'Finding Dory' proof: Hank was grumpy before Ed O'Neill cranked it up
Some octopuses are born grumpy.
So it would seem when it comes to Hank from Pixar's animated underwater adventure, Finding Dory. He was in a bad mood long before TV curmudgeon Ed O'Neill wrapped his tentacles around the voice part alongside Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) in the summer hit movie.
These early, temporary (called "scratch") recordings and images prove that Hank the Septopus (he lost an arm remember) was cranky right from the the formative film process. The recordings are part of the upcoming Finding Dory digital release on Tuesday (Blu-Ray on Nov. 15),
"Hank was not a happy camper, they gave me that brief when I signed on, that's what they told me exactly," says O'Neill, who plays curmudgeonly Jay Pritchett in Modern Family. "I think that’s why they hired me."
Writer-director Andrew Stanton says the early recordings show the many phases of Pixar's animated film process. This scratch scene, featuring Hank (voiced initially by Pixar director Steve Purcell) crawling through drains with Dory (voiced by storyboard artist Valerie LaPointe) also demonstrates the wired-in-grumpiness.
"What the scene does show right away was that there was a charm to Dory being attached to a grumpy octopus, regardless of the situation," says Stanton, making casting O'Neill an easy decision. "Ed was our first, second, and third choice."
Stanton says the scene is funny, but was ultimately cut from the film due to plot changes. For example, it became a much bigger deal for Dory to work her way through dark pipes alone in the final film.
"We realized that traveling through the pipes needed to be a hard thing to conquer, it meant being alone, which is hard for Dory," says Stanton.
O'Neill came onboard and cranky-nailed the Hank part onscreen. Rven he cannot be ticked off by the results, Finding Dory has passed over $1 billion in worldwide box office. O'Neill also got some great Dory swag.
"I love this one Hawaiian shirt they sent, it has all the characters somewhere on the shirt, including Hank. It's silk or whatever they make Hawaiian shirts from, and it’s a beautiful blue," says O'Neill. "And I'm a big fan of the Hank coffee mug."