Much too hectic

Rating: 6/10 (11 March 2017)

I wanted to give this movie a higher review, but unfortunately I couldn't allow myself to. However, with that said, before I get to the movie, I'd like to mention that if you're the type of person who expects a certain amount of plausibility and realism from a computer generated image movie, written for children in a blatant (and should be quite apparent) attempt to suspend reality for an hour and a half, this will not be your movie. And if you're that type of person, you probably find A LOT of movies disappointing.
Finding Dory was an absurdly fast-paced movie, with too much emphasis on driving the plot forward, rather than letting it develop on its own. Dory was a wonderful supporting character in Finding Nemo, but in this movie we just weren't given enough of a reason to invest emotionally in her adventure. While Finding Nemo felt like a very organic and nuanced story, this movie feels incredibly contrived and tries to inflate its bland emotionless existence with over-the-top action sequences and clumsy joking around which only made me want to know when things were going to get interesting, only to discover that they never really do. While Finding Nemo relied a great deal on the ocean and played on different sea life and settings, this movie makes almost no attempt to involve the aquarium where the majority of the movie takes place - instead it forces the story to take place around it and in spite of it.
But even as a stand alone movie, Finding Dory falls short of giving enough reason to want to see what happens next. Rather it relies on being the sequel to a wonderful movie and attempts to ride those coat tails while also trying to skimp on the storytelling. In all, a disappointment.