I'm part of the generation that has waited years for this movie.
Admittedly, my anticipation wasn't as high as it would be for, say, The Incredibles 2 (still waiting), but Finding Nemo had a large enough presence in my childhood that I can truthfully say I was excited for Finding Dory. Yet despite Pixar's positive reputation, I was a tad worried about the film's quality due to the rumors that Ellen DeGeneres had practically willed Finding Dory into existence.
But I digress. Finding Dory kicks off with a flashback to an adorably wide-eyed baby Dory, still in the presence of her family. Sadly, Dory is separated from her family, leaving the audience almost in tears as Dory goes up to fish asking for their help in reuniting her with her parents. No one is able to help her because she suffers from "short-term remembery loss." Dory grows up, and soon has her initial run-in with Marlin.
One year after the events of the first film, Dory starts getting flashbacks of her parents, and enlists Marlin and Nemo to help her find them. Her hunch leads them to the waters of California, where the father and son are separated from Dory as she is "rescued" by workers of a marine life habitat. While Nemo and Marlin work with two sea lions and an unstable bird to help find Dory, Dory enlists the help of a resourceful octopus to help uncover her lineage. Ensuing is a funny and well-intentioned adventure that delivers on its promise of laughs but not so much on the emotion.
I do love the themes of this movie. Kids will learn much about the power and irreversibility of their words from the Marlin/Nemo segment, a topic I'm glad to see Pixar tackle and tackle well. And for the 17th time, Pixar focuses on the idea of individuality, and how one's talents aren't any better or worse than another's just because they are different. While I appreciate this, Pixar overtly hits the audience over the head with it on many, many occasions. This seemed to be Pixar phoning in what they tend to do quite well - conveying these themes through character and dialogue in a clear yet not-so-obvious way. In Finding Dory, they miss the mark, and the dialogue surrounding this theme seems more fitting for a heartfelt speech from Danny Tanner in an episode of "Full House."
The reason Finding Dory works, overall, is the characters. Baby Dory is enough to give this movie a positive review, but there's also Becky the bird, Destiny the whale shark, and sea lions Fluke and Rudder (oh yeah, and Sigourney Weaver). While the situations these characters bring are pretty basic by Pixar standards, their scenes ended up being my favorite moments of the movie. The weakest characters, I'm sad to say, were the ones I grew up loving. Dory was unable to carry the film the way I expected, and Marlin and Nemo's subplot seemed like a placeholder.
And let's not forget Hank, the octopus who can drive.
Come on, Pixar. You're better than this.
With Finding Dory, Pixar seems to descend into a territory occupied more by slapstick and quick jokes and less by memorable and strongly-established characters. The comedy here does work, but the disappointment on my end comes from the fact that Pixar has always given us more than just comedy. The dialogue, themes, and character development we're accustomed to are definitely here in the movie, but just seem to play more of a supporting role than they usually do. I'm not arguing that this was a cash grab from Pixar - I think it's safe to say that after Cars 2, they won't be making that mistake again. But what I am saying is that ultimately - despite the insinuation from the last line of dialogue delivered in the film - Finding Dory is in many respects forgettable.
Rating: 3.5/5
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