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Finding Dory: Family, Hope and Forgetfulness
We all remember the lovable sidekick Dory from Pixar's Finding Nemo. Twelve years later and they are finally getting around to a sequel (Squeals of excitement) and I know for a fact that more twenty something's will be seeing this movie than children. I went to go see it on fathers day and I am delighted to share with you the story of Dory. WARNING: There will be spoilers, so if you haven't seen it and want to, skip to the overview section of this review.
Story:
The story starts out with baby Dory and her parents (baby Dory is THE CUTEST btw). We see Dory as a child wandering the ocean asking for help finding her family. Her age slowly progresses as she wanders across the ocean looking for them, while slowly forgetting what/whom she is looking for. Dory than sees a boat rush by and she bumps into Marlin who is asking if anyone has seen a boat. Hence reminding us of their inevitable meeting in Finding Nemo.
The screen than flashes to one year later and we see Dory dreaming. Dory wakes up Marlin and Nemo, they head to school where Dory joins Nemo and his class for a field trip to watch the sting ray migration. The class than asks Dory if she remembers her family. Dory responds saying she doesn't remember them specifically, but everybody's got to come from somewhere. She then gets distracted when she sees the undertow. She get's a flashback of her and her family. She remembered wanting to swim over to some other blue tang fish and her parents pull her away as she is about to swim into the undertow. They sing a cute little song to remind Dory that she must not swim near the undertow. This scene ends with Dory's parents reassuring Dory that they will never forget her and she will never forget them (cue tear). She also remembers The Marine Life Institute in California. In the present, Dory had passed out and when she wakes up, Marlin is next to her. She wakes up and immediately wants to find the family she had just remembered. Marlin and Nemo stop her at first, but Dory gives a touching speech where she says she misses them, do you know what that's like? Marlin understands and agrees to help her.
They make their way across the ocean on the back of a familiar sea turtle, Crush. Once they make their way to California, Dory begins calling for her parents and gets stuck in a plastic pop can holder, a boat swims by and takes Dory. It turns out, the boat is from The Marine Life Institute, while Dory is in quarantine, she meets an octopus (he's really a septapus because he only has 7 arms) named Hank. After multiple introductions and explanations, he agrees to take her to find her family in return for her tag to be sent to an aquarium in Ohio. On their way, Dory finds her way into the tank of a Wale Shark named Destiney. Destiny turns out to be an old childhood friend of Dory's who tells her that her parents are in the open ocean exhibit.
Meanwhile, Nemo and Marlin have found a loon named Becky to help them get to Dory. With many stops along the way, Dory finally makes it to the open ocean exhibit and tries to find her parents, when she spots a sea shell. She then has another flashback of her parents, remembering that if she ever get's lost, follow the shells home. She also remembers how she got lost. She was trying to find her mother a purple shell (her favorite) and she got swept into the undertow and taken to the ocean through the pipes. She follows the shells and finds her home, but to her dismay, her parents are gone. She than asks someone near by where she might find them and they say that all the blue tangs are moving to the exhibit in Ohio and she needs to get to quarantine.
She makes her way through the pipes with the help of her friends, finds Nemo and Marlin along the way and they make it to quarantine. She than get's into the tank of the blue tang's, but her parents are not there either. The tang's remember Dory and lightly tell her that her parents are probably gone forever. Hank. the septapus, takes Dory out of the tank before she get's put on a truck to Ohio, but Nemo and Marlin are left trapped inside. Dory is devastated knowing her parents may be dead that she doesn't know what to do.
She ends up back in the ocean and does what Dory does best, she sees something and follows it. As she goes through her Dory problem solving skills, she finds a sea shell. She than sees a trail of them and follows it. She reaches the end and sees multiple trails leading to the one spot, but nobody is there. She turns away and we see two blue tang fish holding shells. Dory spots them, she than says " Hi I'm Do..." but before she can finish, the two fish swim to her and hug her saying "I knew you would find us." Dory than starts talking about all of the adventures she has and remembers Nemo and Marlin. She swims to the shores to save them. but her parents stop her. They don't want her to go because they don't want to lose her again. She assures them that if she found them once, she can do it again, and that she needs to save Nemo and Marlin because they are her family.
Dory and her friends follow the truck from the ocean, stop traffic and manage to get on the truck. Hank drives the truck with Dory as his eyes and they drive it into the ocean, setting all of the fish, including Marlin and Nemo free.
The final seen is when Nemo, Marlin, Dory and her parents are back home. Dory tells Marlin she is going to the drop off to "enjoy the view," a joke explained earlier in the movie. Marlin secretly follows her to make sure she doesn't get lost. He finds her safe and sound at the drop off and goes to stand by her. She than begins to explain to Marlin that finding her parents helped her realize something, she can do it on her own.
There is also a scene at the end, after the credits where we see our fish tank friends from Finding Nemo. They are still in bags and have made it all the way to The Marine Life Institute when Gill says "nothing bad will happen to us here" when they are suddenly swept up by people on a boat to be put in quarantine at the institute.
What went well:
Ellen DeGeneres: She is the perfect voice actress for Dory. She can change from subject to subject swiftly and effortlessly which is helpful for Dory's character. I always enjoy Dory in her funny moments, but seeing her with a more serious side was beautiful and insightful. Ellen hit this role out of the park, even with a twelve year gap.
Internal Struggle: I love the contrast with Finding Nemo with the idea of an internal struggle. Finding Nemo focused on the physical boundaries between Marlin and Nemo, where as Dory's boundary was between her and short term memory loss more than anything. I love how this idea and the similarities in the boundaries was represented. I think this message is an important one for both children and adults. Internal struggle is just as important as external struggle and you can conquer both.
WWDD: What Would Dory Do? I loved how many character throughout this movie used this motto throughout the film. Even though Dory struggles with memory, she always manages to follow her gut and save the day!
Family Message: The idea of family played a huge role in this movie. I enjoyed Dory finding her actual family, but still wanted to save Nemo and Marlin because they had become her family through circumstance and had taken her in as their own. It is a beautiful thing. Your family isn't your only family in this world and that gives me great joy!
Animation: As always, Disney and Pixar's animation skills are incredible! They always put in so much effort to make it perfect and it always pays off.
What went wrong:
No explanation of Dory's memory loss: I was hoping for more explanation of Dory's memory loss. I thought it might have something to do with the pollution surrounding the institute, but that was hardly mentioned at all and her memory loss was never explained.
Moved Quickly: This one could just be me, but the movie seemed to move quite fast. I do realize that they have to cram a story into an hour and half time slot, but I would have liked more build in places.
Sequel: As much as I adored Finding Dory, it is a sequel. It is a better sequel than most, but I will argue that it is not better than the original.
Characters:
Dory: Dory was my favorite character in this movie. I loved seeing her funny and serious side come out in this movie, however, it might have been nice to see her character develop even more when learning about her past. However, I know this would be difficult to do with a character who has short term memory loss so I am not too upset about it.
Nemo: Nemo served as a good companion for Dory in this movie. When she forgot what she said, he would often remind her and be her advocate when it came to Marlin. It was his idea to think like Dory in the Marine Life Institute and he helped them find her. He also accepted Dory as family to him before Marlin or Dory even realized it.
Destiny: Destiny, the nearsighted whale shark was a cute addition to this movie. Most of Dory's interactions have been with male characters and to give her a loving female friend who was linked to her past was wonderful. I loved their bond as well as their whale language together.
Bailey: The beluga whale whose sonar is supposedly not working is a great addition to the gang as well. He is Destiny's neighbor at the institute who becomes very handy and when him and Destiny communicate, laughs will follow.
Hank: Hank is the stubborn septapus. A stubborn old septapus turns a little soft after meeting and helping Dory. Before he drops her into the open ocean tank, she says she will never forget him. He responds with "you'll forget me in a few minutes. I'm going to have trouble forgetting you though." Aww, cue the heart strings.
Charlie and Jenny: Charlie and Jenny are Dory's parents and explain so much about why and who Dory is. In many of the flashback scenes we see them often making up songs for Dory to remember, including our personal favorite, "Just Keep Swimming."
Seals: The seals were clearly comic relief, but some of my favorite characters of the movie. They even made my dad crack up laughing in the theatre and on the way, which doesn't happen much for him with Disney movies.
Overview:
This movie was a fantastic addition to the Disney Pixar family and I would recommend anyone go and see it! It has laughter and tears, as well as being familiar and joyful! So swim into the theatre to see Disney Pixar's Finding Dory! Don't forget to stay after the credits!
4 out of 5 stars
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