Review of Finding Dory (2016) by Luis C — 16 Nov 2016

Look, if I'm gonna be honest, when I heard that Pixar was gonna do a sequel to Finding Nemo focusing on the character of Dory, I was bummed the fuck out. The wonderful thing about Pixar is the fact that they always moved forward and found ways to tell new stories with fresh characters in exciting worlds.

Yes, they did sequels for Toy Story, but those sequels were natural progressions of the stories that preceded them. They weren't just sequels for the sake of doing sequels. They, of course, ruined that with Cars 2, a sequel that was the first example of Pixar just doing it for the money.

It was a terrible movie. From then on, it has opened the floodgates. We got an unnecessary, yet really entertaining, Monster's Inc prequel. Cars 3 is scheduled for release next year. The Incredibles 2 comes out in 2018.

Toy Story 4 comes out in 2019. And there might be a sequel to this movie. Which disappoints me because of what I already mentioned, Pixar always found new ways to tell stories and it's almost like they've run out of ideas.

They're moving backwards instead of forwards. But, I digress, I was really cynical about this movie and not looking forward to it at all. Will I say that this is an absolutely essential sequel? I don't know, that's not really for me to decide honestly.

It does expand the backstory of a character that we knew very little about other than the fact that she has short-term memory loss. If I'm being honest, however, this movie was an absolute joy to watch.

I think it falls short of Pixar's real classics, like Up, Toy Story 3, or Wall-E, but it's still a pretty damn great movie in its own right and, really, it's one of my favorite movies of the year up to this point in time.

In my opinion, the film finds enough that is new to make it so it doesn't really repeat what came before it, which was one of my worries when hearing about this sequel. That it was just gonna repeat everything that came before it just with a different character.

And, don't get me wrong, there's elements of the first film here, but there's far more that is new and fresh. The introduction of new characters like Hank the octopus, or the sea lions that try to keep Gerald, another sea lion, off their rock, Dory's parents, Destiny and Bailey, even a small character like Becky.

They find enough new angles to tell their story without relying too much on what was established. Storytelling has always been one of Pixar's strongest points and that is no different here as it offers a really sweet, and touching, story of Dory going to the ends of the world to find her parents.

They give you a bit of dynamism with flashbacks when Dory was a child and her parents were trying to teach her how to survive and how to remember things. These flashbacks are really well done and, really, they provide the emotional core for the film.

They give Dory something to fight and strive for, particularly since she was finally, after all this time, remember her parents. It's definitely a very simple story, a fish reuniting with her long-lost parents, but it's pulled off with sensitivity and heart.

It's also got a strong side story with Nemo and Marlin, after becoming separated from Dory, realizing that she's been a very positive influence in their lives and how they realize that, as odd as it may be, they are family.

Again, simple but effective. And, really, you can't write a review of a Pixar film without mentioning the top-notch animation. And it's really no different here. As far as animation goes, Pixar's weakest would definitely have to be The Good Dinosaur.

Everything about that movie yelled Pixar B-team. Everything about this screams Pixar A+ Team because the animation is absolutely fucking beautiful here. The amount of detail that goes into every aspect of the world that these characters inhabit is impeccable.

There really is no one on this world that can do what they do as far as CGi goes. The voice acting is excellent. Ellen Degeneres really does give her best performance ever. As far as Ellen goes, I've never found her to be that funny of a comedienne.

She's super likable and that goes a long way, but I've never found her to be funny. Here, she pretty much does a phenomenal job with Dory. She's funny, she's sympathetic, she's heartbreaking.

She's pretty fucking awesome here honestly. Obviously she's the main focus of the narrative, but Albert Brooks, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Ed O'Neil Idris Elba and Dominic West (both sea lions), all do great jobs here.

Like I can't complain one bit about the voice acting, because they were all great here. The film also has a fair bit of comedy and it's pretty damn great at that as well, it's obviously not the only thing this movie is good for, but you can enjoy strictly as a comedy as well.

But, if you choose to do that, you would be missing out on so much more. The film is a complete package and it's best enjoyed that way, instead of just focusing on one element of the story. So, yea, I can't complain much about this movie at all.

This was a great movie through and through. Fantastic animation, great story and voice acting definitely make this a must-watch. Like I said earlier, it's not one of Pixar's classics, but it's not that far from it either.