By now all the rumors that were spreading are confirmed—there is, in fact, going to be a sequel to the movie "Finding Nemo." After waiting 13 years, the lovable characters of Marlin, Dory, Nemo, and more are back for more action. You can watch the official trailer here.
This movie should be popular in the box office for a few reasons. For one, it is a Pixar film, and if you don’t know how great Pixar films usually are, I welcome you to crawl out from underneath your rock at any time now. Additionally, since this sequel is premiering more than a decade after the original, the fans of "Nemo" who are now in their 20s will do their best to find an excuse to come out and see it (myself included). That’s right, so when you volunteer to take the kids you babysit to check out a movie later on this summer, let’s just say I understand why you were the one to suggest the idea and not the kids.
As a big fan of the movie "Finding Nemo" myself, "Finding Dory" has some big shoes to fill in terms of a great plot line, and becoming a new funny and feel-good movie for people of all ages to please me. There will be some changes in this movie; like the title signals, Dory is the main character this time around. Even though I believe one could argue that she was the star of the show the first time around.
Anyway, it is now Dory’s time to do the searching throughout the movie and Nemo and Marlin will be by her side as she goes on her adventure. This story line seems eerily similar to the first movie in a broad sense, which forces us to ask, are sequels as good as the original?
Can a second or even third movie be better than the first? This might seem like too much of a sweeping question to ask, and of course, there are going to be movies that are exceptions. There are great movie series based on books where each film gets better because the drama increases and the plot thickens as the characters mature. But animated movies are different.
One of my favorite movies of all time is Dreamworks' "Shrek." The movie quickly turned into a franchise as many viewers appreciated the humor and story behind "Shrek." Although I don’t have a problem with the second or third movie in the "Shrek" series, I still feel that there is something missing from them to make them not quite as good as the first. The same goes with the "Madagascar" movies. The novelty of the odd group of friends made up of a hippo, zebra, giraffe, and lion and troublesome lemurs that keep them busy is something only the first movie made special for me, and those that followed were just off the mark.
I still have hope for animated movie sequels, but they sure have to live up to a high standard to hold up next to the original in my opinion. Here’s to hoping that "Finding Dory" can prove me wrong on June 17, this summer!
