As an audience, we love to revisit characters that we have enjoyed in past films; we just hope that filmmakers don’t tarnish that love when making a sequel. In the new film Finding Dory, we not only get Dory, Nemo and Marlin, but we also get new characters like Hank the octopus and a pair of lazy sea lions named Fluke and Rudder to ensure that we leave feeling like the new film has a life of its own.
Ellen DeGeneres returns as the voice of our favorite blue tang fish, Dory. We walk through Dory’s past, from her days as a tiny fish learning to stay safe amid the scary realities of the ocean, through her journey to help Marlin find Nemo. Now, it’s about a year later and Dory suddenly remembers that she has a family and they may be looking for her. She enlists Marlin and Nemo to start a new journey to find her parents at the Marine Life Institute in California. On that trip, Marlin and Nemo get separated from Dory and must try to find her as she is trying to find herself.
Dory’s short-term memory loss can be a problem, but she is starting to remember more and more about her past. Dory is scooped up after arriving in California and put into quarantine at Marine Life Institute. There, she encounters an octopus named Hank (voice of Ed O’Neill). Hank wants an identification tag that would get him transferred, and he will do anything to get the one that Dory has. Dory agrees to give hers to him, if Hank helps find her parents. And so begins a mad race across the park to find the pair of elder blue tang fish that Dory calls Mom and Dad.
The trip has Dory meeting characters from her past, including a whale shark named Destiny and a beluga whale named Bailey (voices of Kaitlin Olson and Ty Burrell). Everyone wants to help Dory find her parents, but can they?
This film is another Pixar gem. Not only have they put together a visually stunning experience but they’ve also given us a quality story with numerous meanings as deep as the ocean floor. I was able to experience the beautiful underwater environments in 3-D and can definitely recommend viewing this film that way. The depth of the submerged world is truly special viewing.
The voice work is spot on. Ellen (yes, she is worthy of the one-name reference) is magical in her portrayal of Dory. She elicits emotions from the audience through her confusion, excitement and total joy with just the varied inflections in her voice. Albert Brooks returns as Marlin. Brooks is a master voice artist who knows how to express emotions in his work. He’s a delight to have back as a part of this cast. The surprise is Ed O’Neill. His voice portrayal of the octopus Hank adds great dimension to this film. O’Neill’s work makes me hope he is included in future animated films, as he is quite impressive.
The only thing missing from Finding Dory is a real signature musical number. There is no question though, that this is a great movie and reminds us of why we have put Pixar films on a pedestal for so long: They do it right! So come on, just yell with me, “Ready or not, here I come!” Find Dory today!
Finding Dory is available beginning Nov. 15 on Video On Demand. Check with your cable system for availability.
