The Fish that Just Keeps Swimming

Rating: 7/10 (19 August 2016)

In 2003 Andrew Stanton brought us the story of a clown fish who loses his son and goes on a wild adventure, along with the help of a forgetful palette surgeonfish, to find him. 13 years later (or a year later Finding Nemo time), Stanton is back with another underwater tale, only this time focusing heavily on fan favourite Dory. A highly anticipated and long awaited sequel, Finding Dory doesn't disappoint, being a fairly good Pixar film, but it does fail to come anywhere close to the original.
The voice acting talent is good. Ellen Degeneres and Albert Brooks slip right back into the fins of dysfunctional dynamic duo Dory and Marlin seamlessly. The casting team on this film must watch be die hard TV fans as the rest of the newly recruited cast come from a wide range of shows, such as: Saturday Night Live, Modern Family, It's Always Sunny In Phillidelphia, Luther and The Wire. As a whole the voice acting is fine and the casting choices made were wise ones indeed.
In true Pixar fashion this film aims to appeal to both the kids and the adults in its use of humour. This film has a couple of adult jokes hidden within it but they do seem a little too obvious and forced compared to Pixar's standard. Most notably the "Mummy's and Daddy's talk" that Dory gets confused about. When I say there are a "couple" hidden adult jokes I mean like very few, in fact there isn't a lot for adults in this film which is odd considering that the sequel comes 13 years after the original. The film is geared a little too much towards kids and not enough towards the complete family unit. Don't get me wrong there is enjoyment to be had just a couple smiles and exhale-out-the-nose-laughs. In my opinion I would have liked to see more of the seals, especially Gerald as (if it wasn't shown in the trailer) they would have been the funniest thing about this film.
The films plot takes from the previous in part but not completely. The motif of the importance of family whether they are genetic or chosen by you was good to see nearer the films close. As well as that, Dory's bonding with Hank the Octupuss was something I rather enjoyed and was interesting to see develop over the course of the film. The film revolves around Dory completely, and so Nemo and Marlin take a big step back in this one. What was good about Finding NEMO for me was the range of different characters and how they all got bits to do. In Finding Dory this happens just not particularly as well as Nemo, for example its felt to me like Marlin and Nemo weren't in the film that much and I almost forgot about everyone else in the film except Dory who has a permanent spotlight on.
The films climax feels like it goes on for a while. The close of Finding Dory continues to throw obstacles in the way of its characters and to me this happened a little too much. The ending jumps all over the place and just tried to do too much. I understand this may appeal to shorter attention spans little children will have, but again this sequel comes 13 YEARS after the original so to fans of the original less would be more in this case. I must also add how the films closing shot felt incredibly weak to me, so overall the ending left me rather underwhelmed, maybe play some dramatic happily ever after music or something to give some sense of emotion at the end? Just a thought.
Overall Finding Dory is a fair film that pales in comparison to 2003's Finding Nemo.On the scale of Pixar films quality I would say this falls in between Monsters Univerity and The Good Dinosaur. It's a wild adventure that never has a dull moment but is geared a tad too much towards kids and a tad not enough towards the older family members. Another somewhat good film from the animation company that just keeps on swimming