Finding Dory: Does, In Fact, Just Keep Swimming

Do I even need to write a review for Finding Dory?  Is there anyone out there (who doesn't already hate Finding Nemo for some strange self-loathing reason) that thinks that this movie was going to suck? Is there anyone out there who thinks that Pixar is losing its momentum and starting to sell out sequels with zero commitment to providing above average family entertainment. Did anyone see Inside Out last year and think-- this will be the last Pixar movie I'll ever see?  Does anyone think that Dory is one of the worst characters in the Pixar universe and is least likely to deserve her own film? Of course not. If you thought yes to any of the above then you don't need to read this because you will hate Finding Dory and any sort of child-like wonderment that used to reside in your body is gone and turned to ash and salty cigarette butts. Finding Dory is yet another success for Pixar to continue on an unbelievable legacy of animated entertainment.

It's been thirteen years since Finding Nemo swept across theaters and skyrocketed the Pixar name into superstardom. (To put this into perspective-- Finding Nemo came out the same summer as The Matrix Reloaded and Bruce Almighty-- yeah, you're getting old.) We went on a journey with Marlin (Albert Brooks) traversing the entire ocean in search of his young son, Nemo.  Along the way he bonds with short-term memory deficient Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) to aid him in his search and teach him about trust and love and all that junk that makes a decent person. Now, one year after the events of the first film Dory is still around Marlin and Nemo.  They love her, but her constant forgetting and losing her way is starting to get on their tiny fish nerves.  Suddenly, she starts to remember little aspects of her childhood and parents.  She makes her way to California, with Marlin and Nemo in tote, to find her parents at the Marine Life Institute. There, she is separated from Marlin and Nemo and finds an ally in a grumpy octopus, Hank (Ed O'Neil) to get her to the exhibit that her parents were last seen.

It could've been very easy for writer/director Andrew Stanton (who also wrote and directed the first film) to give us a repeat of the first film. Because Dory doesn't remember most things, her getting lost in the vastness of the Ocean with Marlin having to seek her out once again would've been an easy script to write.  But, it wouldn't have been original.   And while Marlin/Nemo get separated from Dory and they do technically have to "find" her... they know she's inside the Institute. There's not an entire ocean separating them.  The title, in fact, refers more to the fact that Dory got separated from her family when she was so young that they have been trying to find her ever since. It's a cute little film that has all the feel and heart of the first film, but feels like a mostly original piece.  It also could've been easy for Dory to become a caricature or an obnoxious lead character, but she's always fun and always empathetic.

The only minor complaints I have about the film is that because the film is mostly centralized within the Marine Life Institute, it doesn't feel like the same scope that the first one lived in. The first movie was populated with so many different characters and locations it was exciting to see not just where Marlin and Dory would go next, but how they would overcome the current obstacle preventing them from getting to Nemo on the other side of the entire ocean.  And while Finding Dory has some great side characters (a near-sighted whale shark, a hypochondriac beluga whale, a pair of lazy sea lions, a helper bird with crazy eyes, etc.), it just didn't feel like the vastness of the first film. And, one element that Pixar has always been exceptional creating is conflict.  There is almost always a moment or two in a Pixar movie where the conflict has come to a head and it legitimately seems like all is lost for the main characters (don't even get me started with the incinerator scene in Toy Story 3), but they come up with some out-of-the-box creative and clever way of getting out of the trouble and saving the day.  There was never really any of that in Finding Dory.  There were constant moments of conflict within the film, but they all felt like minor conflicts that had pretty quick and easy solutions. As far as the "feel" of a sequel, this one actually felt like the smaller movie, but that doesn't mean it wasn't good.  It just wasn't AS good.

Whether I'm just being nitpicky or what, Finding Dory carries over the magic of exceptional animated movies that Pixar has become now become the household name for.  Each movie seems to look more gorgeous than the last. There is so much more detail in every under the sea element and every sea creature/animal that the first movie's effects are garbage (clearly, they're not really).  It's like when you were a child and the Playstation released the PS2.  Compared the the first one, it was groundbreaking.  But compare a PS2 game to a PS4 game and there's hardly any comparison.  That's what Finding Dory is like (I was trying to figure out a less nerdy comparison, but I'm tired and thinking hurts). It's a gorgeous movie.  It's a fun movie.  It's a movie that will make you laugh, cry, and cheer. Pretty much your typical Pixar fare-- and that's almost never a bad thing.

B+