I was 8 years old when “Finding Nemo” came out in 2003. I remember wanting to see it so badly and asking my older cousin who had seen it, “Is it good? How does it end?” wanting desperately to know if Nemo was indeed found.
When I saw it, I wasn’t disappointed. I was taken with all of the characters–they had heart and were all extremely funny. Crush, Nemo, Peach, Nigel, Squirt, Bubbles and, of course, Dory were my favorites. I was a teenager when Pixar announced that in 2016 there would be a sequel, and I was still extremely excited. When I found out it was going to be called “Finding Dory,” my excitement escalated. A sequel to “Finding Nemo” centered on my favorite character–I knew it would be great.
That brings me to now. It’s 2016, I’m in my 20s and I finally saw the sequel I’ve been waiting 13 years for. So what did I think of it? Everyone I talked to that had seen it raved about it. “You have to see it.” “It’s just as good or even better than the first.” “It’s so good.” “I loved it.”
When I left the theatre, I was thinking more, “It was good.” I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. Contrary to popular opinion, I do not think “Finding Dory” to be the end-all, be-all of animated movies and I certainly don’t think it’s as good as “Finding Nemo.” So what were my problems with it?
Well that’s the thing. I don’t really have any horribly atrocious problems with the movie. It just wasn’t as amazing as everyone says. If “Finding Nemo” didn’t exist, I would probably like “Finding Dory” a lot more.
My biggest issue with the movie is the characters. In “Finding Nemo,” every scene incorporated another lovable character that was funny and interesting. The sharks, turtles and tank fish were all such great characters. I didn’t feel this way about the characters in “Finding Dory.” There were sharks, a bird, an octopus and some sea lions. I found about half of these characters to be funny, and the other half just kind of there.
The octopus, Hank, filled the role of Gill from “Finding Nemo” exactly. He was a solid character for what he was meant to do. The bird Becky and the sea lions were pretty good characters too, but they were in much less of the movie than the tank characters in “Finding Nemo.” I really did not like the sharks Destiny and Bailey. I thought they were okay and nothing more or less.
The movie was also not nearly as funny as the first one, which coincides with the characters not being as good. I also think this was a natural result of making Dory the main character. She went from being the funny, goofy sidekick to the protagonist. She took on a much more serious role, and was thus not used for comedic relief as she was in “Finding Nemo.” I only laughed a few times throughout the movie, and I wasn’t alone. I laughed when everyone else did. There really was no occurrence of everyone in the crowded theatre laughing but me. It simply wasn’t that funny. And of course, a solid Pixar movie does not need to be funny, but I was still disappointed. I found “Finding Nemo” hilarious at points so chuckling just a few times in “Finding Dory” was a let-down to me.
My last major critique is how far-fetched the plot was at points. I’m not at all saying that “Finding Nemo” was probable, but in “Finding Dory” there was a scene where an octopus was driving a truck. It was hard to watch and not think, “This would and could literally never happen.” I think it probably seemed worse than “Finding Nemo” because 1) I’m older now, and 2) it took place primarily in a world I’m familiar with. When most of the plot takes place under the ocean, I’m not going to be spending my time complaining about how far-fetched it is, because truthfully I don’t know. But do I know how far-fetched it is to drive a truck on the opposite side of the freeway without crashing two seconds in? Yes, I’m quite confident in that. Although I account for age as a possible reason this bothered me, I still don’t feel bothered by the plot of “Finding Nemo,” so I am left with the conclusion that the “Finding Dory” plot was a bit more hard to believe.
All of this taken into consideration, my favorite thing about the movie was that it was extremely positive. I haven’t seen a Disney and/or Pixar movie in a long time that didn’t make me extremely depressed for at least five minutes. But “Finding Dory” was overall really happy and that was very refreshing to watch. Even “Finding Nemo” starts out horribly. I appreciated watching a pleasant movie for once.
