My first review is Disney/Pixar's newest release, Finding Dory. Finding Dory is the sequel to Disney/Pixar's smash hit Finding Nemo, the hit movie that followed Marlin and Dory's adventures to find Marlin's son Nemo.
The story for Finding Dory is slightly different. This time, Nemo and his dad Marlin must venture out to California to find Dory. Meanwhile, Dory is on an adventure of her own. She's trying to find her family.
Image from comingsoon.net
Now let's get to the review.
First off, I liked the plot. It's pretty much the same plot as Finding Nemo, but with a few twists. Dory searching for her family is one of those. Another thing that the plot does is that it shows how Dory's short term memory loss can be one of her strengths instead of her weakness. She didn't let her memory loss slow her down in the search for her parents and her memory improved throughout the course of the film. That was something I really liked.
The plot did mention a lot of nods to Finding Nemo, the original film. A good example is the pipeline that Dory uses to call to Destiny when she was younger. This was at the Seaworld-inspired Marine Life Institute. Like Nemo in the first film, Dory uses the pipes at the Institute to escape to the ocean. Nemo used the pipes at the dentist office in the first film.
One of the parts of the plot I liked the most was when Dory found the line of shells outside her home. This is a great tool to help anyone remember the way back to a certain place. In Dory's case, it was her original home. Her parents decided to use this on their new home and that set the stage for the key reunion scene in the film.
Next, let's take a look at the voices. I thought Ellen DeGeneres did good reprising her role as Dory. She definitely knew what her character was like in this film thanks to her experience from the Nemo film. Albert Brooks brought back Marlin. He also brought back Marlin's overprotective side from the first film too. That's something that the writers could've worked on, since Marlin started that way in the first film. I think that's something for the writers to do when (and if) there's a 3rd film in the franchise.
The new characters in this film were good too. I especially liked Destiny and Hank. Hank was determined to get to Cleveland to stay at the aquarium there, but Dory taught him that the ocean wasn't such a scary place after all. Destiny, like Dory, had a disability. She was nearsighted, but that didn't stop her from helping her friend get out and back into the ocean. Her neighbor, Bailey, had to help her with her swimming. By doing that, he was also able to gain his ability of echolocation back. That's another win right there!
I liked this film because the characters did not let their disabilities stop them from doing what they did!
The direction was good, with Andrew Stanton at the helm. The animation was excellent too! I originally felt that the use of "What a Wonderful World" during the truck crash was weird, but my mom explained after the film that the truck was releasing the fish back to the ocean, part of the Institute's moto. That's why the song was used in that scene.
Overall, I give this film 4 1/2 stars. It may not beat Nemo, but it was definitey unforgetable!
Finally, we did have a ton of cameos from the characters from the first film. Crush, Squirt, Mr. Ray, and even Willem Defoe's character all made appearances. Even the seagulls that said "Mine" had a cameo! Totally sweet!
I agree altho I think a little more imagination in developing the plot would have been a big plus.
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