This is it. The moment we've all been waiting 13 years for. We finally received some closure from our childhood. Ellen Degeneres finally got her wish. Disney/Pixar's release of Finding Dory took the world by storm on Thursday, June 16. It's not at all difficult to see why both adults and children alike are excited for the film; being a self-proclaimed Disney fanatic, I haven't been able to contain my excitement since its announcement. I was able to see it with my best friend the day after its release, and I was in love with every minute of it.
Now, being a huge fan of Finding Nemo, and of Disney in general, I realize that calling this a review would be a tad misleading. I definitely have too much of a bias to feel anything but absolute joy during the movie. But I would like to discuss some general high points.
First of all, most Disney/Pixar films start out with a short animation. Wreck-it Ralph was preceded by Paperman. Monsters University began with a heart-wrenching story of the titular Blue Umbrella. This time around, our animated feature is called Piper, which follows the small beach-dwelling bird on its first excursion out of the nest for food. The animation is absolutely stunning, (I can't tell you how many times I turned to Clary to exclaim, "Look at that seafoam!"), and who doesn't love a tiny bright-eyed bird?
The baby bird has some trouble at first, but, as the old saying goes, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again". This cute little bird puts a twist on that, finding some help, encouragement, and inspiration from an itty-bitty hermit crab. An unlikely symbiotic relationship, to say the least!
After effectively doing all the cooing and "aww-ing" I thought possible over this new-favorite Pixar short, the iconic "When You Wish Upon a Star" began as a familiar fireworks scene was displayed over the Cinderella castle. We are then shown a sight even more adorable than a sassy baby bird: a baby Dory! I'll let you, my dear readers, experience that for the first time in the theaters. We see a young Dory with her Blue Tang parents, and are introduced further to Dory's ironically memorable short-term memory loss. A short series of events brings us to the point in time where Dory meets Marlin in Finding Nemo. A year into the future, we see Dory, Marlin, and Nemo together. When the three drop off Nemo at school for a field trip to see the stingray migration, Dory suddenly remembers, for the first time, her parents. Now, memory of any kind is an absolute triumph for the forgetful fish, and she swims far with it, eventually coming to the Marine Institute at Moreau Bay, California.
With some help from new friends Hank, the grumpy but soft-hearted "septapus" (played by Ed O'Neill), Destiny the far-sighted whale shark, (voiced by Kaitlin Olson), and the overly dramatic beluga, Bailey (played by Ty Burrell), Dory takes one of her first trips down memory lane in a search to find her parents.
I will tell you, I cry at most Disney movies. But this one will have a special place in my heart for a very long time. Seeing Dory's triumph over her disability is a message of hope and strength for any viewers with mental or physical illnesses. When life seems hopeless, "just keep swimming," because "there's always another way."
