Finding Dory certainly found its way into our hearts, delivering both feels and laughs by the bucket load.
This time, rather than focusing on Marlin the clown fish and his missing son Nemo, we’re instead finding the ditsy Dory who’s gone missing from the reef.
Along the way, it becomes clear that Dory’s beginning to remember her life before Marlin and Nemo, and may even be able to find her real family.
Buoy oh buoy! I reely liked this film and it proves the first wasn’t a fluke, it really hooked me in and I would dolphin-elty recommend everyone go and sea it – okay fish puns fin-ished, I promise.
Ahem! Anyway…
How much you enjoy Finding Dory is going to boil down to how much you like the character of Dory, and as someone who finds the forgettable fish endearing, I loved it.
However, I can understand why the character is so divisive and I do understand people’s irritation with her, which could be a problem as she’s the focus of the feature and we spend a lot of time with her.
This means we get a lot less Marlin and Nemo, which is a shame because I loved their dynamic in the first film, but DeGeneres had more than enough charm to keep the laughs coming throughout the film.
Pixar have always pushed the boundaries of what you thought was possible in animation and the bright and colourful underwater world of Dory clearly allowed the animators to flex their creative muscles.
The underwater scenes are both wonderfully vibrant and colourful in the beginning, and hauntingly beautiful in the latter half of the film, not that the film spends all its time beneath the surface of the water.
The majority of the action takes place above the waves in a marine life institute and Pixar have outdone themselves in the creative ways the fish get around, although they do cheat by introducing a character that doesn’t need to stay under the water – Hank the Octopus Septepus.
Speaking of Hank, he was by far my favourite thing in the movie. Everything he did was hilarious, from his odd way of moving to his ever so stern and slightly paranoid attitude.
Unfortunately, Finding Dory suffers from the same sequel situation several sequels succumb to, which is to say its story is pretty weak.
The basic plot is strong enough but it’s essentially an excuse for all our fishy friends to get into a new set of adventures. There were several moments when I couldn’t help but think: “How did that happen?”
I know that’s kind of a ridiculous complaint considering this is a film about talking fish but it genuinely did take me out of the action.
Even so, it was only a minor problem and the ultimate ending is rewarding in its own way, even if it’s a little schmaltzy.
Finding Dory is a return to form for Pixar after the shaky Good Dinosaur, and while it doesn’t quite reach the same heights of the original, it’s still a worthy sequel.
So do yourself a favour and take a trip under the sea.
[Fin]
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.