Ellen DeGeneres to 'Dory' reporter: 'Just say you cried!'

When I told Finding Dory star Ellen DeGeneres that I almost cried during the movie, the comedienne had a ready retort.

"Just say you cried! It's okay," DeGeneres said, while the rest of those in attendance at her press conference roared in laughter. "We all cried."

When I told DeGeneres that even seeing parts of the film's trailer and replaying scenes from the film in my head made me tear up, DeGeneres talked about how she feels the film resonates with so many so deeply-and why.

"I think it's so much more than a cartoon movie," she continued. "I think we're all so proud of this . . . It's so much more complex and layered than any of us thought it would be. It's much more complex and layered than Finding Nemo- and Nemo was a great movie-but there are so many layers to this."

"It's a very personal story for Dory and it's very emotional. So it was very easy to cry," she added, saying the script was very powerful to get the actors to convey that, since all they could do was voice-act. "I couldn't read the lines and pretend to sniffle and pretend to get emotional (and) it was emotional. It was really sad."

However DeGeneres stressed that the smash sequel is far from a downer. She feels the film portrays a spectrum of universal emotions.

"Everything that Dory was going through and feeling-these are all human feelings", she said. "They're all the same feelings we all have-and it does show the power of these animators, how they make it so beautiful and realistic and the characters they create are so complex that you do get emotional and you cry at a fish."