Finding Dory (2016)

Finding Dory

Written by Andrew Stanton & Victoria Strouse

Directed by Andrew Stanton

Accompanying Short: Piper

Written & Directed by Alan Barillaro

When a sequel to a film is made, it’s often the case that elements that worked in previous installments are given a larger presence in the sequel (MATER). After all, it makes sense: give the public what they want. This can sometimes backfire, as too much of a good thing can be exhausting or annoying (MATER), but other times it works perfectly. Thankfully, Finding Dory is an example of the latter, with a sequel that adds heart to an already emotional universe, and fleshes out one of the best elements from Finding Nemo, the short-term-memory-loss afflicted Dory.

Poor Piper!

The short that played before, Piper, is thematically appropriate for the film that follows it. Following a young sandpiper bird who is learning to battle the ocean waves in search of food at the water’s edge, the short is not only beautifully animated, it’s also deliriously adorable and funny. Piper runs the gamut of emotions, all without having her say a single word. Perhaps the best image is her after her first encounter with a wave: it never fails to elicit a huge laugh! Piper is short, sweet, beautiful, and perfect.

There is so much to love about Finding Dory. It respects its previous iteration, but deepens the emotional connections and expands the universe. There might be some things that don’t make sense (which I’ll touch on), but overall the film is absolutely enchanting. Building on the adventures of Marlin, Dory, and Nemo from a year previously, Dory suddenly remembers her family, and starts out on a quest to go be reunited with them. Plot happens, and she ends up inside the Marine Life Institute, a combo aquarium/rehabilitation center, where she thinks her parents might be, and Marlin and Nemo try to help her escape. Along the way they all meet new friends and learn something about themselves (as usual).

The crux of the film’s performances lies on Ellen DeGeneres as Dory, and she more than excels in the role, once again. She’s innocent, endearing, and strong, even in her darker moments of despair. She doesn’t get to quite replay her “When I’m with you…I’m home” moment from the original, but she still gets plenty to do, and plenty of opportunities to show off her range. The other returning characters, primarily Marlin and Nemo, don’t get quite as much to do (why Nemo is even along for the adventure doesn’t quite make sense or is even explained, except to repeatedly chastise his dad about comments he makes about Dory), but their lack of story is made up by the new characters they meet, particularly a pair of sea lions and a common loon named Becky, who are all so fun to watch.

Sea lions!!

(A side note: anyone who knows me knows that sea lions are my absolute favorite animal, so to have a pair of them be somewhat featured, and to act in such sea lion-esque ways, was so exciting that I giggled like a child through the bulk of their screen time)

Hank (Ed O’Neill)

The most major new character is Hank, an octopus (well, a septopus, as Dory points out), voiced by Ed O’Neill. It’s a performance that is much more animated than I would expect from O’Neill, and it’s wonderful. He’s angry, frustrated, and fearful, and it’s all perfectly captured! Where Dory was the breakout sidekick from the first film, Hank is the breakout sidekick from this one. I don’t know that I need a full blown Hank-centered sequel (MATER), but a nice short featuring him would be fantastic!

As I mentioned, there are a FEW things that don’t quite make sense in the film; the point of Nemo even being there is one. Another is how does the East Australian Current take the characters to Morro Bay when it’s on the other side of the largest ocean on the planet? How is Dory able to survive in fresh water, as she is consistently put into tanks, cups, and coffee pots full of it? Am I overthinking these issues in a film about talking fish? Absolutely.

Baby Dory and her parents

(A second side note: I can’t express how excited my husband and I both were when we realized that the bulk of the film takes place in Morro Bay, because we love it there and would honestly love to retire there someday)

Finding Dory is an excellent example of a sequel that gets it right: retain the elements that made the original a success, and use them naturally, instead of shoehorning them in to please demographics (admittedly, however, the use of Crush and Squirt does border on that). I’m okay with Finding Dory taking 13 years to be released after its predecessor, because there is so much that the film gets so, so right that it’s genuinely hard to find a significant fault with it.

SHORT GRADE: A+

FILM GRADE: A