So, as if you didn't know, Finding Dory is the sequel to 2003's brilliant Finding Nemo and we rejoin our main fish friends Dory, Marlin & Nemo as they go on an adventure in the waters of California. I really like Finding Nemo, I think it makes the ocean really interesting and encompasses the vastness of it really well along with giving us investing characters to enjoy. I was a little concerned with Finding Dory however as Pixar has only had success with follow-ups in the Toy Story series; both Cars 2 and Monsters University were average at best.
This sequel though, isn't too bad. Finding Dory is mostly an entertaining and well-made movie. As with all Pixar films, the animation is some of the best in the business. The sand, the water, the textures on the animals is all so breathtaking to look at (even more so in the short-film beforehand) that the visuals alone make the film worth watching. Fortunately Finding Dory also has a top-notch script filled with funny moments, really good life lessons and mottos, all delivered wonderfully by the cast.
Ellen DeGeneres obviously is the highlight as the titular character and she is just as entertaining as the first time we met her and you really feel that she is always so genuine in everything she says and does, you want to be friends with Dory. I actually enjoyed a lot of the new characters introduced also; Hank the octopus makes for a visually interesting character with him being able to change colour and manipulate his body and they allude subtly to things from his past which was a nice way to build the character. Destiny the whale shark is also introduced and I wasn't the biggest fan of her character, I felt the 'clumsy friend' thing wore off quickly and some things she did didn't make sense in terms of what animal she is. Her friend Bailey the Beluga however I thoroughly enjoyed, he had some great lines and entertained me whenever he was on screen, and proved to be educational in some respects with cool visuals. Two more characters I'll quickly mention are the two sea lions voiced by Idris Elba and Dominic West; they were great, I'm always happy to see Idris in stuff so this was a treat and their scenes were very funny together.
Moving onto one or two negative points now; the story has some issues. I really enjoyed the beginning and the majority of the main story but pacing was a problem every now and again. For instance, I won't spoil it, but the whole reason they had to find Dory happened so quickly and rushed it kind of felt they were trying to make a reason to call it "Finding Dory", if I were honest it's more like finding Dory's parents, which isn't a spoiler as that is the synopsis of the film.
Another point is that Finding Nemo took place almost entirely in the ocean which made the adventure seem that much bigger and exciting whereas here it all happens in an aquarium which makes sense I guess as they don't want to rehash the same things and try something new but one part did require them to cross the ocean and it made it seem as though it takes just a few minutes whereas in the first film it took the entire movie to get to somewhere much closer than where this takes place. And a final thing I wasn't a fan of was the climax. Now obviously it being a children's film I have to suspend some disbelief but the whole final bit just didn't fit into the world Finding Nemo set up, I thought it went a bit too far.
In the end though Finding Dory was an adequate sequel; I was entertained and it was certainly better than some of Pixar's recent entries. Nostalgia still makes me prefer the first film but when you've been watching it since the age of five, it's hard to root that out.
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