspace, and Ezra has demonstrated in "Star Wars Rebels" that certain Force-sensitive people can communicate with them. Since they're also the only creatures left in the galaxy who might have an idea of where Ezra is and where the map Morgan used leads to, it makes perfect sense that Ahsoka enlists their help.
Because of this, the Purrgil scene in "Ahsoka" Episode 5 has a distinctly different vibe from the "Finding Nemo" whale scene. Where the latter is hectic, shocking, and completely in line with the mildly panicked tone of the rest of the movie, Ahsoka's space whale moment is deliberate and majestic with side notes of inevitability — extremely befitting for a heroic effort to stop Thrawn from returning and reforming the Empire.
In terms of drama and sheer stakes, then, "Ahsoka" wins the whale battle with flying flags. However, as far as moving, poignant scenes go, it's hard to top Dory's crowning moment in "Finding Nemo."