Well ladies and gentlemen, the grand day of nostalgia is finally here. Today (Friday, June 17, 2016), "Finding Dory" comes to theaters. Just like many of you, I have been waiting the 11+ years for this movie. Because I can’t stand waiting, I went and saw it. So the (read: rhetorical) question I am posing here is: “Is 'Finding Dory' worth it?” The simple answer to my own question is yes. Now if you would deal with me for just a bit, I can take you on a magic journey as I try to review this movie with as little spoilers as possible. So sit back, relax and enjoy.
To start, I had a lot of fun watching the movie. The entire time I felt like I was watching a fresher version of "Finding Nemo," whether that is good or bad, I’ll answer later. The movie focuses heavily on Dory and her past. You get a quick scene of the events of the last film through her eyes and proceed to the new story. Also, before I continue, I should warn you that Disney decides to rip your heart out early in this movie. The scene of sad memories that they play for Dory, probably feel much worse than the opening murder scene of the last movie was. I don’t know if it’s because I’m already emotionally invested in the character or what, but that actually hurt. The movie deciding to focus heavily on Dory (about 75 percent is her, with the other 25 percent focusing on Marlin and Nemo. This is a major difference from "Finding Nemo" where we got an even split of screen time between Marlin/Dory and Nemo), really made her better as a character. Before she was the goofy sidekick, however, her being the main character makes her easily the best and most fleshed out point in this movie. I’m not saying the other characters are bad, but they just weren’t as good as Dory (who Ellen DeGeneres does a wonderful job of playing). The supporting cast of wacky characters was pretty funny in my opinion. The movie introduces a brand new gang of characters who Dory meets/re-meets (remember she suffers from short term memory loss), including a Beluga whale, a whale shark, a squid (who was my favorite of the new characters), and the always lovable, Nemo and Marlin. The new characters were fun for their on screen time and kept the flow of the story going.
The story is easy to follow and moves fluently. There are parts that make you laugh and a lot of parts that make you feel a lot of honest emotion. Once again, Disney is the master at bringing a tear to my eye. The story has no real complicated points, and the main focus is having Dory find her missing family. Marlin and Nemo tag along and lose her. Thus begins the hilarious adventure. As I said earlier, we get a lot of Dory, however, I think it takes away from the development of the other characters. I know the movie is about Dory, but there were chances to let some other characters have great lines. One character, in particular, is Nemo, who is his dad’s sidekick. He basically is there to call Marlin a mess up in different ways. Each time he reminds his dad of a mistake, it’s funny and that made me want more. Basically, Nemo was there to drop some harsh truth bombs. It would’ve been great to have more banter between Nemo and some of the other characters, but hey I’m not writing this movie. The new characters in the movie fit decently well, taking temporary spots of the original characters (I’m talking about Bruce, Crush, and the dentist office fish). I will have to say that I enjoyed the original group of characters the best because they were unique and had a fraction more personality (I mean we still quote “Fish are friends not food” to this day).
The movie was great and enjoyable. If you were around for the first movie, then you will enjoy this one. I had fun and loved the fact that the movie really made me feel something for Dory (in the first movie I didn’t think much of her), and catapulted her to being a favorite character of mine. Disney has produced a great movie that you should go see. My final rating of it would be a 7.5/10. I enjoyed it a lot and had a great time watching Dory try to remember things for an hour and 45 minutes.
