Finding Dory


This is the sequel to Finding Nemo, the Pixar film from 2003 which really launched the animation company into the popular and critical stratosphere. And no, this film isn’t as good as that one—but Finding Nemo was an instant classic. The comedy relief was Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), and the best thing about this film is that it has a different theme and stands in its own right. Clearly comparisons with the Toy Story films will reflect badly on Finding Dory, but on the other hand it is a lot better than Monsters University.

Actually the best thing about this film is Piper, the incredible short before the main feature. But more on that later…

Dory famously suffered from short-term memory loss and this drives the plot of the sequel. Dory lives with Marlin and Nemo, but she wonders about her parents. Memory loss here is treated as a disability but the character has positives and has an existence beyond being “this character with this issue”. So it’s inclusive and that’s good. Having decided to find out about her parents, she sets off across the ocean in a story that must be quite involving for children because the scope and sweep seems to be so enormous. And to be honest the narrative sometimes requires to dwell on moods of complete sadness and despair, about loss and yearning.

Most of the film takes place at the Marine Life Institute, a Seaworld type attraction, which is where Dory thinks her parents might be. She meets many different characters including Hank (a grumpy octopus voiced by Ed O’Neil), Destiny (a wale shark, Kaitlin Olsen) and Bailey (a beluga wale, Ty Burrel). Ellen DeGeneres is a very clever comedian; her control of her voice, and the way she conveys a variety of different types of tone via just her voice is sensational. She makes this film—and if you didn’t enjoy Dory in the first film you’re going to have to adjust. There was one laugh out loud moment with Dory’s reaction to someone at one point, involving a very good celebrity voice cameo.

The characters who’re established are better than the new ones, with the exception of the Sea Lions (Idris Elba and Dominic West) who are hilarious. The situations which Dory finds herself in are increasingly crazy but the point of the film is that she overcomes her lack of memory and focuses on what she’s good at doing. And this is important because she was very much a driving force in the story of the first film. The ending seems to be quite drawn out but ultimately the ending is tremendously satisfying as it is signposted at the beginning of the feature. So there’s a sense of completion.

It’s tricky to say how it plays for the very young: I think at age five or six I would have hated it. It isn’t nearly as good as Inside Out but it’s a good deal less emotionally challenging. 

The visualisation of fish and water is on a whole other level, and this is improved on even more with Piper, the story of a hatchling sandpiper making first steps in the short film. Sandpipers are cute, and really lend themselves well to an animated story because of the way they hunt for food in the parts of the beach where the waves end. The disruption of the waves they avoid by running up and down the sand. Somehow, in a feature that lasts less than five minutes, an entire story is conveyed. And the digital rendering of sand: dry sand, wet sand, sand with water bubbling above it—is so rich in the detail that it’s almost like a photograph. An absolutely incredible little film.


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