There are plenty of inventive gags and visuals on display-Dory’s dad has markings on his head that evoke male pattern baldness at one point, Dory gets caught in a strange contraption revealed to be a plastic six-pack ring. Like most sequels, it’s overly concerned with hitting and explaining the backstory behind every one of the first movie’s high points, from “speaking whale” to “just keep swimming.” (If you want even more callbacks, be sure to stick around after the credits.) It’s also far too focused on delivering capital-l Lessons, the kind that populate the unsophisticated kiddie fare Pixar productions usually float above.
But the movie doesn’t really make a case for standing alone.
Is it unfair to consider Dory only by comparison to Pixar’s other films, rather than on its own merits? Perhaps. (A Pixar employee told the New York Times in 2013 that Dory’s script was altered as a result of the anti-SeaWorld sentiment stirred up by Blackfish, the blockbuster documentary about captive orcas perhaps that’s why the film takes pains to note that its fictional setting is dedicated to releasing sea life back into the ocean.) Her uncharacteristic burst of memory leads her back to her ancestral home: a marine life institute in California that’s like a nonprofit, rehabilitation-focused SeaWorld. This time around, the fish in question are Dory’s long-lost parents (a perfectly cast Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton), who suddenly spring into Dory’s mind years after she last saw them. This sequel to 2003’s Finding Nemo-still the studio’s highest-grossing film when adjusted for inflation-brings the first movie’s sidekick center stage, following her and her old pals Marlin ( Albert Brooks) and Nemo ( Hayden Rolence, replacing a now all-grown-up Alexander Gould) on another epic journey across the ocean to find some fish. As a friend remarked after the film’s final frame, “The first half is like if Still Alice was a fish.”įor that, you can thank Finding Dory’s title character-a royal blue tang with Memento-style short-term memory loss, voiced winningly once again by Ellen DeGeneres. And to top it all off, Dory's desperate search for her family is set to Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill," in case you had any doubt that Pixar is, yet again, trying to make you cry.įinding Dory will be in theaters on June 17, 2016.Pixar’s latest movie is about as buoyant as its underwater setting would imply-though it’s also weighed down occasionally by heavy issues like abandonment, animal captivity, survivor’s guilt, and the piscine equivalent of early-onset Alzheimer’s. The trailer is brief but charming, featuring the same breathtaking animation that sucked audiences under the sea in 2003. Just look at it!! (Pixar)Īnd if the the film's IMDB page can be trusted, the likes of Diane Keaton, Idris Elba, and Michael Sheen will also be popping up at some point in Dory's journey. Look how stupid cute this whale shark is. But we'll also meet several new sea creatures, like a chameleon octopus ( Ed O'Neill) and an enthusiastic whale shark ( It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Kaitlin Olson). So she embarks on a quest that mirrors the first film - where Albert Brooks's clown fish Marlin (irony!) frantically searched for his lost son - and encounters some familiar players along the way. The first trailer for the long-awaited sequel dropped online March 2, and quickly summarizes the movie's premise: Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) jogs her famously short memory just enough to realize that she has a family somewhere out there in the ocean, waiting for her to return. It's been 13(!) years since Pixar's Finding Nemo swam into our hearts, and now Finding Dory is here to do the same.