'Finding Dory' Sets Its Own Course, And Is A Worthy Successor To 'Finding Nemo' [Review]

It’s been 13 years since Pixar likely surprised even themselves with the immense success of the underwater father-son adventure “Finding Nemo.” The animated gem and its “just keep swimming” mantra have become a cultural touchtone — and proven moneymaker — and so, with little surprise and high expectations, audiences meet the release of “Finding Dory” with the hope that the belated sequel is at least on par with the original. The good news: It is. Mostly.

READ MORE: The 40 Most Anticipated Movies Of Summer 2016

Expectedly heartwarming — with big laughs for kids and a recurring Sigourney Weaver joke for the adults — the animated story finds true buoyancy in its social value rather than its creative frontiers. Has the movie reinvented the animation game or Pixar’s standing within it? Far from it, but “Finding Dory” is a well-told promise that individuality and self acceptance always win.

Finding DoryAs the title indicates, it’s the sidekick that commands center stage. But the new installment doesn’t rely too heavily on history from the original. ‘Dory’ can be viewed and enjoyed without having seen ‘Nemo.’ It picks up a year after Nemo (Hayden Rolence), his perpetually rattled dad Marlin (Albert Brooks), and Dory have returned from their ocean-sized odyssey across the Great Barrier Reef. Dory (voiced again by Ellen DeGeneres) remains forgetful, plagued by life-long short-term memory loss. But while tagging along on a school field trip with Nemo, she unexpectedly remembers that she has a family, that she, too, comes from somewhere. She pleads with Marlin to join her in the search for them: “I don’t want to forget this.” And so the quest to find her parents begins.

The narrative alternates between the unfolding journey at hand and childhood flashbacks soundtracked with the refrain “Hi. My name is Dory. Can you please help me?” Tidbits of her origins and the tender love of her parents (Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy) are revealed. Though you might fear the movie will be just a redux of its predecessor’s quest-for-self adventure, the change-up occurs when Dory, with Marlin and Nemo in loyal tow, ventures away from the ocean’s open waters and its unending possibilities, to the literal (and figurative) confines of her birthplace: a coastal marine park in California.

Finding Dory

It’s here at the Marine Life Institute that the movie finds its breath — and a new franchise sidekick. The curmudgeon Hank (Ed O’Neill) is an octopus that simply wants to live out his days, unbothered, in the institutional safety of a glass box — in Cleveland, no less. He serves as an amusing, albeit cantankerous, counterpoint to Dory’s wide-eyed optimism. Once Dory is predictably separated from Marlin and Nemo, Hank begrudgingly agrees to help her locate her parents within the park’s exhibitions.

The film’s sumptuous, at times almost impressionistic animation benefited from the intervening decade and subsequent advances in computer technology since ‘Nemo.’ While its first act still occurs under water, where Pixar continues to flex with a mind-blowing knack for realistic detail, the bulk of ‘Dory’ transpires above the waves. The shift to land does allows for obstacles (mostly involving getting around) to be overcome in a new visual landscape. But it’s the new cast of oddball allies that earns the terrain much of its color, with territorial sea lions, a cockamamy-eyed loon bird with a short attention span, a near-sighted whale shark, and Beluga with echolocation difficulties counted among them.

Hank_and_Dory_Ceiling-Finding-DoryPart of the beauty of co-director and co-writer Andrew Stanton’s world, and the ease with which audiences seem to acclimate within it, is that everyone’s got something: an odd tic, a flaw, an imperfection. But, here, amnesia or a smaller fin — being different — is a learned badge of honor, a mark of shared humanity. And while certainly a necessary line can be drawn between Dory and her parents’ journey and those of a family caring for a child with special needs, the tale seems to desire even greater universal waters; strength sprouted from self-acceptance is key to anyone’s story. That simple message wrapped in a sweet, grin-inducing film will stick to your ribs long after watching. A worthy successor, “Finding Dory” sets its own course, and joyfully delivers. [B]