A bland sequel - as to be expected by Pixar as of late

Rating: 3/10 (20 June 2016)

Pixar has not had the best track record as of late releasing mediocre films such as "The Good Dinosaur", "Brave" and lifeless sequels such as "Monsters University" and to an extent "Toy Story 3", so going into this one I did not have high expectations. While somewhat more enjoyable than the previous films mentioned, "Finding Dory" just does not have much going for it, which is to be expected considering how unnecessary this sequel is. Finding Nemo was a great film on its own and it seems that Pixar is cashing in this time by attempting to "expand" the side character of Dory, and the result was not great.
In the first 10-20 mins Dory is excruciatingly annoying, having all the conversations revolve around her, the short-term memory condition gets painful really fast, especially in the attempt to make brainless, lazy "jokes". This just goes to show that Dory's character was never intended to be front and center, but rather as comic relief, and similar to "Cars 2" with Mater, while it works in the first one it is simply tiring in the sequel. Pixar knew this well, and tried to fix it by having the movie spend wasted time with Marlin and Nemo with little attempt to expand their characters.
Although, rather than expanding Dory's character, they just rehash her arc from the first one, and instead give her an uninspired backstory relying purely on Dory being "cute". What ensues is another typical, generic Pixar "adventure", plagued with unnecessary flashbacks that only serve to interrupt the flow of the movie.
I will say however that the most enjoyable part of the film were the various humorous parts of the movies such as the Seals and also Octopus, a character that endured more growth throughout the movie than the lead. On the other hand, there were also the film's fair share of brainless jokes, such as the Sigourney Weaver announcement that was repeated so many times that it had a numbing effect, alongside the rehashed jokes from the first one including the whale calling and "just keep swimming" song that only remind the audience just how far Pixar have fallen.
Overall, "Finding Dory" is by no means awful, it is however an extremely mediocre, average and forgettable film, adding yet another blemish on what used to be Pixar's quality track record. The future for the studio is not looking bright with 3 out of the 4 movies in production being more sequels, but let's hope that they have the capacity to try something different or at least slightly straying from the norm.