Review of Finding Dory (2016) by Reviewsbychris — 01 Jul 2016

Finding Dory is set 1 year after the events of Finding Nemo, and our familiar fish faces Nemo (Hayden Rolence), father Marlin (Albert Brooks), and Dory (Ellen DeGeneres)- the blue tang with short-term memory loss- have settled into normal life at the reef. Dory's memory is infuriating everyone, including herself- and she's struggling to find a role in sea life. But one day, she regains some memories of her family and is determined to find them. But she knows she can't do it alone. Accompanied by Nemo and-reluctantly- Marlin, she must once again make her way across the ocean navigated only by sporadic memories of her childhood to find her parents. But it won't be easy. Along the way she encounters old friends, new creatures, and no shortage of obstacles between her and being reunited with her family. But is this journey futile, or just too impossible?

13 years. 13 years we have been waiting for this movie. And may I just applaud Pixar on such a smart way of making money. Now you've got all the people who were kids when they saw Nemo, all the parents who saw it with them, all the current kids who can see this one, and all the current parents, plus all the others who are just interested in the movie. That's a lot more of an audience than you would normally get for the average children's film. Pixar have released amazing films that are fantastic in giving you the feels and providing quality animated movies. They have received an impressive 30 nominations and 11 wins at the Academy Awards, but they haven't faired so well in two out of three sequels they've made. This combination of reputations gave me both excitement and weariness going into this movie. The trailers didn't look so good as well. The verdict?...SUCCESS!! Thank God! Pixar is back on track!

This film was the definition of 'a rollercoaster of emotions'. Fear, sadness, desperation, admiration, happiness, laughter, ecstasy, hysteria, and tears (of both happiness and sadness) could be seen by the people sitting next to me in the theatre. That is what I believe composes a quality film. The plot was well-designed and crafted- even if in their journey they go around in circles a little bit- and wastes no time getting underway in the beginning. There is a bit of back and forth between flashbacks and reality, which got annoying after a while, and those emotions I was talking about before were not sustained consistently throughout the movie. They existed in small pockets, especially so nearer to the climax(es) of this movie. This could easily be a source of boredom. And then there's Dory herself. You either love her or hate her. When the movie started, Dory was doing her whole 'sorry, I forgot' routine every 5 seconds and I groaned thinking; 'is this really going to be the whole movie?' but luckily it's not, but it's definitely there. Just enough so that you accept that its a character trait, not an annoyance. And one last thing about plot conveniences, HOW DOES NOBODY SEE THIS OCTOPUS CLEARLY MOVING INFRONT OF YOU??? (more of him in a second...).

The cast has a lot of familiar faces- especially if you've seen Modern Family- including old faces Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Hayden Rolence, Andrew Stanton and Bob Peterson among others meeting new faces Ed O'Neil, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Sloane Murray, Idris Elba, and Dominic West. All the voicing was excellent, with DeGeneres demonstrating more of an emotional range. We got to see some solid character development from all our characters, but I would've liked to see some more depth from Hank the octopus- who was one of my favourite new additions- as cruel as he is stealthy- able to hide in plain sight and pull off some daring escapes without being seen due to his dexterity and ability to camouflage, however, I loved all the new additions!!

Themes include family, belonging, uniqueness, friendship, and loyalty. As usual, there's plenty of morals here for the kids to live by. The animation was up to its great standard, and the cinematography was fantastic, along with Stanton and McLane's directing. In terms of engagement, my attention was lost sometimes, but most of the time, I was thoroughly engaged by the storyline, characters, blending of genres and spectacular animation. The ending, however, I felt was a little too long. Poignant, but tedious. No cliches here either, another unique Pixar film. The tone was simultaneously emotional yet lighthearted due to the way the proceedings occur. I expect some Oscar nominations from this movie.

You should probably watch Finding Nemo to get some context of the characters, but it isn't a necessity. They make some references to the original which is good for nostalgic purposes. To improve, sustain the emotive scenes and engaging qualities over the entire film for better engagement, and the running time probably could've been cut down.