Unforgettable

Rating: 8/10 (19 June 2016)

There are two ways to make a good sequel. The first is to make a film that's better than the original. In this regard, Finding Dory fails. Compared to the near-perfection of Finding Nemo, this sequel falls short. Too many scenes lack thematic resonance, the pacing is often rushed, and the set pieces threaten suspension of disbelief, particularly towards the end.
This is not to say that the film is bad - quite the opposite, in fact. The concept of a character with short-term memory loss trying to find herself is incredibly daring, and only Pixar would dare to even try it in a mainstream movie. The fact that they pull it off is nothing short of incredible. Make no mistake: this may be Pixar's darkest film yet, at least on a psychological level. Andrew Stanton directs this masterfully, composing shots in just the right way to represent Dory's emotions, whether it be first-person shots to display her anxiety, or zoomed-out shots of her alone in the open void of the ocean (the latter reminds me of Gravity, and I deeply regret not being able to see this in 3D just for those moments). Yet Stanton's script always manages to balance the darkness with light humour, even if it' sparely quite up to the wit of the original film.
One area that is a huge improvement over the original film is the performance of Ellen DeGeneres as Dory. I think I may be in the minority when I say that I wasn't overly enamoured with her performance in the original film. It was solid, without a doubt, but I can imagine several professional voice actresses doing it just as well, if not better. In this film, however, she lifts the par, flowing seamlessly from hilariously ditsy to tragically lost, and finally to a wellspring of personal strength. DeGeneres has been very, very public in her support for this film, and it shows in the passion of her performance. It is easily the best I have heard in a Pixar film, and is one of the best that I have heard in any work of animation.
Pixar always deliver on a technical level, and this is no exception. Thomas Newman continues to be the ideal composer for Stanton's films, his haunting scores fitting the stories, scenes, and characters perfectly. From an animation perspective, the film is as gorgeous, as we've come to expect from Pixar. It's just a shame that the film spends most of its time in a man-made environment, thus rarely taking the audience to a place of wonder.
In a sense, that's the problem with the film, and why it's not as good as the original: it rarely managed to fill me with the same sense of wonder that I felt watching the original. Finding Nemo is a modern classic, a film as revolutionary, in its own way, as Toy Story. Finding Dory is not.
But that's okay, because there is another way to make a good sequel, and that is to make the the original better, and to expand upon its world, characters, and themes. In this regard, Finding Dory is a phenomenal success. If Finding Nemo is about learning to let a child stand on his own two feet (well, swim with their own fins), then Finding Dory is about being that child. In seeing Dory as that child, it enriches her character, and adds another layer to the already brilliant original.
In short, Finding Dory is like its protagonist. Like Dory, it's often unfocused, at times frustrating. And like Dory, it's beautiful, amazing, and utterly unforgettable.