'FINDING DORY' REVIEW

Release Date: Friday the 29th of July (UK Release)

Directed By: Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane

Written By: Andrew Stanton and Victoria Strouse 

Produced By: John Lasseter, Lindsey Collins and Bob Roath

Starring: Elllen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O'Neil, Kaitlin Olson and Ty Burrell

Distributed By: Disney Pixar

With Pixar suffering through a somewhat rough patch in recent years, due to a stream of releases which seemingly failed to represent the sky scraping with releases post Toy Story 3 including ‘Cars 2’ and ‘Brave’. Then in 2015 with the release of an original film ‘Inside Out’, Pixar put forward their most creative and thought provoking film yet proving the magic certainly hadn't left the studio. 2015 was a also a double release for Pixar with ‘The Good Dinosaur’ receiving a November Release which was greeted with much more middling responses, leaving it to the next picture to give a definitive answer to whether Pixar were still at the top of the animation game. Now, 12 years after one of their most iconic creations, Pixar returns with the submerged sequel, ‘Finding Dory’.

Taking place a year on from the tear jerking adventure ‘Finding Nemo’ (With Nemo failing to have aged a day I might add), Dory is now living with her new found family Marlin and Nemo when the sudden memory of her real family she lost years ago spurs a journey across the ocean in order to find her parents. Along the way however, Dory is separated from her clownfish cohorts and whisked away to the Marine Life institute. From here on it’s a race against time as Marlin and Nemo must find Dory (Deja Vu anyone?) and Dory must find a way out of the institute, meeting friends old and new along the way. 

With a twelve year wait for a sequel which was never truly longed for but more than welcomed, it’s safe to say the hype for this feature grew immensely upon the announcement of the sequel back in 2013. With that said, the marketing during the build up to release seemed somewhat lacklustre in comparison to Pixar’s other beloved characters (The likes of ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Cars’ garnering a much more widespread campaign). If anything however; this paired with the stigma of Pixar’s seeming drop in quality lowers the expectations, making the thoughts on this film all the more positive. 

One of the most admirable aspects of the first instalment of this fishy franchise was the vibrancy and much welcomed variety of the characters. This follow up is no exception with cult favourites Sea Turtles Crush and Squirt making a gnarly (if brief) cameo along with the sea shanty singing Mr Ray. One of the biggest strengths however, lies within Pixar’s innate ability to create a vast array of new characters and sprinkle them into their sequels instead of lamely taking the same characters and conjuring a story around them. These new characters include far sighted Whale Shark Destiny (Kaitlin Olson), Sonar struggled Beluga Whale Bailey (Ty Burrell) and Cockney Sea Lions Fluke and Rudder (Idris Elba and Dominic West). The highlight however is wry and wisecracking Septopus Hank (O’Neil) who, with the gravely voice of a hard boiled 70’s detective, splats and slides from room to room ingeniously camouflaging with every tentacle twist. 

One of the most notable criticisms to arrive with the film first glance however, is its seemingly unimaginative set up which could easily be seen as a parallel of the first instalment with one fish going missing only for another fish to try and find them. This basic outlook is true but aside from these minor points its safe to say this is a completely different film, much to my delight. Indeed with Dory only a secondary character in ‘Finding Nemo’, there was still much of a story to be told as well as being somewhat fresh in terms of having a female hero with a disability. This turns out to be something of a theme in relation to the new cast as each character has a dysfunction of some kind. Hank being something of an amputee having only seven tentacles, Destiney’s far sightedness and Bailey’s problem with his sonar all combining to create a thematic construct focusing on how a disability cannot stop you from achieving. 

Indeed, despite Dory’s quirks (the ten seconds of humour the whale speak emits, rears its head for a questionable length of time) she is very much the lynchpin of each character interaction which in itself is an impressive feat in story telling. Every character she comes into contact with packs an emotional punch of some description, be it a rib tickling slapstick riddled pram ride to tear jerking reunions (Yes I cried at fish). As a sequel DeGeneres was somewhat gunning for for years, her voice work has become one of the most iconic characters in the Pixar canon as she is on top form as the forgetful yet heartwarming Blue Tang. 

As is the case with Pixar, family themes are more or less always at the forefront of each picture, here that is very much the case with two family narrative threads at the core of this story, Marlin and Nemo’s father/ son dynamic (with Brooks re-embracing a career highlight to great effect.) and of course the primary plot device which is Dory and her long lost mother and father (played charmingly by Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy). With a character as sympathetic as Dory however, this seemingly cliche’d set up gains a new found depth with somewhat relentless twists and turns particularly in the third act leading to a patchy denouement. The sparkling aspect throughout this 93 minute animation however is DeGeneres’ inextinguishable charm with a clear love for the character which bleeds through the screen, infecting each audience member whether they like it or not. 

With Pixar still having a slight uphill struggle to be claimed the one true animation studio to beat with the surrounding studio’s such as Dreamworks and more recently Laika Entertainment upping their game with every release, ‘Finding Dory’ serves as a strong sequel and further addition to the high flying studio’s filmography. Whilst not on the level of the likes of ‘Toy Story 3’ (nor ‘Monsters University’ which is a personal favourite) it certainly serves on the top tier of returning visits to a beloved world. 

“Hi I am Dory, I suffer from Short Term Memory Loss” - Dory