Finding Dory (2016)
Directed by Andrew Stanton
Dory is reunited with her friends Nemo and Marlin in the search for answers about her past. What can she remember? Who are her parents? And where did she learn to speak Whale?
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22 films that influenced Finding Dory
What critics say influenced Finding Dory
Thirteen years ago in the critically lauded, box office smash "Finding Nemo," Ellen DeGeneres' forgetful blue tang fish Dory became an instantly beloved supporting character.
Marlin and Nemo get guidance from lazy sea lions in “Finding Dory,” a sequel to “Finding Nemo.”
Having said that, I really enjoyed “Finding Dory” — even though it’s essentially the same story as its predecessor, 2003’s “Finding Nemo” — in that it’s about a fish who’s struggling to reconnect with family and is willing to cross an ocean to make that happen.
Dory, the forgetful blue tang voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, served as the comic relief in 2003’s “Finding Nemo.”
That sweetly forgetful fish from Finding Nemo (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) feels long-lost memories stirring of the parents she hasn’t seen since childhood (Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy), and sets out with her friends Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence) to reunite with them.
In a summer of tepid and disappointing sequels, audiences from around the world will be grateful to encounter a sequel to a movie as beloved as “Finding Nemo” that more than lives up to the first film’s casually magical charms.
Pixar veteran and “Nemo” director Andrew Stanton (who co-wrote here with Victoria Strouse) decided to take these issues a bit more seriously, the result being something oddly reminiscent of a kiddie version of Christopher Nolan ’s “Memento.”
Putting a film on the back of a character with short-term memory loss can be enthralling – look no further than Chris Nolan’s “Memento” – but here it’s a big bummer.
“Finding Dory” is “Memento” under the sea, with a much more chipper lead forever at pains to remember why and where she’s going.
This is not a miscalculation of Cars 2 proportions: Voiced again, quite marvelously, by Ellen DeGeneres, Dory can’t hold onto a short-term memory for more than a few seconds, and that condition (in Memento parlance) remains a strong source of both pathos and punchlines.
It's an aquatic Memento, as the memory-challenged blue tang Dory (Ellen Degeneres does the addled fish's voice) retrieves forgotten images of her childhood.
Robin Williams, for his turn as Aladdin's genie, should have become the first voice actor nominated for an Oscar.
But much like Robin Williams , who so memorably riffed up a blue streak as the Genie in “ Aladdin ,” DeGeneres and her sometimes goofy, sometimes giddy persona continues to be a perfect fit for the role that provided the uplifting salt-water soul of “Finding Nemo” and pretty much does the same here as Marlin (a returning Albert Brooks ) and Nemo (replacement Hayden Rolence ) swim alongside her on a new journey a year after the first.
Her tour de force even surpasses Robin Williams in “Aladdin.”
Like Robin Williams in Aladdin , DeGeneres has a stand-up comedian’s gift for being able to keep the film moving and speeding along, especially when the script hits some of its saggier stretches.
Feast on the surface pleasures, if nothing else: the photorealistic refraction of light through liquid, so easy to take for granted; an extended POV shot that gives new meaning to the expression “fish-eye lens”; and not one but two ties to the Alien franchise, including a running gag that reels in bigger laughs every time it’s repeated.
And is that the famous star of the Alien series intoning “This is Sigourney Weaver” when we’re ushered into the tannoyed reverence of the giant marine park where Dory’s memory leads her?
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Except for Marlin, who learns a valuable lesson in empathy after hurling a hurtful observation at Dory when she inadvertently puts Nemo in harm’s way, almost every creature encountered from a bird-brained loon to an immense chatty clam that recalls Audrey II in “ Little Shop of Horrors ” gladly helps out our heroine with her mission.
Much of the humor is aims toward younger audiences, but there are some jokes (i.e. one involving Sigourney Weaver and a reference to Thelma & Louise) that adults will appreciate more than kids.
(Mine is “Ratatouille,” “Toy Story 3,” “Up” and “Finding Nemo,” with “The Incredibles ,” “Toy Story” and “Inside Out” in contention.
There’s the visionary top drawer: the timeless works of peerlessly witty, mind-opening artistry (all three “Toy Story” films, “The Incredibles,” “Inside Out”).
From there, The Incredibles , Inside Out , and Brave , among others, all address family directly.
For close to 80 years, if you go by Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” making history in 1937, all sorts and achievement levels of feature animation have preyed upon the fears, insecurities and isolating circumstances of growing up.
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(It may be the most hilarious use of a movie star’s name since Peter Cook’s devil in Bedazzled pronounced the magic words, “Julie Andrews!”) Dory rediscovers her history the way actors feel their way into a part.
“Finding Dory,” the latest film from Pixar, isn’t as imaginative as last year’s “Inside Out” or as offbeat as “Ratatouille” (2007).
“Cars 2” and “Monsters University” are best considered karmic payback for the glorious “Ratatouille,” “WALL-E” and “Up” getting made in the first place.