OK, confession time, I wasn’t a big fan of Finding Nemo. I thought I was a bit bland, without a lot of jokes, and mainly aimed at children. I’ve always been more into The Incredibles, Toy Story 2, and Inside Out. These classics were movies that made me feel something while Finding Nemo was never anything more than ‘good’. So with that out in the open I can honestly say that Finding Dory is great. You weren’t expecting that twist were you?
The story of Dory (they call me Rhymemaster Mike) is very similar to it’s predecessor. It’s also a lot like Memento but with a talking octopus but I digress. Forgetful Dory begins to ponder on where she comes from, who her family are, and where they are. This triggers a series of memories resulting in Dory, Marlin, and Nemo swimming off to find them. What follows is an adventure at a sea-life centre that introduces a host of new fishy characters.
It’s worth pointing out that Pixar haven’t gone down the safe route of bringing back all the characters you loved in the original. In Finding Dory there’s a whole roster of new lovable creatures from Idris Elba and Dominic West as cockney wide-boys, er, wide-sealions, to Kaitlin Olsen from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as a friendly, near-sighted whale shark. These animals are voiced wonderfully making them instantly relatable and very funny. I won’t tell you too much but my favourite is Becky. The vibrancy of the new crowd shows up the drabness of Marlin and Nemo, Marlin doesn’t have much motivation and Nemo is very whiny.
It’s great that these newly introduced characters are fun as the story is essentially a retread of Finding Nemo. Due to this it appears that Pixar have tried to cram in as many jokes as possible making the narrative muddled and the pacing extremely uneven. Whereas Finding Nemo was a road-trip movie, Finding Dory is more of a farcical caper with loads of physical humour and contrived situations. It mostly works but I can’t help feeling that in parts there’s just too much going on not allowing the movie to breathe.
These are minor quibbles though. Finding Dory is a joy to watch, it’s visuals are the best that Pixar have ever created. The animation is wonderful (look out for the acrobatics of Hank the septopus) and the colours vibrant bringing a stunning beauty to life under the sea. It has a very funny script and there’s never a dull moment. It may not give you that emotional lump in the throat like Pixar’s best but children are going to adore it meaning if you’re a parent get ready to watch it repeatedly for the next few years.
8/10
The UK premiere of Finding Dory is on 18th June in Edinburgh. You can book tickets here. The film goes on UK general release on 29th of July. Look out for an interview with Finding Dory’s director of photography Ian Megibben coming very soon.
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so jealous that u’ve seen this already.. nice job Mikey!
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Thank you Rob! Thanks for reading. Yeah I really enjoyed it.
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I liked Finding Nemo but not as much as I did Incredibles or Inside Out. Glad to read that this was a lot of fun. I wont be seeing it until attendance dies down but yeah it looks good after reading your review
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Cheers mate, it’s a fun film, nothing too deep. And nice to see another Incredibles fan.
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Aww – this sounds pretty good! Dammit. I want to see it NOW!!!! : ( But I doubt it’ll top the first one for me. I expect it to be a bit MEH like Monsters University. (FYI – WALL-E is my favorite Pixar. In case you wanted to know. Which I’m sure you did). ; ) HA! My favorite thing about your reviews is the SQI….
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You should come to the premiere in Edinburgh on Friday! I made the SQI a bit of a head scratcher this time. Hope the Americans (other than you, but you’re not really American any more) will manage to get it!
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Lol. The Americans won’t get it. Other than me. ; )
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I quite like Nemo and look forward to seeing this.
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I am really looking forward to this and I rarely say that about Pixar. I am also glad to see David Cameron on the worst list because he really is the fucking worst.
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Pixar nearly always produce the goods! This one is very funny, it doesn’t get bogged to by emotional stuff. And yeah, ‘Tory’ was the only thing I could think of that rhymed with Dory!
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You didn’t like Finding Nemo, wait what?? I missed the screening for this but still interested in seeing it at some point. I like the fact that Finding Nemo was more of a road trip movie though, but I adore Dory as a character so this should be fun!
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It is a lot of fun but in more of a silly slapstick way. Look out for my interview with Pixar’s director of photography soon!
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Whoa!! Do let me know when you have that interview post up. That’s very cool Mikey!
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Will do! Yeah he was a cool guy!
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I love that you include interviews in your blog! I’m actually talking to a German actor at the moment, so depending on when he’ll get to my questions, you’ll see him featured on my blog. He’ll be appearing in a BBC miniseries with my crush Sam Riley! 😀
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Let me guess, is he a handsome German actor?! That sounds great. I enjoy doing interviews but I need to be face to face with the people because my accent is completely indecipherable over the phone!
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Well I think he’s good looking but not really my type. Based on his IMDb resume he’s done quite a bit of stuff so that’s why I’d like to talk to him.
It’s actually an email interview as the time difference makes it tough to do a phone interview, and things may get lost in translation. I have an American accent (after living here for over 2 decades) and he’s German who grows up in Italy so not sure what accent he has, ahah.
You have a thick Scottish accent I reckon? I might be able to understand you better than most as I used to watch a ton of Gerry Butler’s movies and interviews and he’s got a super thick Scottish brogue!! 😉
We should do a podcast together one day!
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I’ve never done an email interview before, never know how to set it up. I find most German people speak impeccable English and are very easy to understand.
My accent is actually a Northern Irish one so sometimes people struggle with it if I talk fast! If you want an idea of it watch Liam Neeson get interviewed.
I’d totally be up for doing a podcast with you, I was actually thinking about starting it up again. We should try and arrange something.
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Oh it’s easy as you just send them the questions via email. That way the interviewees can just elaborate on the answers when they have time.
Ah I see. I’ll check out Liam’s interviews then. I never have problems listening to him in interviews, the one person I sometimes struggle to understand is James McAvoy but that’s Scottish.
Ok then, let’s do something at some point. I don’t really like hearing myself on tape though, I hope people aren’t annoyed by my voice, ahah.
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[…] you’ve read my review of Finding Dory you’ll know I loved it. If you haven’t read the review I will track you down and slap […]
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I enjoyed Finding Dory but liked the first one better. Nemo is one of the most moving of all Pixar films and I thought Finding Dory was a lot of fun.
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