Finding Dory

"Hi, I'm Dory and I'm suffering from short-term memory loss." Like Toy Story 2, Finding Dory is a completely natural sequel that has stuck to the bar of the first film, knows the measure and does not exaggerate anything, has a bunch of ideas... It's just magical. Plus, Hank the octopus and Gerald the sea lion are such fantastic new characters! (16/06/2016)

After thirteen long years, the sequel to the now classic animated film sees the light of the world, this time giving more space to the funniest character of the first part, Dory, a very likable blue fish with a term memory-loss who likes to talk, swim and sing. I was a bit worried about how the film would turn out, after all it's been a long time since Finding Nemo, but I was very, very pleasantly surprised and left the cinema satisfied. The story is enhanced with new characters that are entertaining and not flat, like the octopus and the whale shark. The plot is filled with both action and humor, so there wasn't much opportunity for dead spots. And as far as the animation is concerned, it's once again gorgeous, full of colour and ideas. In short, a solid successor that doesn’t put its predecessor to shame. (16/06/2016)

I’ve never been crazy about Finding Nemo. I think of it as a perfect family Pixar film that looks great and stuffs the audience with the right values combined with humour and suspense. Good craftsmanship, but I just prefer the more daring, cheeky and contrived films with rats cooking in a restaurant or pensioners putting a million balloons on their house and flying off to Argentina with a fat Asian scout. Finding Dory wasn't a particularly anticipated film for me, so I can't speak to disappointment, but the fact is that it's another completely unnecessary animated film from a studio that was considered the absolute top of its field just a few years ago. It's not a weak Cars 2, but it's far too similar to the first one, only with less interesting supporting characters and starring a talkative heroine who is more annoying than entertaining. It looks great, the jokes work as they should, and it's touching in the right places, but that's it. Finding Dory feels like it's going to neutral, banking on the fact that people will come anyway because they like Nemo and probably want to see the same thing, only with a blue fish instead of an orange one. I'd like more than that, though. I'm used to a bit more class and ambition from this bunch. (15/05/2017)

The fact that this is a pure marketing sequel in order to launch a merchandising tsunami (mimiDora, as the cutest small fish of all time, is directly asking for it, and I am surprised that my son did not want me to buy a him fish on the way from the cinema) and not a sequel made to say something new about the characters/the world (and such sequels were never unfamiliar to Pixar), so it's not bad at all. Mainly because it is basically the same like two peas. The main downside is Dory herself, who works great as a supporting character, but much worse as the main character, as you will quickly become tired of her energy and forgetfulness. However, she is backed by new characters, especially Hank the octopus. In many scenes he is the only main driving force that is pulling strings. It will pleasantly surprise you how well it works in terms of emotions. Which is balanced by the unnecessary escapade final rescue action and the Marlin/Nemo duo, who are here purely out of duty. Watching this is like a torture, especially how the creators forcibly incorporate them into the center of events and at the same time sideline them throughout the whole footage. (24/06/2016)

The problem I have with Finding Dory is that the entire narrative is essentially based on her short-term memory problem, which doesn’t seem like enough to me. I'm not saying that this interaction and collision with reality wasn't funny at all, just that unfortunately all the "short term memory" jokes soon become repetitive and simply boring. Compared to its predecessor, this sequel is overall less funny and paradoxically contains more of the serious scenes, which instead generate negative emotions. But I just have to give it an extra half star for that Mark Eben. 3.5 stars. (25/03/2019)