Five-word Review: Funny, Cute, Emotional, Appropriate Sequel.

Rating: 8/10 (10 August 2016)

Upon its announcement, this sequel to the 2003 bonafide classic was met with apprehension. Nevertheless, with the return of Ellen Degeneres as the titular blue tang and Albert Brooks as worried father Marlin, plus the introduction of Modern Family pair Ed O'Neill and Ty Burrell, all helmed by a team featuring the likes of Wall·E/A Bug's Life director Andrew Stanton, it seems hard to mess up.
The good news is they don't. A sequel - unless the tone is drastically different, like Cameron's 1986 Aliens to Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien - is always going to feel like a retread of its predecessor, and if it suffers from the condition of sequelitis, then it will make everything bigger and less interesting. Finding Dory, however, like the Toy Story sequels, is not a shameless cash- in but rather an appropriate companion piece to Finding Nemo. Before the film begins there is a Pixar short as befits tradition, entitled Piper. This shares there oceanic themes of Dory, and is gorgeously animated, with some cute visuals, but it's certainly not one to remember. At its heart the story of Finding Dory is a deeply tragic one, with an introduction which showcases a heart-meltingly cute baby Dory losing her family in unexplained circumstances and traversing the ocean in a wretched, barely remembered state before her memory is finally jogged one year after after helping to rescue Nemo, and the team set off on an adventure to California to find her parents.
What unfolds is nothing less than classic Pixar. The humour is as good as it's ever been in a Pixar feature - the gags are perhaps better than in any other Pixar film, with the standouts Idris Elba as a delightfully lazy sea lion, O'Neill's grouchy octopus (well, septopus), Burrell's clueless beluga having trouble utilising his echolocation, and a silent bird named Becca. The extraordinary setting is a step up from dentist's office in Nemo, and the animation is the very definition of dazzling and flawless - especially during one of the best scenes, where a marine life centre touch pool is re-imagined as a terrifying slaughter ground which evokes the deadly playtime of Toy Story 3's Caterpillar Room.
So, technically jaw-dropping, check. Fantastic humour suitable for children and adults, check. Unexpected maturity and emotional intelligence, check. Impressive voice cast, check. Sounds like a classic Pixar film! On the subject of the voice cast, Degeneres truly excels. Her passion for the character is evident, and she expertly combines the naïve, innocent and cute humour of Nemo's Dory with her new tragic backstory.
As she pieces together her past from fragments of half-remembered memory, it almost begins to feel like Memento - a refreshingly different style amidst the rest of the film. Another refreshing thing is the lack of villain - like in Inside Out - which is a good recent trend in films that allows for a more character and plot based story that doesn't get bogged down in clichés. There third act is relatively a little weaker - with the notable exception of a few scenes - yet this does not stop Finding Dory from ranking amongst several of Pixar's greats. It is occasionally a little too similar to Nemo, especially during lost fish scenarios, so it's not quite amongst the very top tier of the likes of its predecessor, the Toy Story trilogy, Inside Out or The Incredibles, yet it's still a wonderful film and a must-watch for any Pixar fan (which honestly is any fan of film). 83/100.