WORTHY Sequel

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2016)

"Hi. I'm Dory. I suffer from short-term "remembery" loss."
These are the very first words we hear in Finding Dory. And we hear them SEVERAL times throughout the film. Look, I love Dory as much as everybody else, but I was really worried this was gonna suffer from "Minions Syndrome". You know how the Minions kinda work in Despicable Me in small measures but a movie filled with them was just annoying as hell?. Luckily, Finding Dory finds ways to avoid that and I am glad to say it succeeds as a sequel.
Finding Dory is able to introduce NEW, MEMORABLE, COOL and FUNNY characters to the universe and it proves that this was not a cash grab by Pixar by selling a well established brand (Cars 2). Destiny and the other whale are funny, Hank the Octopus (or whatever you call an octopus with seven tentacles) is awesome, we are introduced to some pretty hilarious sea lions, and more. One particular scene involving a clam had me laughing HYSTERICALLY.
The ultimate flaw of Finding Dory is that it relies a lot (too much if you ask me) on call backs from the original. It is a sequel and you have to have that connection to the first movie (I get it), but it seemed that all this movie was gonna do was do things that we already knew from the original, especially in the opening of the movie. "Oh, remember the cool turtle who talks like a surfer? And remember Dory talking to a whale?" Things like that are scattered throughout the film and it appears as if they are just there for the sake of people remembering how great the original Finding Nemo was.
So the question everyone wants to know is is it better than Finding Nemo? NO. Not by a long shot. But here's the thing. Finding Nemo is the Lion King of Pixar in terms of scope and epicness. It is as perfect of an animated film as I would ever want any animated film to be. But in the end, I can say with confidence that this is a WORTHY sequel. I was invested in the story, I was thoroughly entertained, I laughed, I didn't cry but some scenes got pretty emotional. And the story is worth experiencing. If you liked the first movie, I can almost guarantee you WILL like this one too IF you don't go in thinking this will be better than arguably the greatest Pixar movie ever made. That's just a dumb mindset. Enjoy Dory for what it is: A good, entertaining sequel to a perfect (or nearly perfect) movie.