Let’s be honest, there’s no way for me to review this movie without giving something away. So if you haven’t seen it and plan on doing so, then don’t read this review. So my short review is this: plot was okay, characters were good, script was fine, animation was on point and baby Dory was ADORABLE.
***SPOILER ALERT***
As always, I’ll start with the short. This time around it’s a cute bird, Piper. The moment I saw Piper, I knew I’d love it. And I did. It was so beautifully created.
When we see the undertow, we say… LETS GO!
I have short term re-remembery-loss. (https://youtu.be/i3kIpCzLzEo)
The plot wasn’t as smooth as Finding Nemo. In Finding Nemo, the plot moved at a very good pace, from one thing to the next, and it flowed very well, whereas in Finding Dory, there seemed to be more stops; it was a bit more clunky. Let me put it this way, Nemo was a car with all 4 tires working as they should; Dory was a car with 3 tires working perfectly and the 4th being off the mark. I kind of think that that was due to the fact that there was more human interaction in this one. The majority of Nemo was underwater, whereas in Dory, there were a lot more occasions in which the animals had to interact with humans or navigate their way around them. One thing this movie did well was cutting between the fragments of her past that Dory remembers and current day; there were smooth transitions between those instances.
When it comes to the new characters, I did like them all, and Pixar was able to work in each of their talents (if you can call it that) into the plot. At times it did seem too convenient though; Hank being able to drive, Bailey and his ability to use echo location to help Dory navigate the pipes (perfect time to mention that I loved it when he said “she’s being eaten alive” or something to that effect). I liked how it was explained how Dory knew how to speak Whale because her best friend was a whale shark named Destiny, and how the “just keep swimming” came about. I like how they added the seals to be the seagull equivalent; “off, off, off”/“mine mine mine”. Speaking of the seals, Jarled was a funny addition. OH, AND BECKY! I LOVED Becky (with the good hair, lol). “Just look her in the eye”.
The only gripe I have with the movie is that I think that when Dory actually found her parents, that they should have faded away – as in, they had died, but she got to “see” them again, find closure and finally know/remember where she came from. After all, the movie is called Finding Dory. Yes, the point of the movie was to find her parents, but it should have been more about her coming to terms with who she is and how she came to be a boss ass bitch (and I say boss ass bitch mainly because her randomness, impulsiveness and scatteredness somehow always sorts itself out). I’d think that Disney Pixar would be one of the few companies that would have been able to handle that situation and it would have been more touching. I don’t know what would have happened after that, but I’m sure it would have been good regardless.
Dory was defiantly the on the same page as Nemo, but it was a bit slow at times, the new characters had as much screen time as necessary and the voices were on par with the first. My initial rating was 3.5/5, but I’d be lying if I said that the movie didn’t get bonus points for baby Dory being SO cute.
