THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Finding Nemo was 2003’s biggest animated film for being a financial success as well as Pixar’s first to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar. With said accolades, it’s not hard to doubt the chances on making a sequel. The only complaint was how long it took.
PLOT
2016’s Finding Dory takes place one year after the titular blue tang helped the clownfish Marlin reunite with his son Nemo. One day when chaperoning the latter’s field trip, she starts regaining memories of how she was separated from her parents Jenny & Charlie (Diane Keaton & Eugene Levy). The first thing she remembers is that she last lived with them in California. With the company of her clownfish friends, she rides the California Current to find them. The trip quickly gets hectic when they encounter a giant Humboldt squid that almost devours them. They don’t get the chance to recuperate because she would quickly get swept by staff members of the Marine Life Institute. When placed in quarantine, she meets an octopus named Hank who wants to stay in an aquarium. He agrees to help her find her parents in exchange of having her tag that’ll ship her to Ohio. When moving around the aquarium, Dory encounters a whale shark named Destiny who she remembers befriending as pipe pals before getting lost. She and a beluga named Bailey (recovering from a concussion) guide her through the pipes to the Open Ocean Exhibit where the blue tangs reside. Dory & Hank reach there by passing through with a stroller. They reach the exhibit and Dory gives Hank the tag as promised but in the tank. There she remembers how she got swept by an undertow. When looking around, two crabs inform her blue tangs got quarantined and encourage her to find the quarantine area through the pipes. With the assist of sea lions Fluke & Rudder outside the aquarium, Marlin & Nemo hitch a trip to the Institute by retrieving a bucket from another sea lion named Gerald and are taken there thanks to a black loon named Becky. They make their way to the pipes and reunite with Dory in which they both reach the quarantine area. When finding the other blue tangs, they inform her that he parents escaped the institute to look for her. This shocks Dory where she worries they might have died in the process. Hank tries saving her from the tank, but inadvertently drops her into the ocean when getting spotted by a human. On her own again for the first time since her youth, she finds trails of shells resembling the ones she made. This surprisingly leads to her reuniting with Jenny & Charlie who had been waiting for her as they made the shells to guide her back to them. Remembering Marlin & Nemo, she insists on saving them from heading to Ohio. Destiny & Bailey escape their tanks to help their friend while Fluke & Rudder follow the pursuit. Dory gets the assist of otters to block traffic long enough for her to get in the truck. Once she gets onboard, the clownfish pair escape when calling for Becky to get them back to sea. However, Dory convinces Hank to return to sea with her, which he agrees after hijacking the truck and crashing into the sea, freeing all the fish onboard the process. Together, Dory, her parents & her friends return to the reef and settle into their new lives together. The film ends in a post credit scene where the Tank Gang led by Gill (Willem Dafoe) get picked up by the Institute after floating across the Pacific Ocean in plastic bags for a year.
THOUGHTS
I was five years old when the first one came out and have loved it ever since, so it was given to give this a chance the year I turned 18. It felt like I picked up where I left off with old friends which is a feeling that many franchises don't strike with me no matter how high I were to praise it. With Angus MacLane co directing alongside Andrew Stanton, you get a big splash of an adventure. 13 years apart from the predecessor, you know the animation is gonna be quite improved. Putting aside how distinctive the marine life characters are, it's shots like the Milky Way and and the layout of the Marine Life Institute that surprise me the most for being the most lifelike. Since the targeted audience is for children, there is a handful of laughs that hold up well. The lonely clam crying of being heartbroken left me in stitches. Idris Elba & Dominic West making stingy sea lions out of Fluke & Rudder for not sharing their rock with Gerald had me giggling. And now, I feel bad poking at starfish in kid zones for aquariums because I don't think they like it. The real kicker was that hectic finale because even though none of it should have been possible, you're amazed of it going there. It's even a bonus to have an aquarium to have Sigourney Weaver record broadcasted messages throughout the day. Most of the smiles however go tot the returning Ellen Degeneres who doesn't miss a beat when voicing Dory once again. We still love her for speaking freely and now being determined to reunite with her family, which opens the theme of escaping comfort zones once again because it is one thing to be prepared but not over-prepared. Dory is one who is neither because having short term memory loss doesn't really give her a chance. Aware of this, she has to act one step at a time because in her perspective, it's better than doing nothing. When it came to reuniting with her parents, it was important for her capitalize on what she could remember and regain what she lost because family is precious and she's trying to hold it dearly while you still can which you can't hate her for it. She even went above and beyond to save the other fish when she didn't have to because she was aware they deserve their own freedom as well. This time around, she doesn't go as far as she does without the friends willing to go as far as she does. Albert Brooks returns as the overprotective Marlin who chooses to help Dory in this family reunion because he owes her for helping him reunite with his son. On top of that, the loss of his wife has him relate to what loss feels like which makes him know she doesn't deserve that pain. Despite being understandably impatient, he still does his best in being by her side. Hayden Rolance was great as well when playing Nemo because he shares the same optimism Dory has and doesn't see the reasons not to help (all the danger that comes their way). He sticks around in this journey rather than staying behind because he's aware she's the reason his dad found him. From that and the bravery he built when they were first separated made him un-doubtful that things would turn out for his friend. Getting into new characters, it was easy to compare Hank to Gill because he was one who wanted things in a certain way and nothing else. He has to be sneaky like a lizard because he had a bad experience on the ocean and doesn't want to relive the trauma nor go through anymore. That easily connects the dots in how he was a tentacle short. Nevertheless, Ed O'Neil portrays him to be competent enough to compromise. He helps out Dory from start to finish because even he comes to understand she means well. Aware of that, he was encouraged enough to return to sea. Kaitlin Olson & Ty Burrell gave me a big smile in their dynamic as Destiny & Bailey who have their own quirks yet have their own big hearts to share when helping Dory. Destiny stood out for her clumsiness, whereas Bailey caught my eye for all the paranoia he piled up. WIth that dynamic, it's hard to not cackle. This was a really neat film, but adorability did not distract me from things I picked up on during re-watching. For starters, how was there not a single fish that ate Dory when she was on her own? It's not like there were friendly fish everywhere because there are still dangerous ones like the fish. It's all the more surprising she never encountered the squid or the whale sooner since those seem to be the only ones not from the deep to pursue her as a meal. Moving on, why did Marlin allow Dory to follow him when taking Nemo to school? If he doesn't want her to get lost, he should've told her to stay behind and find a distraction to make her stay. Not doing that is more unbelievable than almost being late when she woke him up early. Moving on, that employee at the Institute was totally lying on spotting Hank when he was camouflaging elsewhere. Just because the floor is wet, does not mean the octopus is there even though he ironically was hiding in plain sight. And how come there's no camera wherever Hank goes like in the employees only areas or near the exhibits? They would've found him sooner if they were actually looking. No one even notices the bucket Marlin & Nemo were on which is so weird because it's like they're presenting the humans as idiots when that shouldn't be the case. Also, who the hell puts urchins in a kid zone? That's like a guaranteed lawsuit waiting to happen because it doesn't like anyone tries to make their spikes any less sharp. I can't even believe all the blue tangs were with the Institute long enough to know what about what happened to Dory because I'm sure there had to be different ones coming in year around and it had been years in advance before she ever met Marlin. It is an impressive feat for Jenny & Charlie to stay near the Institute betting on Dory to find the shells. But why not actually looking beyond the Institute because Marlin had to go past his comfort zone to rescue his son. I don't want to call them lazy because I just feel like they could've done more than wait. And if they were gonna wait, they should've found a way back in after setting up the trails. Lastly, no matter how funny of a gag it was at first, the Tank Gang should've not survived being in plastic bags for a year. Other than that, this movie is still fine for what it is. In short, Finding Dory is a solid sequel for maintaining the predecessor's heart and then some. If the first film made you love marine life, this'll raise the bar for you.
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